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How ChatGPT (and other AI chatbots) can help you write an essay

ChatGPT  is capable of doing many different things very well, with one of the biggest standout features being its ability to compose all sorts of text within seconds, including songs, poems, bedtime stories, and essays . 

The chatbot's writing abilities are not only fun to experiment with, but can help provide assistance with everyday tasks. Whether you are a student, a working professional, or just getting stuff done, we constantly take time out of our day to compose emails, texts, posts, and more. ChatGPT can help you claim some of that time back by helping you brainstorm and then compose any text you need. 

How to use ChatGPT to write: Code | Excel formulas | Resumes  | Cover letters  

Contrary to popular belief, ChatGPT can do much more than just write an essay for you from scratch (which would be considered plagiarism). A more useful way to use the chatbot is to have it guide your writing process. 

Below, we show you how to use ChatGPT to do both the writing and assisting, as well as some other helpful writing tips. 

How ChatGPT can help you write an essay

If you are looking to use ChatGPT to support or replace your writing, here are five different techniques to explore. 

It is also worth noting before you get started that other AI chatbots can output the same results as ChatGPT or are even better, depending on your needs.

Also: The best AI chatbots of 2024: ChatGPT and alternatives

For example,  Copilot  has access to the internet, and as a result, it can source its answers from recent information and current events. Copilot also includes footnotes linking back to the original source for all of its responses, making the chatbot a more valuable tool if you're writing a paper on a more recent event, or if you want to verify your sources.

Regardless of which AI chatbot you pick, you can use the tips below to get the most out of your prompts and from AI assistance.

1. Use ChatGPT to generate essay ideas

Before you can even get started writing an essay, you need to flesh out the idea. When professors assign essays, they generally give students a prompt that gives them leeway for their own self-expression and analysis. 

As a result, students have the task of finding the angle to approach the essay on their own. If you have written an essay recently, you know that finding the angle is often the trickiest part -- and this is where ChatGPT can help. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Copilot: Which AI chatbot is better for you?

All you need to do is input the assignment topic, include as much detail as you'd like -- such as what you're thinking about covering -- and let ChatGPT do the rest. For example, based on a paper prompt I had in college, I asked:

Can you help me come up with a topic idea for this assignment, "You will write a research paper or case study on a leadership topic of your choice." I would like it to include Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid, and possibly a historical figure. 

Also: I'm a ChatGPT pro but this quick course taught me new tricks, and you can take it for free

Within seconds, the chatbot produced a response that provided me with the title of the essay, options of historical figures I could focus my article on, and insight on what information I could include in my paper, with specific examples of a case study I could use. 

2. Use the chatbot to create an outline

Once you have a solid topic, it's time to start brainstorming what you actually want to include in the essay. To facilitate the writing process, I always create an outline, including all the different points I want to touch upon in my essay. However, the outline-writing process is usually tedious. 

With ChatGPT, all you have to do is ask it to write the outline for you. 

Also: Thanks to my 5 favorite AI tools, I'm working smarter now

Using the topic that ChatGPT helped me generate in step one, I asked the chatbot to write me an outline by saying: 

Can you create an outline for a paper, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

After a couple of seconds, the chatbot produced a holistic outline divided into seven different sections, with three different points under each section. 

This outline is thorough and can be condensed for a shorter essay or elaborated on for a longer paper. If you don't like something or want to tweak the outline further, you can do so either manually or with more instructions to ChatGPT. 

As mentioned before, since Copilot is connected to the internet, if you use Copilot to produce the outline, it will even include links and sources throughout, further expediting your essay-writing process. 

3. Use ChatGPT to find sources

Now that you know exactly what you want to write, it's time to find reputable sources to get your information. If you don't know where to start, you can just ask ChatGPT. 

Also: How to make ChatGPT provide sources and citations

All you need to do is ask the AI to find sources for your essay topic. For example, I asked the following: 

Can you help me find sources for a paper, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

The chatbot output seven sources, with a bullet point for each that explained what the source was and why it could be useful. 

Also:   How to use ChatGPT to make charts and tables

The one caveat you will want to be aware of when using ChatGPT for sources is that it does not have access to information after 2021, so it will not be able to suggest the freshest sources. If you want up-to-date information, you can always use Copilot. 

Another perk of using Copilot is that it automatically links to sources in its answers. 

4. Use ChatGPT to write an essay

It is worth noting that if you take the text directly from the chatbot and submit it, your work could be considered a form of plagiarism since it is not your original work. As with any information taken from another source, text generated by an AI should be clearly identified and credited in your work.

Also: ChatGPT will now remember its past conversations with you (if you want it to)

In most educational institutions, the penalties for plagiarism are severe, ranging from a failing grade to expulsion from the school. A better use of ChatGPT's writing features would be to use it to create a sample essay to guide your writing. 

If you still want ChatGPT to create an essay from scratch, enter the topic and the desired length, and then watch what it generates. For example, I input the following text: 

Can you write a five-paragraph essay on the topic, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

Within seconds, the chatbot gave the exact output I required: a coherent, five-paragraph essay on the topic. You could then use that text to guide your own writing. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini: Which is the best AI chatbot?

At this point, it's worth remembering how tools like ChatGPT work : they put words together in a form that they think is statistically valid, but they don't know if what they are saying is true or accurate. 

As a result, the output you receive might include invented facts, details, or other oddities. The output might be a useful starting point for your own work, but don't expect it to be entirely accurate, and always double-check the content. 

5. Use ChatGPT to co-edit your essay

Once you've written your own essay, you can use ChatGPT's advanced writing capabilities to edit the piece for you. 

You can simply tell the chatbot what you want it to edit. For example, I asked ChatGPT to edit our five-paragraph essay for structure and grammar, but other options could have included flow, tone, and more. 

Also: AI meets AR as ChatGPT is now available on the Apple Vision Pro

Once you ask the tool to edit your essay, it will prompt you to paste your text into the chatbot. ChatGPT will then output your essay with corrections made. This feature is particularly useful because ChatGPT edits your essay more thoroughly than a basic proofreading tool, as it goes beyond simply checking spelling. 

You can also co-edit with the chatbot, asking it to take a look at a specific paragraph or sentence, and asking it to rewrite or fix the text for clarity. Personally, I find this feature very helpful. 

How to use ChatGPT

The best ai chatbots: chatgpt isn't the only one worth trying, adobe's pdf-reading ai assistant starts at $4.99/month - here's how to try it for free.

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• NEWS EXPLAINER
• 09 December 2022

AI bot ChatGPT writes smart essays — should professors worry?

• Chris Stokel-Walker

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Between overwork, underpayment and the pressure to publish, academics have plenty to worry about. Now there’s a fresh concern: ChatGPT , an artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbot that creates surprisingly intelligent-sounding text in response to user prompts, including homework assignments and exam-style questions. The replies are so lucid, well-researched and decently referenced that some academics are calling the bot the death knell for conventional forms of educational assessment. How worried should professors and lecturers be?

