Aurora Borealis near the northern border between Washington and Idaho. No AI was used in the creation of this image.
As an English Literature major in college, on exam day I would head to the book store and pick up an authorized Blue Book. This ensured there were no notes, passages, or otherwise illicit content that I could draw from in my exam. I would sit in a room with all the other students and all of their authorized Blue Books under the close watch of my professor(s) who would roam the hall like a sentry. All of this was to make sure that the ideas in my writing were mine; the grammar and structure of my writing were based on my personal grasp of the English language; and most importantly, the concepts and arguments were based on my own critical thinking. In fact, I would say that more than anything else, my college education was intended to teach me the meaning of authorship and how important it is that the ideas I present—and how I present them—come from my mind alone.
This the fundamental basis of my anxiety around the current use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the creative industry. Many of my colleagues utilize this "agent" to craft words, sentences, paragraphs and more that they claim as their own. There are no mechanisms or regulations in place to prohibit this, no professor(s) standing at the front of the lecture hall, and thus no real barriers against this type of publication... except, of course, the moral barriers. And this causes me a great deal of hand wringing frustration as I see the entire concept of authorship undermined by this behavior. I don't know what the answer is but my hope is that the creative industry will do a better job of owning up when an idea or it's presentation are not entirely one’s own. Otherwise we are looking at the utter erosion of authorial integrity, a value that I've been trained my whole life to defend.