AI Wrote Part of This. Good Luck Getting Me to Apologize For It.


There's a growing crowd on LinkedIn and across tech circles doing something that honestly baffles me... AI shaming. Calling people out for using tools like Claude or ChatGPT to help write blog posts, articles, or social content. The implication being that if AI helped, it's somehow not real or not yours.

Real talk: that's a hot take I can't get behind.

Here's where the critics have a point

Look, I get it. We've all seen the posts that feel like they were written by a robot that's never actually worked a day in tech. No personality. No opinion. No actual experience baked in. Just a perfectly structured wall of text that says absolutely nothing.

If you're using AI to replace your thinking, that's a problem. The best content comes from people who've lived the work, seen the customer wins, felt the pressure of a tough deal, watched a product land or flop. AI can't fake that. And when people try to let it, readers can smell it.

So yeah, lazy AI content is real, and it's noisy.

But here's the deal

I use Claude to help me write. All the time. And it's been one of the biggest productivity wins I've had in years.

Here's how it actually works for me: I have the ideas. I have the opinions. I have the stories. What I don't always have is two hours to massage a rough brain dump into something readable. Claude helps me shape it, tighten it, and get it out the door faster — without stripping out my voice or my point of view.

The thinking is still mine. The experience is still mine. The perspective? One hundred percent mine.

Using AI to write better isn't cheating any more than using Grammarly, or having an editor, or bouncing a draft off a colleague. Tools exist to help us do our best work. This is just a really good one.

The real question

Instead of asking "did AI help write this?" maybe ask "is this actually worth reading?" Does it have a real point of view? Does it come from experience? Does it tell me something useful?

If yes, who cares how it got polished.

I'd rather publish sharp, useful content with a little AI horsepower under the hood than spend a week agonizing over sentence structure and post nothing at all.

So keep creating. Use the tools. Own your ideas.

And maybe don't take LinkedIn pile-ons too seriously.

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