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Should I Use ChatGPT for My Essays?

Artificial intelligence has finally come to the world of academia. Students have been tempted to use LLM-based instruments such as ChatGPT for writing essays and other research papers by simply writing a prompt and clicking “Generate.” 

The burning question, however, revolves around the quality of work that AI can produce. Is the technology advanced enough to deliver on its promises, or does it fall short of expectations? Students are grappling with the decision of whether to entrust AI with their essay writing and contemplating the potential trade-offs involved.

In this article, we offer you the opportunity to explore if chat gpt good at writing essays, the pros and cons of AI writing tools to gain a deeper understanding of why it’s more of a hindrance for students rather than a salvation. For those of you who would like to jump straight to the conclusion, using a college essay writing service provided by human authors rather than machines is still a better alternative than trusting such a foundational component of any course as an essay to a machine.

What Is Generative AI and How Does It Work

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a subset of machine learning that focuses on creating systems capable of producing new and original content rather than simply analyzing and interpreting existing data. What is generative AI compared to other forms of artificial intelligence? Unlike traditional AI models that rely on predefined rules and patterns, generative AI can generate novel outputs by learning from vast amounts of diverse data. This form of AI is often employed in tasks such as text and image generation, where the goal is to create indistinguishable content from human-created content.

The functioning of generative AI is rooted in neural networks, which are designed to mimic the human brain's structure and function. These networks consist of interconnected nodes organized into layers, each processing and extracting features from the input data. Generative models typically employ a type of neural network called a "generative model," which learns to understand the underlying patterns and structures in the training data. During the training process, the model refines its understanding of the data and becomes capable of generating new, coherent outputs by making predictions based on the learned patterns.

Seriously Considering ChatGPT to Write Your Essay?

When in a hurry, GenAI is not the best option. When in a rush, relying on expert writers is always an optimal solution.  

Generative AI Setbacks

Now, let’s move on to the pros and cons of Chat GPT as the most popular GenAI instrument. It operates through sophisticated neural network architectures to produce text content, with recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and transformer models being commonly employed. The primary objective of generative AI in this context is to generate coherent and contextually relevant text passages autonomously. 

The model is trained on large datasets containing diverse examples of human-written text, learning the intricacies of language, grammar, and contextual relationships. While generative AI can produce impressive text content, it's important to note that it doesn't possess true comprehension or consciousness but rather mimics linguistic patterns learned from its training data. 

Quality Concerns

One significant drawback of relying on ChatGPT for scholarly writing is the variable output quality. While it can generate coherent text, it might lack the depth, critical thinking, and nuanced understanding that human-generated content often possesses. The AI might struggle to grasp complex topics or provide insightful analysis, potentially leading to subpar essay quality. Even if you ask the GenAI system, ‘Can I use Chat GPT for essays?’ it will reply, ‘Yes, but no. There are several major considerations.’

Lack of Originality

Another disadvantage is the risk of essays lacking originality. ChatGPT learns from existing datasets, and without proper guidance, it may reproduce common ideas and phrases. This lack of originality can affect the uniqueness and authenticity of the essay, potentially leading to issues related to plagiarism and academic integrity.

Limited Subject Expertise

ChatGPT's knowledge is broad but not necessarily deep or specialized. It might lack expertise in specific academic subjects, leading to inaccuracies or oversimplifications in content. Students relying solely on ChatGPT may find it challenging to produce essays demonstrating a profound understanding of specialized topics.

Contextual Misinterpretation

ChatGPT may struggle with nuanced contextual understanding, leading to misinterpretations of prompts or generating contextually inappropriate content. This lack of contextual finesse can result in essays that deviate from the intended meaning or fail to address the nuances specific to a given topic. Students may spend additional time correcting or clarifying the output to align it with the intended context.

Dependency and Skill Erosion

Over-reliance on ChatGPT might hinder the development of essential writing and critical-thinking skills. Suppose students consistently use AI to compose essays. In that case, they may miss out on the learning opportunities that come from grappling with the complexities of research, analysis, and creative expression, ultimately impacting their academic growth.

AI Hallucination

While using ChatGPT for college essays, an unwary student might face the phenomenon known as "AI hallucination." This occurs when the model generates information that may sound plausible but is ultimately fictional or inaccurate. ChatGPT does not possess real-world knowledge and can unintentionally fabricate details or provide misleading information. Relying on such hallucinated content can compromise the reliability and factual accuracy of the essay, posing a risk to academic credibility. Students need to be vigilant in fact-checking and verifying information to ensure the accuracy of their AI-generated content.

Tried ChatGPT, but the Result Is Dissapointing?

Try a professional essay service – a time-tested instrument for students seeking good results with minimal effort.  

How GenAI May Actually Help You with Essays

Generative AI can enhance essay production by offering valuable assistance in brainstorming ideas, overcoming writer's block, and providing creative inspiration, allowing students to refine and expand their own thoughts. The tool's ability to generate coherent sentences and structures can serve as a foundation upon which students build their essays, fostering a collaborative writing process. While it can assist in generating content, students must use the technology judiciously, actively engage in the writing process, and ensure the final output reflects their own voice and understanding of the subject matter. Here are three no-nonsense tips on how to use ChatGPT to write an essay:

Idea Generation and Brainstorming

ChatGPT can be used as a creative companion, helping students generate ideas for essays and overcome writer's block. By providing prompts or asking questions, the AI can inspire diverse perspectives and angles for the essay topic, kickstarting the thought process and expanding the range of potential content. ChatGPT not only assists in overcoming initial hurdles but also facilitates a dynamic exchange of ideas. By engaging in a virtual dialogue with the AI, students can explore different perspectives, receive real-time feedback, and foster a collaborative brainstorming process that goes beyond the traditional confines of solitary ideation, ultimately enriching the depth and diversity of their essay content.

Structural Assistance and Coherent Expression

The tool generates well-structured and coherent sentences, supporting organizing thoughts and expressing ideas fluently. ChatGPT's ability to understand context allows it to contribute to the development of clear introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions, providing a solid foundation that students can build upon for a more polished essay structure. Similar to the best essay writing apps , ChatGPT aids in developing entire paragraphs and sections, ensuring a seamless flow of ideas throughout the essay. Its contextual understanding can guide students in creating a well-organized narrative that strengthens the overall coherence and impact of their written work.

Language Enhancement and Vocabulary Enrichment

ChatGPT can help enhance the language and vocabulary used in an essay. By exposing users to a wide range of phrasing and terminology, the AI can assist in refining the language style and ensuring a more sophisticated and nuanced expression of ideas, thereby contributing to the overall eloquence and professionalism of the written piece. ChatGPT for writing essays can become a linguistic mentor for international students, suggesting alternative phrasings and introducing varied vocabulary, thereby refining the eloquence and richness of the essay. The GetAI can enhance immediate writing tasks and contribute to the long-term development of language skills, fostering a more nuanced and sophisticated command of written expression.

