AI Shame – using AI shortcuts, or keep carrying the load?

In Sweden, the word “flygskam” (“fly shame”) was entered into dictionaries in 2018. It’s a word used for people who excessively use air transportation for vacations or work rather than alternative means of transport such as going by train or (an environmentally friendly) car.

Enter 2025. AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini are no longer novelties—they’re a fact of life. We use them every day in all types of work situations. And by now, we all understand that so much of the content we see in our content feeds is produced with the help of generative AI that it’s hard to identify what’s what. And that leads us to the question – is content produced the “old fashioned way” somehow still better, or superior, to the content that has been produced by generative AI? That “bespoke content” is an elegant and hand-made luxury - are we entering the era of “AI shame”?

It's funny, but I cannot help but feel a little bit guilty every time I’ve taken help by GenAI, and every time I feel a strong need to tell everyone as to not be “busted”. I hear myself saying things like “OK guys, me (and ChatGPT) has put together this report…”. Why? Probably to eliminate the risk of hearing a sarcastic “Nice ChatGPT-ing buddy” when presenting work that had to be done fast.
 

So – is it cheating?

At the heart of things - I think this is the score that needs to be settled. Are we all cheaters, or simply just clever? Is there any need to feel ashamed? As I see it, I guess we could see two categories of people coming up:

• The “AI snobs”. The ones who think that the old way is superior. Not only because the quality of what comes out is not as good, but also enforced by a fear of losing their jobs and status as skilled content producers.
• The “AI slackers”. The ones who are all for letting the computer do all the work, and putting quantity over fact-checking and details. With the obvious risks of letting quality slip and the problems that comes with that.

Both make up compelling cases. All of us who loves a good book or that eye-wateringly great headline on a billboard wants to somehow safeguard the secret of the written word, passed down from our ancestors. But at the same time, how good would our best mathematicians be if they were not allowed to use a calculator? And throwing the past aside, going all-in on AI, seems just as perilous. We are still in the earlier stages of gen AI, and we are used to finding small problems and issues that are easily discoverable. But as the models improve, those little creases may very well soon be ironed out. And what are we humans left with then? Will we lose all our analytical skills if we just start producing, publishing and making decisions with the help of AI without thinking ourselves?
 

For whom are we producing?

And maybe a bigger concern is - who will even consume it? After all, AI has not improved our brain capacity. Consuming large amounts of content will still take up as much human bandwidth as always. And if we are now entering an era where content knows no boundaries in terms of quantity – who are we even producing it for? The classic answer to that question has been for SEO. Now, Google claims to be able to identify text generated by AI to a very high degree but I must say I doubt it. And even if that’s true today, it won’t be very soon. Therefore, Google (and other search engines) will simply have to try to ignore whoever has the most content, and maybe rather focus on the sites with the most focused content. And maybe that’s the key to why we still need humans controlling the AI or even keep doing bespoke.
 

Don’t be ashamed

In the end. There’s a big difference using your cars GPS and letting your car drive itself while you are asleep. As long as we are awake at the wheel, maybe then we don’t have to feel ashamed either? Maybe AI shame is just a phase, like when we first started using spell check, and feeling guilty probably about makes as much sense as feeling guilty for using the calculator in your phone.

It’s OK to reap the benefits of AI and the efficiency boost if you keep your eyes on the road. Just don’t overdo it, and don’t fall for the temptation of letting volume overtake conciseness. AI is here to stay, and so is our responsibility when using it.