I’ve used AI to scaffold a greenfield app and to turn rough notes into polished blog posts. Both times, people called it out as inauthentic.

But most software is derivative. Most writing rehashes existing ideas. We’ve always stood on shoulders.

So what’s the actual line? Does originality require the idea to be yours, the execution to be yours, or both? Is AI-assisted work fundamentally different from using Stack Overflow, templates, or a ghostwriter?

Genuinely curious where HN lands on this.