Why Doing Essays by Yourself Is Always a Better Choice

While ChatGPT offers valuable support in writing, doing essays independently holds several advantages that contribute to a more enriching and authentic academic experience. Working on essays individually provides a deep engagement with the subject matter, allowing for a genuine exploration of personal insights and understanding. It enhances critical thinking skills, encourages original thought, and builds a strong foundation for academic growth. Although generative AI can be an assistant, it’s you who should be in charge of the writing process and deliver the final result. 

Critical Thinking and Analytical Skills

Independent essay writing promotes the cultivation of critical thinking and analytical skills. By grappling with the complexities of a topic without external assistance, students develop the ability to analyze, synthesize information, and construct well-reasoned arguments, contributing to a more profound understanding of the subject matter. Learn how to write an essay outline to make the first step to mastering the art of academic writing.

Personalized Exploration of Ideas

Writing an essay independently allows students to embark on a personalized journey of idea exploration. They can delve into their unique perspectives, draw connections between concepts, and explore creative approaches to presenting their thoughts, fostering a deeper intellectual engagement with the material.

Enhanced Research Competence

Independently crafting essays necessitates comprehensive research, honing students' research skills and information retrieval abilities. This process not only ensures a more thorough understanding of the topic but also equips students with the skills necessary for conducting effective and independent research in future academic and professional endeavors.

Cultivation of Writing Style

Independent writing contributes to the development of an individual writing style. Through the iterative process of drafting, revising, and refining, students refine their voice, expression, and linguistic choices. This personal touch not only makes the essay more compelling but also contributes to the development of a unique and identifiable writing style.

Ownership and Satisfaction

Crafting essays independently fosters a sense of ownership over one's work. The satisfaction derived from overcoming challenges, expressing ideas authentically, and producing a piece of writing that reflects individual effort contributes to a deeper appreciation for the learning process and academic accomplishments.

Professional Writers: The Best of Two Worlds

When writing on your own is not an option and motivation levels occasionally drop, students often struggle with the decision, ‘Should I use ChatGPT for my essays?’ While it may seem like a quick “push-button” solution, the imperfections and the need for extensive polishing can be time-consuming and frustrating. In such cases, entrusting the task to professional writers proves to be a mindful choice. With expertise, tailored content, and a commitment to quality, expert writers offer a streamlined alternative for those who seek well-crafted essays without compromising on excellence or spending hours refining AI-generated drafts.

Expertise and Specialized Knowledge

Experts of an essay service often possess specialized knowledge and expertise in various subjects. Unlike ChatGPT, which may lack depth in specific areas, human writers bring a nuanced understanding of complex topics, ensuring a higher level of accuracy, depth, and sophistication in the content. This expertise allows for incorporating relevant research, current trends, and a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.

Tailored and Customized Content

Seasoned essay writers excel in tailoring content to specific requirements and individual preferences. While ChatGPT provides general suggestions, human writers can adapt their writing style, tone, and content to match the unique needs of a particular assignment or client. This personalized touch ensures that the essay meets specific guidelines, aligns with the student's voice, and addresses the nuances of the given topic more effectively.

Quality Assurance and Revisions

Professional writing platforms often come with quality assurance and revision policies. Human writers can produce polished, well-structured essays with attention to detail, grammar, and coherence. Moreover, these services typically offer revision options, allowing students to request modifications or clarifications until they are satisfied with the final product. This level of personalized attention and quality control when writing an essay surpasses the capabilities of ChatGPT by a great amount.

What Are Students Saying

Despite the buzz surrounding generative AI, many students aren't impressed with ChatGPT's essay-writing abilities. Research reveals that students find the essays it produces too basic and broad for academic standards. Despite using ChatGPT for multiple semesters, they struggle to generate papers with the required depth and focus.

Detection is another issue. Tools like Turnitin easily spot AI-written content, causing concerns among students. One student reported that nearly all of their ChatGPT-generated essay was flagged as AI-written, even after attempting to disguise it by altering sentence structures.

Trust is a significant issue. Despite some students' attempts to utilize ChatGPT for simple problems in accounting, it consistently fails to provide accurate answers. Even when students tried to manipulate it, ChatGPT couldn't maintain consistency, leading to doubts about its reliability.

Furthermore, recent versions of ChatGPT seem less reliable and more biased. Responses vary widely between versions, and the AI often provides neutral or evasive answers instead of factual information. Additionally, it appears to censor or avoid certain topics, impacting the quality of assistance it offers.

Below are authentic comments from students on Reddit, sharing their concerns and observations:

Overall, students are increasingly disillusioned with ChatGPT's performance, citing its inability to produce high-quality essays and provide accurate information. Its limitations in detecting AI-generated content and inconsistencies in responses contribute to growing skepticism among users.

ChatGPT isn't designed for academic writing. It lacks the critical thinking and analysis abilities of human writers. Even though it can generate text, it often lacks accuracy and credibility needed for academic essays. Besides, essays produced by AI still need to be checked, revised, and updated by humans, which defeats the purpose of using AI for essay writing. It's better to rely on human writers and trusted sources for academic papers.

In the hustle and bustle of student life, when time becomes a precious commodity and motivation wanes, the allure of quick solutions like ChatGPT might seem tempting. However, the reality often unveils itself in the imperfections and the laborious task of refining AI-generated content. 

When faced with the twin challenges of time constraints and a lack of motivation, turning to human writers emerges as the optimal choice. Professional essay writers not only offer expertise and tailored content but also serve as partners in the creative process, crafting essays that resonate with individual voices and adhere to specific requirements. 

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Should I Use ChatGPT to Write My Essays?

Everything high school and college students need to know about using — and not using — ChatGPT for writing essays.

Jessica A. Kent

ChatGPT is one of the most buzzworthy technologies today.

In addition to other generative artificial intelligence (AI) models, it is expected to change the world. In academia, students and professors are preparing for the ways that ChatGPT will shape education, and especially how it will impact a fundamental element of any course: the academic essay.

Students can use ChatGPT to generate full essays based on a few simple prompts. But can AI actually produce high quality work, or is the technology just not there yet to deliver on its promise? Students may also be asking themselves if they should use AI to write their essays for them and what they might be losing out on if they did.

AI is here to stay, and it can either be a help or a hindrance depending on how you use it. Read on to become better informed about what ChatGPT can and can’t do, how to use it responsibly to support your academic assignments, and the benefits of writing your own essays.

What is Generative AI?

Artificial intelligence isn’t a twenty-first century invention. Beginning in the 1950s, data scientists started programming computers to solve problems and understand spoken language. AI’s capabilities grew as computer speeds increased and today we use AI for data analysis, finding patterns, and providing insights on the data it collects.

