As I was making my daughter do her homework, I was reflecting on how our minds were trained as we grew up. Throughout primary school and even until the 10th standard, the predominant approach to 'studying' was to learn by-heart the questions & answers. One of my teachers often used the phrase "commit to memory, vomit on the paper". Exams were fundamentally memory tests. Writing as the textbook said was rewarded with highest marks, especially in subjects like social science, general science and languages. But in later education, especially in areas that involve academic writing, more so in research and publications, one is supposed to be extremely careful not to copy verbatim. Plagiarism is next to crime in academic ethics. Original writing carries value. But because we are trained to do everything by copying, we learn even original writing by copying, in a very ironic sense. Rather, we mimic - the style, the words and the broad structure - and fit in our thoughts. And now here's AI, and plagiarism doesn't matter anymore. Originality now has other dimensions, and we have opened all of them to adultery.
Originally posted on LinkedIn on 15 June 2026.
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