The 6 Tenets of Postplagiarism Rewritten

In a brilliant blogpost, Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D. of the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada), the Werklund School of Education described these 6 tenets of postplagiarism:

I rewrote them in my own words, and here are the 6 tenets in a different order:

1. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will make human-AI writing the norm.
2. Human creativity will be enhanced, not diminished by this new era.
3. Authors will have to relinquish some control, but not responsibility for their work.
4. Proper referencing and attributions are still important in scholarship.
5. The conventional definition of plagiarism will no longer apply.
6. With AI writing, language barriers will disappear and human productivity and creativity will soar.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is upon us and it is characterized by the merging of human and autonomous, robotic systems. One of the most exciting developments of this era is the normalizing of human-AI writing. Contrary to popular belief, this will not diminish human creativity but rather enhance it. With AI taking on much of the drudgery of writing, humans can finally focus on true creativity.

However, while authors can now relinquish some control over the writing process, they cannot relinquish responsibility for authorship. The writer must sign off on the final product, no matter how it was created. This means that correct referencing and attributions remain important for scholarship.

Unfortunately, current versions of ChatGPT - one of the most advanced AI language models - are terrible at identifying sources correctly. Like bad undergraduate students, they make things up. Nevertheless, nothing has changed in terms of the importance of correct referencing and attributions.

Moreover, today's conventional definition of plagiarism is no longer applicable in a world where AI and human-generated language are increasingly intertwined. It is difficult to determine where to draw the line between automated tools and human-generated language. It is therefore futile, to try to catch students using AI tools.

As a result of these developments, language barriers will disappear and human creativity and productivity will greatly increase. With AI taking care of the mundane aspects of writing, people will be able to focus on what humans do best - being creative and innovative. The future of writing is exciting and full of potential, and we can't wait to see what it holds.

For concrete examples of how to use ChatGPT in writing, see my e-products such as mini-guides, Notion or a ClickUp templates in my Gumroad shop.