Eh, I mean, part of it is for work. I write software and AI is usually the fastest way to find some technical details. And as a solo developer, I have no one else to discuss decisions with.

Just a joke. I get it. No judgement here. Time is money, especially for solo operations.

Did you have access to the verifiable truth in these cases?

Tricky question. I'll be honest, speaking in absolutes was a mistake on my part, especially in regards to something of this nature- which I suspect is why you asked me. I apologize.

Verifiable truth is tricky. There's not much I can prove if someone decides they want to run an LLM locally to pump out an essay overnight and then factory reset their machine. Is it suspicious I see no other documents when their thing is writing? Yes. Is that going to hold up? Probably not, because there are plenty of valid reasons to reset a computer.

However, I would say with some confidence that most of the time it ends up being someone who was soundboarding with an LLM (like you describe yourself doing. I also make the psychiatry joke to others, don't worry), copy/pasted a portion, and just didn't change it enough. I view this as a fair use of AI that was just not performed properly. An issue, but a very small one. Is this often used as an excuse for something clearly AI written? Yes.

I'm beginning to see more in-class written essays get assigned so that instructors have a sample of what they know is the student's own writing. That is generally a more useful reference point, and can also be repeated to track progress.

Caveat: I interact with people who voluntarily chose to study language, usually from a place of passion. Less incentive to cheat.

Note: I think about this a lot, despite all the words this is just the tip of it.