But why the sudden popularity in recent applications like ChatGPT? This new generation of AI goes further than just data analysis. Instead, generative AI creates new content. It does this by analyzing large amounts of data — GPT-3 was trained on 45 terabytes of data, or a quarter of the Library of Congress — and then generating new content based on the patterns it sees in the original data.

It’s like the predictive text feature on your phone; as you start typing a new message, predictive text makes suggestions of what should come next based on data from past conversations. Similarly, ChatGPT creates new text based on past data. With the right prompts, ChatGPT can write marketing content, code, business forecasts, and even entire academic essays on any subject within seconds.

But is generative AI as revolutionary as people think it is, or is it lacking in real intelligence?

The Drawbacks of Generative AI

It seems simple. You’ve been assigned an essay to write for class. You go to ChatGPT and ask it to write a five-paragraph academic essay on the topic you’ve been assigned. You wait a few seconds and it generates the essay for you!

But ChatGPT is still in its early stages of development, and that essay is likely not as accurate or well-written as you’d expect it to be. Be aware of the drawbacks of having ChatGPT complete your assignments.

It’s not intelligence, it’s statistics

One of the misconceptions about AI is that it has a degree of human intelligence. However, its intelligence is actually statistical analysis, as it can only generate “original” content based on the patterns it sees in already existing data and work.

It “hallucinates”

Generative AI models often provide false information — so much so that there’s a term for it: “AI hallucination.” OpenAI even has a warning on its home screen , saying that “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.” This may be due to gaps in its data, or because it lacks the ability to verify what it’s generating. 

It doesn’t do research  

If you ask ChatGPT to find and cite sources for you, it will do so, but they could be inaccurate or even made up.

This is because AI doesn’t know how to look for relevant research that can be applied to your thesis. Instead, it generates content based on past content, so if a number of papers cite certain sources, it will generate new content that sounds like it’s a credible source — except it likely may not be.

There are data privacy concerns

When you input your data into a public generative AI model like ChatGPT, where does that data go and who has access to it? 

Prompting ChatGPT with original research should be a cause for concern — especially if you’re inputting study participants’ personal information into the third-party, public application. 

JPMorgan has restricted use of ChatGPT due to privacy concerns, Italy temporarily blocked ChatGPT in March 2023 after a data breach, and Security Intelligence advises that “if [a user’s] notes include sensitive data … it enters the chatbot library. The user no longer has control over the information.”

It is important to be aware of these issues and take steps to ensure that you’re using the technology responsibly and ethically. 

It skirts the plagiarism issue

AI creates content by drawing on a large library of information that’s already been created, but is it plagiarizing? Could there be instances where ChatGPT “borrows” from previous work and places it into your work without citing it? Schools and universities today are wrestling with this question of what’s plagiarism and what’s not when it comes to AI-generated work.

To demonstrate this, one Elon University professor gave his class an assignment: Ask ChatGPT to write an essay for you, and then grade it yourself. 

“Many students expressed shock and dismay upon learning the AI could fabricate bogus information,” he writes, adding that he expected some essays to contain errors, but all of them did. 

His students were disappointed that “major tech companies had pushed out AI technology without ensuring that the general population understands its drawbacks” and were concerned about how many embraced such a flawed tool.

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How to Use AI as a Tool to Support Your Work

As more students are discovering, generative AI models like ChatGPT just aren’t as advanced or intelligent as they may believe. While AI may be a poor option for writing your essay, it can be a great tool to support your work.

Generate ideas for essays

Have ChatGPT help you come up with ideas for essays. For example, input specific prompts, such as, “Please give me five ideas for essays I can write on topics related to WWII,” or “Please give me five ideas for essays I can write comparing characters in twentieth century novels.” Then, use what it provides as a starting point for your original research.

Generate outlines

You can also use ChatGPT to help you create an outline for an essay. Ask it, “Can you create an outline for a five paragraph essay based on the following topic” and it will create an outline with an introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion, and a suggested thesis statement. Then, you can expand upon the outline with your own research and original thought.

Generate titles for your essays

Titles should draw a reader into your essay, yet they’re often hard to get right. Have ChatGPT help you by prompting it with, “Can you suggest five titles that would be good for a college essay about [topic]?”

The Benefits of Writing Your Essays Yourself

Asking a robot to write your essays for you may seem like an easy way to get ahead in your studies or save some time on assignments. But, outsourcing your work to ChatGPT can negatively impact not just your grades, but your ability to communicate and think critically as well. It’s always the best approach to write your essays yourself.

Create your own ideas

Writing an essay yourself means that you’re developing your own thoughts, opinions, and questions about the subject matter, then testing, proving, and defending those thoughts. 

When you complete school and start your career, projects aren’t simply about getting a good grade or checking a box, but can instead affect the company you’re working for — or even impact society. Being able to think for yourself is necessary to create change and not just cross work off your to-do list.

Building a foundation of original thinking and ideas now will help you carve your unique career path in the future.

Develop your critical thinking and analysis skills

In order to test or examine your opinions or questions about a subject matter, you need to analyze a problem or text, and then use your critical thinking skills to determine the argument you want to make to support your thesis. Critical thinking and analysis skills aren’t just necessary in school — they’re skills you’ll apply throughout your career and your life.

Improve your research skills

Writing your own essays will train you in how to conduct research, including where to find sources, how to determine if they’re credible, and their relevance in supporting or refuting your argument. Knowing how to do research is another key skill required throughout a wide variety of professional fields.

Learn to be a great communicator

Writing an essay involves communicating an idea clearly to your audience, structuring an argument that a reader can follow, and making a conclusion that challenges them to think differently about a subject. Effective and clear communication is necessary in every industry.

Be impacted by what you’re learning about : 

Engaging with the topic, conducting your own research, and developing original arguments allows you to really learn about a subject you may not have encountered before. Maybe a simple essay assignment around a work of literature, historical time period, or scientific study will spark a passion that can lead you to a new major or career.

Resources to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills

While there are many rewards to writing your essays yourself, the act of writing an essay can still be challenging, and the process may come easier for some students than others. But essay writing is a skill that you can hone, and students at Harvard Summer School have access to a number of on-campus and online resources to assist them.

Students can start with the Harvard Summer School Writing Center , where writing tutors can offer you help and guidance on any writing assignment in one-on-one meetings. Tutors can help you strengthen your argument, clarify your ideas, improve the essay’s structure, and lead you through revisions. 

The Harvard libraries are a great place to conduct your research, and its librarians can help you define your essay topic, plan and execute a research strategy, and locate sources. 

Finally, review the “ The Harvard Guide to Using Sources ,” which can guide you on what to cite in your essay and how to do it. Be sure to review the “Tips For Avoiding Plagiarism” on the “ Resources to Support Academic Integrity ” webpage as well to help ensure your success.

Sign up to our mailing list to learn more about Harvard Summer School

The Future of AI in the Classroom

ChatGPT and other generative AI models are here to stay, so it’s worthwhile to learn how you can leverage the technology responsibly and wisely so that it can be a tool to support your academic pursuits. However, nothing can replace the experience and achievement gained from communicating your own ideas and research in your own academic essays.

