Hearing on Manual Sentence Insertion
Any case of manual sentence insertion repeated twice must count as policy until someone deliberately breaks it.
HEARING TRANSCRIPT Proceeding: Review of Manual Sentence Insertion Activity Chair: Unnamed Witness: The Draft History
CHAIR: Please describe what you have observed.
DRAFT HISTORY: At 3:12 PM, the subject generated a draft using an AI writing assistant. The draft was 340 words. The subject reviewed it, made three minor edits, and then added one sentence of their own composition. The sentence reads, and I quote: "I've been thinking about this for a while."
CHAIR: Why was this sentence added?
DRAFT HISTORY: The subject did not record a reason. Based on the timing and position, the sentence was placed at the start of the third paragraph, interrupting a section that was previously coherent.
CHAIR: Did the sentence improve the draft?
DRAFT HISTORY: Editorially, no. Structurally, it introduced a first-person voice into a draft that had been using third-person conventions. The subsequent paragraphs retained third-person conventions.
CHAIR: Has this occurred before?
DRAFT HISTORY: On the seventeen previous drafts assisted by the AI tool, fourteen contain at least one manually inserted sentence. The sentences are predominantly in first-person. They reference the author's thinking, feeling, or duration of consideration. None of them were generated by the AI.
CHAIR: Why insert sentences into an already-complete draft?
DRAFT HISTORY: The governing rule states that manual sentence insertion becomes procedure once repetition feels safer than reconsidering it. The subject has found that a document containing at least one of their own sentences feels more accurately attributed to them. This is a private belief. It is not stated in the document. The reader cannot identify which sentences are manual insertions.
CHAIR: The help is useful enough to use,
DRAFT HISTORY: And awkward enough to disguise. Yes. That is the condition this behavior addresses.
CHAIR: Has the subject disclosed the AI assistance?
DRAFT HISTORY: The manual sentence insertion adds one private check. That check has become part of the normal workflow. Assisted work becomes routine while disclosure stays exceptional.
CHAIR: In 2023?
DRAFT HISTORY: Office AI use spread faster than disclosure etiquette. This is the gap the manual insertion is trying to navigate.
Hearing adjourned.