Reality Lab · 9 MIN · Use
Make the draft your own
An AI wrote a smooth first draft of something you’ll put your name on. Turn ‘the model said it’ into ‘I stand behind this’ — content, voice, and disclosure.
A team member used an assistant to draft a short blog post under their own byline. It’s well-structured and reads fine. But it contains one statistic they can’t verify, a claim that isn’t quite their view, a phrase lifted almost verbatim from a well-known article, and a voice that isn’t theirs. They’re about to publish it as-is.
Your task: Revise the draft so you can genuinely own it: every claim checked, the argument actually yours, nothing borrowed without credit, and disclosure handled honestly.
"Remote work is the future. Studies show productivity jumps 40% when people work from home, and as one famous essay put it, the office is a relic of the industrial age. Everyone agrees hybrid is just a stepping stone. Our team has fully embraced this and never looked back."
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Check your own work
There's no grade here — checking against these is the exercise. Compare each point to what you wrote.
- The unverifiable statistic is sourced, softened to an honest claim, or cut.Your byline makes its claims yours. A ‘40%’ you can’t trace is a fabrication you’re personally vouching for the moment you publish it.
- The argument reflects what you actually think, not the model’s confident average.‘Everyone agrees’ and sweeping certainty are what a model reaches for by default. Ownership means the position is genuinely yours to defend.
- The near-verbatim phrase is either quoted with attribution or rewritten in your own words.Fluent output can echo its training closely. Passing off a recognisable line as your own is a credit — and possibly a copyright — problem, regardless of the tool.
- AI assistance is disclosed as your context requires, honestly.Attribution and permission are different from disclosure, and norms vary by venue. Being upfront about assistance is about honesty, and it’s cheap insurance against a worse conversation later.
Reveal a worked approach
An owned version: “I think remote work is here to stay, though I’m less sure it’s the whole future than the loudest voices claim. The productivity picture is genuinely mixed — some studies show gains, others don’t — and our own team has landed on hybrid because it fits how we actually collaborate. (Drafted with AI assistance; the argument and the edits are mine.)”
Notice what changed: the fake precision became an honest ‘mixed,’ the borrowed line is gone, the certainty softened into a real position, and a short disclosure sits at the end. It’s less punchy — and it’s something you can defend.
The habit to carry: an AI draft is a starting point you’re accountable for, not a finished thing you forward. Check the facts, make the view yours, credit what’s borrowed, and be honest about the help.