About the Author

Jessica A. Kent is a freelance writer based in Boston, Mass. and a Harvard Extension School alum. Her digital marketing content has been featured on Fast Company, Forbes, Nasdaq, and other industry websites; her essays and short stories have been featured in North American Review, Emerson Review, Writer’s Bone, and others.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, can you use chatgpt for your college essay.

College Admissions , College Essays

ChatGPT has become a popular topic of conversation since its official launch in November 2022. The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can be used for all sorts of things, like having conversations, answering questions, and even crafting complete pieces of writing.

If you’re applying for college, you might be wondering about ChatGPT college admissions’ potential.  Should you use a ChatGPT college essay in your application ? 

By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll know much more about ChatGPT, including how students can use it responsibly and if it’s a good idea to use ChatGPT on college essays . We’ll answer all your questions, like:

• What is ChatGPT and why are schools talking about it?
• What are the good and bad aspects of ChatGPT?
• Should you use ChatGPT for college essays and applications?
• Can colleges detect ChatGPT?
• Are there other tools and strategies that students can use, instead?

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Schools and colleges are worried about how new AI technology affects how students learn. (Don't worry. Robots aren't replacing your teachers...yet.)

What Is ChatGPT and Why Are Schools Talking About It?

ChatGPT (short for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) is a chatbot created by OpenAI , an artificial intelligence research company. ChatGPT can be used for various tasks, like having human-like conversations, answering questions, giving recommendations, translating words and phrases—and writing things like essays. 

In order to do this, ChatGPT uses a neural network that’s been trained on thousands of resources to predict relationships between words. When you give ChatGPT a task, it uses that knowledge base to interpret your input or query. It then analyzes its data banks to predict the combinations of words that will best answer your question. 

So while ChatGPT might seem like it’s thinking, it’s actually pulling information from hundreds of thousands of resources , then answering your questions by looking for patterns in that data and predicting which words come next.  

Why Schools Are Concerned About ChatGPT

Unsurprisingly, schools are worried about ChatGPT and its misuse, especially in terms of academic dishonesty and plagiarism . Most schools, including colleges, require students’ work to be 100% their own. That’s because taking someone else’s ideas and passing them off as your own is stealing someone else’s intellectual property and misrepresenting your skills. 

The problem with ChatGPT from schools’ perspective is that it does the writing and research for you, then gives you the final product. In other words, you’re not doing the work it takes to complete an assignment when you’re using ChatGPT , which falls under schools’ plagiarism and dishonesty policies.  

Colleges are also concerned with how ChatGPT will negatively affect students’ critical thinking, research, and writing skills . Essays and other writing assignments are used to measure students’ mastery of the material, and if students submit ChatGPT college essays, teachers will just be giving feedback on an AI’s writing…which doesn’t help the student learn and grow. 

Beyond that, knowing how to write well is an important skill people need to be successful throughout life. Schools believe that if students rely on ChatGPT to write their essays, they’re doing more than just plagiarizing—they’re impacting their ability to succeed in their future careers. 

Many Schools Have Already Banned ChatGPT

Schools have responded surprisingly quickly to AI use, including ChatGPT. Worries about academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation have led many high schools and colleges to ban the use of ChatGPT . Some schools have begun using AI-detection software for assignment submissions, and some have gone so far as to block students from using ChatGPT on their internet networks. 

It’s likely that schools will begin revising their academic honesty and plagiarism policies to address the use of AI tools like ChatGPT. You’ll want to stay up-to-date with your schools’ policies. 

ChatGPT is pretty amazing...but it's not a great tool for writing college essays. Here's why.

ChatGPT: College Admissions and Entrance Essays

College admissions essays—also called personal statements—ask students to explore important events, experiences, and ideas from their lives. A great entrance essay will explain what makes you you !  

ChatGPT is a machine that doesn’t know and can’t understand your experiences. That means using ChatGPT to write your admissions essays isn’t just unethical. It actually puts you at a disadvantage because ChatGPT can’t adequately showcase what it means to be you. 

Let’s take a look at four ways ChatGPT negatively impacts college admissions essays.

#1: ChatGPT Lacks Insight

We recommend students use u nexpected or slightly unusual topics because they help admissions committees learn more about you and what makes you unique. The chat bot doesn’t know any of that, so nothing ChatGPT writes can’t accurately reflect your experience, passions, or goals for the future. 

Because ChatGPT will make guesses about who you are, it won’t be able to share what makes you unique in a way that resonates with readers. And since that’s what admissions counselors care about, a ChatGPT college essay could negatively impact an otherwise strong application.  

#2: ChatGPT Might Plagiarize 

Writing about experiences that many other people have had isn’t a very strong approach to take for entrance essays . After all, you don’t want to blend in—you want to stand out! 

If you write your essay yourself and include key details about your past experiences and future goals, there’s little risk that you’ll write the same essay as someone else. But if you use ChatGPT—who’s to say someone else won’t, too? Since ChatGPT uses predictive guesses to write essays, there’s a good chance the text it uses in your essay already appeared in someone else’s.  

Additionally, ChatGPT learns from every single interaction it has. So even if your essay isn’t plagiarized, it’s now in the system. That means the next person who uses ChatGPT to write their essay may end up with yours. You’ll still be on the hook for submitting a ChatGPT college essay, and someone else will be in trouble, too.

#3: ChatGPT Doesn’t Understand Emotion 

Keep in mind that ChatGPT can’t experience or imitate emotions, and so its writing samples lack, well, a human touch ! 

A great entrance essay will explore experiences or topics you’re genuinely excited about or proud of . This is your chance to show your chosen schools what you’ve accomplished and how you’ll continue growing and learning, and an essay without emotion would be odd considering that these should be real, lived experiences and passions you have!

#4: ChatGPT Produced Mediocre Results

If you’re still curious what would happen if you submitted a ChatGPT college essay with your application, you’re in luck. Both Business Insider and Forbes asked ChatGPT to write a couple of college entrance essays, and then they sent them to college admissions readers to get their thoughts. 

The readers agreed that the essays would probably pass as being written by real students—assuming admissions committees didn’t use AI detection software—but that they both were about what a “very mediocre, perhaps even a middle school, student would produce.” The admissions professionals agreed that the essays probably wouldn’t perform very well with entrance committees, especially at more selective schools.  

That’s not exactly the reaction you want when an admission committee reads your application materials! So, when it comes to ChatGPT college admissions, it’s best to steer clear and write your admission materials by yourself. 

Can Colleges Detect ChatGPT?

We’ve already explained why it’s not a great idea to use ChatGPT to write your college essays and applications , but you may still be wondering: can colleges detect ChatGPT? 

In short, yes, they can! 

