AI use damages professional reputation, study suggests - Ars Technica

Do we think less of people when they disclose that they are using AI tools to help them do something? It seems that yes, we do!

On Thursday, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published a study showing that employees who use AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini at work face negative judgments about their competence and motivation from colleagues and managers.

This is super interesting to me as I've seen first hand hesitations in using these powerful capabilities. Is a worry about imposter syndrome part of that?

In the first experiment conducted by the team from Duke, participants imagined using either an AI tool or a dashboard creation tool at work. It revealed that those in the AI group expected to be judged as lazier, less competent, less diligent, and more replaceable than those using conventional technology. They also reported less willingness to disclose their AI use to colleagues and managers.

The article itself doesn't use the word "cheating" but I have seen that inferred many times. The implication that if you used AI you cheated in some way. That is a clear motivation to hide it.

Totally different but I think some of that is involved when people conceal using a GLP-1 weight loss drug. Is there a sense of "you cheated" in the outcome?

What is the level of technology that flips from being a utility to create more value, to cheating? 🤔