Well that's the million dollar question isn't it. The "morality" of the situation hinges upon the quality of the work. If the work was getting done without intervention, that is bad news for you, your reputation, and your necessity to the marketplace. If your work isn't getting done to standards, who is held accountable? (hint: its not the tools you're using). If the work is getting done, and you're making sure of it by writing good prompts, reviewing responses, and implementing its logic into your environment - well that's just work. There's nothing wrong with that, and if LLMs let you deliver quality work at a sustainable pace for you and your employer(s), then the work is getting done.
If we want to talk about fraud, we need to talk about employers demanding exclusivity over a human's emotions and intellect in addition to the time they pay for. Its a maniacal notion that one should have such exclusive power and influence over another human being. Its fraudulent to pretend any moral superiority over the slaver or the thief.
Fraud as defined in criminal code with respect to directly material damages. If the work is indeed getting done, there is no rational way to justify that damage took place. Conversely, if a employer hires your sibling to work 35 hours a week but lies to them about their ability to work outside of those hours, that IS fraud with the damages able to be substantiated by the loss of income. In reality, Off-Duty Work is the subject of ongoing legislation, fierce debate, and conflicting information. Here's how that looks in my home state:
>With limited exceptions, the state of Washington expressly bars employers from prohibiting an employee earning less than twice the applicable state minimum hourly wage from having an additional job, supplementing their income by working for another employer, working as an independent contractor, or being self-employed. The prohibition doesn’t apply if it would:
- Raise issues of safety or interfere with the reasonable and normal scheduling expectations of the employer.
- Interfere with the employee’s obligations to an employer under existing law, including the common law duty of loyalty and laws preventing conflicts of interest and any corresponding policies addressing such obligations.
This is a hot issue for me personally, as I've seen employers actively, even vigorously deceive their employees solely to enrich themselves and exercise power. They target young, indigent, and disabled workers, all of whom are not with means to understand their rights or use given channels to assert them. Its a visceral injustice that hurts the most vulnerable of us the hardest.