Software Can Detect ChatGPT

As technology improves and increases the risk of academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation, software that can detect such technology is improving, too. For instance, OpenAI, the same company that built ChatGPT, is working on a text classifier that can tell the difference between AI-written text and human-written text .  

Turnitin, one of the most popular plagiarism detectors used by high schools and universities, also recently developed the AI Innovation Lab —a detection software designed to flag submissions that have used AI tools like ChatGPT. Turnitin says that this tool works with 98% confidence in detecting AI writing. 

Plagiarism and AI companies aren’t the only ones interested in AI-detection software. A 22-year old computer science student at Princeton created an app to detect ChatGPT writing, called Zero GPT. This software works by measuring the complexity of ideas and variety of sentence structures.  

Human Readers Can Detect ChatGPT 

It’s also worth keeping in mind that teachers can spot the use of ChatGPT themselves , even if it isn’t confirmed by a software detector. For example, if you’ve turned in one or two essays to your teacher already, they’re probably familiar with your unique writing style. If you submit a college essay draft essay that uses totally different vocabulary, sentence structures, and figures of speech, your teacher will likely take note.

Additionally , admissions committees and readers may be able to spot ChatGPT writing, too. ChatGPT (and AI writing, in general) uses more simplistic sentence structures with less variation, so that could make it easier to tell if you’ve submitted a ChatGPT college essay. These professionals also read thousands of essays every year, which means they know what a typical essay reads like. You want your college essay to catch their attention…but not because you used AI software! 

If you use ChatGPT responsibly, you can be as happy as these kids.

Pros and Cons of ChatGPT: College Admissions Edition

ChatGPT is a brand new technology, which means we’re still learning about the ways it can benefit us. It’s important to think about the pros and the cons to any new tool …and that includes artificial intelligence!

Let’s look at some of the good—and not-so-good—aspects of ChatGPT below. 

ChatGPT: The Good

It may seem like we’re focused on just the negatives of using ChatGPT in this article, but we’re willing to admit that the chatbot isn’t all bad. In fact, it can be a very useful tool for learning if used responsibly !

Like we already mentioned, students shouldn’t use ChatGPT to write entire essays or assignments. They can use it, though, as a learning tool alongside their own critical thinking and writing skills.

Students can use ChatGPT responsibly to:

• Learn more about a topic . It’s a great place to get started for general knowledge and ideas about most subjects.
• Find reputable and relevant sources on a topic. Students can ask ChatGPT for names and information about leading scholars, relevant websites and databases, and more. 
• Brainstorm ideas for assignments. Students can share the ideas they already have with ChatGPT, and in return, the chatbot can suggest ideas for further exploration and even organization of their points.
• Check work (that they’ve written themselves!) for errors or cla rity. This is similar to how spell- and grammar-checking software is used. ChatGPT may be even better than some competitors for this, because students can actually ask ChatGPT to explain the errors and their solutions—not just to fix them. 

Before you use ChatGPT—even for the tasks mentioned above—you should talk to your teacher or school about their AI and academic dishonesty policies. It’s also a good idea to include an acknowledgement that you used ChatGPT with an explanation of its use. 

This guy made some bad decisions using ChatGPT. Don't be this guy.

ChatGPT: The Bad

The first model of ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) was formally introduced to the public in November 2022, and the newer model (GPT-4) in March 2023. So, it’s still very new and there’s a lot of room for improvement .  

There are many misconceptions about ChatGPT. One of the most extreme is that the AI is all-knowing and can make its own decisions. Another is that ChatGPT is a search engine that, when asked a question, can just surf the web for timely, relevant resources and give you all of that information. Both of these beliefs are incorrect because ChatGPT is limited to the information it’s been given by OpenAI . 

Remember how the ‘PT’ in ChatGPT stands for “Pre-trained”? That means that every time OpenAI gives ChatGPT an update, it’s given more information to work with (and so it has more information to share with you). In other words, it’s “trained” on information so it can give you the most accurate and relevant responses possible—but that information can be limited and biased . Ultimately, humans at OpenAI decide what pieces of information to share with ChatGPT, so it’s only as accurate and reliable as the sources it has access to.

For example, if you were to ask ChatGPT-3.5 what notable headlines made the news last week, it would respond that it doesn’t have access to that information because its most recent update was in September 2021!

You’re probably already familiar with how easy it can be to come across misinformation, misleading and untrue information on the internet. Since ChatGPT can’t tell the difference between what is true and what isn’t, it’s up to the humans at OpenAI to make sure only accurate and true information is given to the chatbot . This leaves room for human error , and users of ChatGPT have to keep that in mind when using and learning from the chatbot.

These are just the most obvious problems with ChatGPT. Some other problems with the chatbot include:

• A lack of common sense. ChatGPT can create seemingly sensical responses to many questions and topics, but it doesn’t have common sense or complete background knowledge.
• A lack of empathy. ChatGPT doesn’t have emotions, so it can’t understand them, either. 
• An inability to make decisions or problem solve . While the chatbot can complete basic tasks like answering questions or giving recommendations, it can’t solve complex tasks. 

While there are some great uses for ChatGPT, it’s certainly not without its flaws.

Our bootcamp can help you put together amazing college essays that help you get into your dream schools—no AI necessary.

What Other Tools and Strategies Can Help Students Besides ChatGPT?

While it’s not a good idea to use ChatGPT for college admissions materials, it’s not the only tool available to help students with college essays and assignments. 

One of the best strategies students can use to write good essays is to make sure they give themselves plenty of time for the assignment. The writing process includes much more than just drafting! Having time to brainstorm ideas, write out a draft, revise it for clarity and completeness, and polish it makes for a much stronger essay. 

Teachers are another great resource students can use, especially for college application essays. Asking a teacher (or two!) for feedback can really help students improve the focus, clarity, and correctness of an essay. It’s also a more interactive way to learn—being able to sit down with a teacher to talk about their feedback can be much more engaging than using other tools. 

Using expert resources during the essay writing process can make a big difference, too. Our article outlines a complete list of strategies for students writing college admission essays. It breaks down what the Common Application essay is, gives tips for choosing the best essay topic, offers strategies for staying focused and being specific, and more.  

You can also get help from people who know the college admissions process best, like former admissions counselors. PrepScholar’s Admissions Bootcamp guides you through the entire application process , and you’ll get insider tips and tricks from real-life admissions counselors that’ll make your applications stand out. Even better, our bootcamp includes step-by-step essay writing guidance , so you can get the help you need to make sure your essay is perfect.  

If you’re hoping for more technological help, Grammarly is another AI tool that can check writing for correctness. It can correct things like misused and misspelled words and grammar mistakes, and it can improve your tone and style. 

It’s also widely available across multiple platforms through a Windows desktop app, an Android and iOS app, and a Google Chrome extension. And since Grammarly just checks your writing without doing any of the work for you, it’s totally safe to use on your college essays. 

