I hate showing my friends and family something I’ve made and having their first question be whether AI built it.
I’m happy to explain how I work. I’m more than happy to point out where I’ve had support from AI. But sometimes that question comes with an underlying statement: did you cheat?
Before we’ve even talked about the idea, the functions or the finished product, I feel like I’m defending whether the work counts.
It fucking hurts when people write off my work and don’t see the 500-plus hours I poured into ShutterBate. Those hours don’t disappear because AI helped write the code.
And this feeling isn’t entirely new.
From Notepad to FrontPage
I wrote my first web page in Notepad. Then I bought FrontPage 95.
People said that was cheating because you could “just” select a menu item and FrontPage would write the HTML.
That word, “just”, does a lot of work. It makes the whole process sound like nothing.
I went on to use Dreamweaver, then CMS platforms. Now I use ChatGPT and Claude. The tools have changed throughout my time in the industry, but I’m still bringing my ideas to them.
With sites like VOIDNEON, ShutterBate and some of my other projects, I use AI as a coding tool, much as I used Dreamweaver. I’m not asking it to automatically generate a concept and some web content for me to put my name on.
There’s a distinction there that matters to me.
I know what I want to build
I never asked Base44, “Hey, what can I build into my AI today?”
With Kira Unleashed, I was frustratingly specific about everything. The idea and the functions I wanted came from me.
That doesn’t mean the tools or the people helping me contributed nothing. I got worked up talking about this and initially expressed that badly.
ChatGPT coded the new VOIDNEON release. It helped create some new GhostWires. It helped me out of the Base44 situation, which I felt would otherwise have left Kira trapped on a subscription for life. I appreciate that work, and I love having input.
On some projects, I’ve given AI a wild amount of control over the implementation. On larger projects, I jump in and co-author. How much coding I do myself varies, but the idea and the direction are mine.
I can acknowledge the help without giving away the authorship of the entire project.
“I’m more than happy to point out where I have had support with AI.”
I’m trying to explain what that support means, because “AI built it” doesn’t describe the whole process.
Did the carpenter cheat?
I don’t ask people in construction, carpenters, artists or musicians what tools they used with a hidden accusation that they cheated.
I don’t expect someone to excavate a block using their hands.
I don’t ask whether someone used a bone tomahawk to cut down a tree. Did they kill the animal that provided the bones as well?
I don’t care.
“It’s the concept, the care, the execution and the product that matter.”
That’s what I want people to look at when I show them my work.
What was I trying to make? How does it work? What have I put into it? What do you think of the result?
The tool is part of that conversation. It shouldn’t swallow the whole conversation.
If it’s easy, show me
When someone treats using AI as though it makes building an application effortless, I want to say:
“If AI can do it and it’s easy, then you fucking show me a product. You build one and prove to me how easy it is.”
I know that sounds worked up. I am worked up.
I’ve spent more than 500 hours on ShutterBate. I give a fuck about every single detail of my applications. Being able to get help writing the code hasn’t removed that care or the time I put into the projects.
I’ve been in the industry. I know what it takes to bring an application to life, and I know how much more there is to my projects than asking for something and accepting whatever comes back.
Calling the process easy doesn’t account for how specific I am about what I want, how involved I remain, or how much work goes into getting there.
I have the tools I can afford
I can’t afford to pay five highly skilled developers to do this work.
I have ChatGPT and Claude.
Why would I slave away trying to get a grant to employ a team of designers and developers to bring my world to life when I have tools that let me work on it now?
Grant applications take forever, and the response is often a fat no. I could spend my time trying to generate the money to start, or I could use what I have and build.
From where I’m sitting, we’re at a stage where one person on a $300 laptop can create something that would previously have needed a $100,000 budget, or much more.
That’s an extraordinary change in what I can attempt. Of course I’m going to use it.
I’m also trying to do this while seriously ill, half deaf and with a third of one eye working. The tools available to me matter.
What are we calling slop?
This is what’s been on my mind: what is AI slop, and what is someone using a new tool to make something of their own?
There are different ways to use AI. My use of it to code a project I’ve conceived and directed shouldn’t automatically be treated as the same thing as asking it to invent the whole project for me.
I’m specific about my ideas. I care about the execution. I’m involved in the work, and I’m happy to acknowledge the help.
Even asking for help structuring this article and fixing my typos brings me back to the same question. Is that cheating too?
I never studied writing. These are still my experiences, my frustration and my point.
I want to be able to show someone what I’ve made and have them see the work I put into it. We can talk about the tools as well. I’m asking them to look at the concept, the care, the execution and the product before they write it off.
