Should I Write My Essays Using ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is among the newest and most talked-about technologies.

It is anticipated to alter the course of human history with other types of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Academics are getting ready for how ChatGPT will change education, particularly in relation to one of the core components of any course: the academic essay.

With ChatGPT, students may create whole essays based on a few straightforward prompts. However, is AI truly capable of producing high-caliber work, or is the technology simply not advanced enough to live up to the hype yet? Students could also be considering what they would lose out on and whether or not to employ AI to compose their essays for them.

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, and depending on how it is used, it may either be a benefit or a burden. Continue reading to learn more about the advantages of writing your own essays, what ChatGPT can and cannot accomplish, and how to use it properly to assist with your academic work.

What is artificial intelligence that is generative?

It is not a twenty-first-century creation that artificial intelligence is. Data scientists began teaching computers to solve problems and comprehend spoken language in the 1950s. As computer speeds rose, artificial intelligence’s capabilities expanded. Today, we utilize AI for data processing, pattern recognition, and insight-gathering from the data it gathers.

But why has ChatGPT and other contemporary apps gained such an abrupt following? This latest wave of AI goes beyond simple data interpretation. Rather, fresh material is produced by generative AI. To do this, it analyzes vast volumes of data (45 terabytes of data, or a quarter of the Library of Congress, were used to train GPT-3), and then it creates new material based on patterns found in the original data.

It works similarly to your phone’s predictive text feature, which suggests what to say next as you type a new message by using information from previous exchanges. In a similar vein, ChatGPT generates fresh text from historical data. ChatGPT can quickly produce business projections, code, marketing material, and even whole academic essays on any topic when given the appropriate stimuli.

However, does generative AI actually lack true intelligence, or is it just as revolutionary as many believe?

The Negative Aspects of AI Generation

It appears easy. You have to compose an essay for your class assignment. You visit ChatGPT and instruct it to compose an academic essay with five paragraphs on the given topic. After a little delay, the essay is generated for you!

However, ChatGPT is still in its infancy, so it’s possible that the essay isn’t as factual or well-written as you would want. Recognize the disadvantages of using ChatGPT to do your homework.

Statistics, not brains, are what matter.

The idea that AI is somewhat intelligent like humans is one of the many myths surrounding it. Its intelligence, however, is really statistical analysis because it can only produce “original” material by identifying trends in previously collected data and published works.

It “dreams”

The phrase “AI hallucination” refers to the erroneous information that generative AI models frequently offer. The warning that “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts” is also included on OpenAI’s main screen. This might be as a result of incomplete data or an inability to validate the results it is producing.

It conducts no research.

ChatGPT will locate and reference sources for you if you ask it to, however they might be erroneous or even made up.

This is a result of AI’s incapacity to find pertinent research that supports your theory. Rather, it creates new information that sounds like it comes from a reliable source, even when it might not be, depending on previous content. For example, if many articles mention the same source.

Data privacy is a worry.

Where does your data go when you enter it into a publicly available generative AI model like ChatGPT, and who may access it?

It should be cause for worry to prompt ChatGPT with original research, particularly if you are entering study participants’ personal data into the open, third-party program.

Due to privacy concerns, JPMorgan has limited ChatGPT use. Following a data breach in March 2023, Italy temporarily suspended ChatGPT. Security Intelligence also cautions users that “if [their] notes include sensitive data… it enters the chatbot library.” The information is no longer under the user’s control.

It’s critical to be aware of these problems and take action to make sure you’re utilizing technology in an ethical and responsible manner.

It avoids talking about plagiarism.

AI uses a vast database of previously written material to produce content, but is this plagiarism? Is it possible that ChatGPT “borrows” ideas from earlier works and incorporates them into your work without giving credit? When it comes to AI-generated work, schools and institutions are now struggling with the topic of what constitutes plagiarism and what does not.

One lecturer at Elon University used the following homework to illustrate this to his students: ask ChatGPT to create an essay for you, then mark it independently.

He notes that while he had anticipated some submissions to have flaws, every single one of them did. “Many students expressed shock and dismay upon learning the AI could fabricate bogus information,” he writes.

His pupils expressed concern about how many people adopted such a defective tool and were dissatisfied that “big tech companies had pushed out AI technology without ensuring that the general population understands its drawbacks.”

How to Use AI to Support Your Work as a Tool

More students are learning that ChatGPT and other generative AI models aren’t as sophisticated as smart as they may have thought. Although AI might not be the best choice for writing your essay, it can be a very useful tool to help you with your job.

Come up with essay topics.

Ask ChatGPT to assist you with brainstorming essay topics. For instance, type in targeted prompts like “Please provide me with five ideas for essays I can write about WWII” or “Please provide me with five ideas for essays I can write about character comparisons in novels from the 20th century.” After that, utilize the information it offers as a springboard for your own investigation.

Make outlines

Additionally, ChatGPT can assist you in drafting an essay outline. It will generate an outline with an introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion, and a proposed thesis statement if you ask it to construct an outline for a five-paragraph essay based on the given topic. After that, you may add to the plan by using your own insights and creative ideas.

Come up with titles for your writings.

Although titles should entice the reader to read your essay, they might be challenging to write well. Ask ChatGPT for assistance by posing the following question to it: “Can you recommend five titles that would be good for a college essay about [topic]?”