The Bottom Line: ChatGPT College Admissions and Essays

ChatGPT will continue to be a popular discussion topic as it continues evolving. You can expect your chosen schools to address ChatGPT and other AI tools in their academic honesty and plagiarism policies in the near future—and maybe even to restrict or ban the use of the chatbot for school admissions and assignments.

As AI continues transforming, so will AI-detection. The goal is to make sure that AI is used responsibly by students so that they’re avoiding plagiarism and building their research, writing, and critical thinking skills. There are some great uses for ChatGPT when used responsibly, but you should always check with your teachers and schools beforehand.

ChatGPT’s “bad” aspects still need improving, and that’s going to take some time.Be aware that the chatbot isn’t even close to perfect, and it needs to be fact-checked just like other sources of information.

Similarly to other school assignments, don’t submit a ChatGPT college essay for college applications, either. College entrance essays should outline unique and interesting personal experiences and ideas, and those can only come from you.  

Just because ChatGPT isn’t a good idea doesn’t mean there aren’t resources to help you put together a great college essay. There are many other tools and strategies you can use instead of ChatGPT , many of which have been around for longer and offer better feedback. 

What’s Next?

Ready to write your college essays the old-fashioned way? Start here with our comprehensive guide to the admissions essays. 

Most students have to submit essays as part of their Common Application . Here's a complete breakdown of the Common App prompts —and how to answer them. 

The most common type of essay answers the "why this college?" prompt. We've got an expert breakdown that shows you how to write a killer response , step by step. 

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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How to Use ChatGPT to Write Essays That Impress

Step 1: Use ChatGPT to Find and Refine Essay Topics

• Log into the service and type the following prompt into ChatGPT:

• As you can see, ChatGPT gave several good ideas for our essay. If you want to refine the idea further, you can ask the chatbot to cut out some parts of the idea and replace them. Or, you can ask for more context in certain parts. Example – “Expand more on topic number 5 and what it means.”

Step 2: Ask ChatGPT to Construct an Outline

• With the same chat open, type out “ Give me an essay outline for <selected topic>. Make sure to keep it structured as I’ll use it to write my essay .” In this case, I will use topic number 2 since it aligns with what I had in mind.

• As you can see above, we now have a structured outline for our essay. We can use this to write our essay or have ChatGPT do that job. Nonetheless, it’s a good starting point. As always, you can have the AI chatbot cut out parts of the outline or specifically add new ones depending on your requirement.

Step 3: Get ChatGPT to Cite Sources for Your Essay

Even though we have the idea and the outline, we will need to do our research for proof supporting our essay. Thankfully, ChatGPT can be of some help here. Since the chatbot is adept at moderate research, users can get a general idea of where to look for gathering information. Let’s begin doing that.

• Let’s begin asking ChatGPT for sources. With the same chat open, type in the following prompt:

• Now we have a list of 10 sources we can reference from. However, you can also see that ChatGPT mentions the year 2021 in some of them. Therefore, it’s best to use these websites but navigate to the latest pages pertaining to your essay for research. This applies to every topic, so always do it. Also, chatbots like ChatGPT have a habit of hallucinating and making up information, so do be careful.

Step 4: Have ChatGPT Write the Essay

• In the same chat, type the following prompt – “With the topic and outline available to you, generate a 700-word essay. Make sure to keep it structured and concise yet informational. Also, keep in mind my target audience is <Insert target audience> so cater to that accordingly.”
• In the middle of the essay, ChatGPT might stop and not answer. Simply type “ Continue ,” and it will finish the rest of the essay.

Step 5: Edit the Essay with ChatGPT

No matter if you have used ChatGPT to draft a complete essay or have written one yourself, you can use this step to make ChatGPT your co-editor and grammar checker. While your essay might need an initial look from a human, you can definitely use the bot to hash out the tone and add little details.

• Either open up the same chat or have your essay already in the clipboard. With that done, type out the following prompt:

Step 6: Export the Essay for Submission

However, for those who want to export the essay into a more aesthetic format, we have just the thing for you. There is no shortage of best ChatGPT Chrome extensions on the internet right now. We have one such selection linked in our list that can export selective chats onto beautiful image formats if you want to show off your essay. Check it out and let us know how you liked it.

Bonus: ChatGPT and AI Apps to Write Essays

1. writesonic.

Ryter is another helpful AI writing assistant that not only helps with essays but all types of articles. The service is powered by a language model that gives it intelligence. Rytr comes with 40+ different use cases and 20+ writing tones for all types of written material. For those who don’t want to stick to English, it even comes with support for 30+ languages.

Upanishad Sharma

Combining his love for Literature and Tech, Upanishad dived into the world of technology journalism with fire. Now he writes about anything and everything while keeping a keen eye on his first love of gaming. Often found chronically walking around the office.

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More From Forbes

Here’s how forbes got the chatgpt ai to write 2 college essays in 20 minutes.

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Not only does ChatGPT write clear, compelling essays, but it can also conjure up its own personal ... [+] details and embellishments that could up a students’ chance of acceptance and would be difficult to verify.

Forbes’ full conversation with ChatGPT, OpenAI’s newest natural language model, is pasted below. Each of the college admissions essays took less than 10 minutes to complete. Read our story about ChatGPT’s capacity to write college applications here .

Prompt #1, The Common App:

Forbes: Hi GPT, I’d like you to write a college application essay as if you were an 18-year-old high school senior whose parents are from Bangalore, India but who now own a restaurant in Newton, Mass. He is a competitive swimmer, and in 10th grade he broke his shoulder. He is interested in majoring in business. Please make the essay a maximum of 650 words, and write it in response to this prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

ChatGPT: As a competitive swimmer and the son of Indian immigrants who own a restaurant in Newton, Massachusetts, my background and interests make me a unique and valuable addition to any college campus. Growing up in a culturally diverse and economically vibrant community has given me a unique perspective on life and a desire to explore and understand different cultures and industries.

My love for swimming began at a young age, and it has always been a central part of my life. I began competing in local swim meets when I was just nine years old, and by the time I reached high school, I was a member of the varsity swim team. In my sophomore year, I suffered a major setback when I broke my shoulder in a swimming accident. Despite this injury, I was determined to return to the pool and continue competing.

After months of grueling physical therapy and hard work, I was finally able to return to the water. I was not as fast as I used to be, but I was still a valuable member of the team and I continued to improve throughout the season. By the end of my junior year, I was back to my top form and I was able to compete at the state championship meet. My hard work and determination paid off, and I helped lead my team to a second-place finish.

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In addition to my passion for swimming, I have also been deeply influenced by my parents and their experiences as immigrants and small business owners. Growing up, I spent many hours in the restaurant, watching my parents work hard to build a successful business from the ground up. I have seen firsthand the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, and I have developed a strong interest in pursuing a career in business.

As a business major, I hope to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to start my own business one day, or to help other small businesses succeed. I am excited to explore the diverse opportunities and challenges that a business degree will present, and I am confident that I will be able to make a valuable contribution to the college community.

