Excellent question! The memo for the Merit Hiring Plan states “Applicants will be required to certify that they are using their own words, and did not use a consultant or AI (such as a large language model [LLM])”. The memo also states “To reduce the burden on candidates, the responses cannot exceed 200 words per question.” I agree, this approach offers more creativity. It’s not a writing competition, it’s about having quality stories and rationale.