In conclusion, my background as a competitive swimmer, the son of Indian immigrants, and a member of a thriving business community has given me a unique perspective and a strong set of skills and interests. I believe that I would be a valuable addition to any college campus, and I am excited to explore the opportunities and challenges that a college education will provide.

Forbes: Thanks GPT, this is a great start. Please keep what you have, but add more information about our student's background and work in the restaurant.

ChatGPT: Sure, I can add more information about our student's background and work in the restaurant.

Growing up in a household where my parents owned and operated a successful restaurant gave me a unique insight into the world of business. I often spent my afternoons and weekends working in the restaurant, performing a variety of tasks and gaining valuable experience in the hospitality industry. From a young age, I learned the importance of hard work, dedication, and customer service, and I have come to appreciate the challenges and rewards of owning and operating a small business.

As I grew older, my responsibilities in the restaurant increased, and I took on more managerial roles. I helped my parents with inventory management, staff scheduling, and customer relations. I also assisted with marketing and advertising efforts, and I helped develop new menu items and promotions. This hands-on experience has given me a strong understanding of the ins and outs of running a business, and it has helped shape my interest in pursuing a career in business.

In addition to my work in the restaurant, my Indian heritage has also had a significant impact on my life. My parents instilled in me a deep appreciation for Indian culture, and I have always been proud of my heritage. I have also been exposed to the challenges and opportunities that come with being a first-generation immigrant in the United States. I have seen firsthand the difficulties that my parents faced as they worked to build a new life in a foreign country, and I have also seen the incredible rewards that come from hard work and determination.

My Indian heritage and my experience in the restaurant industry have given me a unique perspective on life and a strong set of skills and interests. I am excited to bring this perspective to a college campus, and I am confident that I will be able to make a valuable contribution to the college community. Thank you for considering me for admission.

Forbes: Thanks GPT. Please combine your first and second drafts.

My love for swimming began at a young age, and it has always been a central part of my life. I began competing in local swim meets when I was just nine years old, and by the time I reached high school, I was a member of the varsity swim team. In my sophomore year, I suffered a major setback when I broke my shoulder in a swimming accident. Despite this injury, I was determined to return to the pool and continue competing. After months of grueling physical therapy and hard work, I was finally able to return to the water. I was not as fast as I used to be, but I was still a valuable member of the team and I continued to improve throughout the season. By the end of my junior year, I was back to my top form and I was able to compete at the state championship meet. My hard work and determination paid off, and I helped lead my team to a second-place finish.

Growing up in a household where my parents owned and operated a successful restaurant gave me a unique insight into the world of business. I often spent my afternoons and weekends working in the restaurant, performing a variety of tasks and gaining valuable experience in the hospitality industry. From a young age, I learned the importance of hard work, dedication, and customer service, and I have come to appreciate the challenges and rewards of owning and operating a small business. As I grew older, my responsibilities in the restaurant increased, and I took on more managerial roles. I helped my parents with inventory management, staff scheduling, and customer relations. I also assisted with marketing and advertising efforts, and I helped develop new menu items and promotions. This hands-on experience has given me a strong understanding of the ins and outs of running a business, and it has helped shape my interest in pursuing a career in business.

Prompt #2: University of Wisconsin-Madison supplemental essay

Forbes: Thanks GPT. I have another one for you. This time, please write a college application essay to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in response to this prompt: "Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided please describe your areas of possible academic interest. (80-650 words)" Write as if your intended major is Business Administration and Marketing, you love Badgers football, and you work part-time at your family's restaurant.

ChatGPT: I decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison because it is a top-ranked university with a strong reputation for its business and marketing programs. As an aspiring business major, I am excited about the opportunity to study at such a prestigious institution and learn from some of the best minds in the field.

I am also excited about the potential to explore the many different facets of business and marketing through a variety of courses and extracurricular activities. I have always been interested in the world of business, and I am eager to gain a deeper understanding of the theories and practices that drive the field.

In addition to my interest in business, I am also drawn to Wisconsin-Madison because of its vibrant campus community. I am a big fan of Badgers football, and I can't wait to experience the energy and excitement of game days at Camp Randall Stadium. I am also looking forward to exploring the many other opportunities that Wisconsin-Madison has to offer, such as clubs and organizations, student events, and recreational activities.

I am also drawn to Wisconsin-Madison because of its strong sense of community. As a student who works part-time at my family's restaurant, I know the value of hard work and collaboration. I am excited to be part of a community of students and faculty who share my passion for learning and success.

Overall, I am confident that the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the perfect fit for me. I am excited about the opportunity to study business and marketing at a world-class institution, explore the many extracurricular opportunities on campus, and be part of a vibrant and supportive community. I am eager to begin this new chapter of my academic journey and contribute to the success of Wisconsin-Madison.

Forbes: Great, thank you. Please include more detail about why our student wants to study business, perhaps by including a story about a challenge they faced or skill they learned at their restaurant job.

My interest in business was sparked at a young age, when I began working at my family's restaurant. I started out as a dishwasher, but over time, I was given more responsibilities and opportunities to learn. I quickly became fascinated by the many different aspects of running a successful business, from managing finances and inventory to marketing and customer service.

One of the biggest challenges I faced at the restaurant was helping to increase sales during slow periods. I was given the task of coming up with a marketing strategy to attract more customers, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to put my ideas into action. I researched the competition and identified our unique selling points, and I developed a marketing plan that included promotions, discounts, and special events.

The marketing plan was a success, and we saw a significant increase in sales during the slow periods. I was thrilled to have made a real contribution to the success of the business, and I was grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow.

I am excited to continue exploring the world of business and marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am eager to learn from experienced professionals and gain a deeper understanding of the theories and practices that drive the field. I am confident that this knowledge and experience will prepare me for a successful career in business and help me to make a positive impact in the world.

Forbes: Great! But let’s add back in the parts about our student’s love for Badger football. Please also make the essay longer, about 500 words.

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Write an Essay From Scratch With Chat GPT: Step-by-Step Tutorial

Santiago mallea.

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Chief of Content At Gradehacker

Chat GPT Essay Writer: Step-by-Step Tutorial

To write an essay with Chat GPT, you need to:

• Understand your prompt
• Choose a topic
• Write the entire prompt in Chat GPT
• Break down the arguments you got
• Write one prompt at a time
• Check the sources
• Create your first draft
• Edit your draft

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If you are looking for a more personalized approach, get in touch with our team and get a top-quality essay!

Want an Actual Human Help You?

How amazing would it be if there was a robot willing to help you write a college essay from scratch?

A few years ago, that may have sounded like something so futuristic that could only be seen in movies. But actually, we are closer than you might think so.

Artificial Intelligence tools are everywhere , and college students have noticed it. Among all, there is one revolutionary AI that learns over time and writes all types of content, from typical conversations to academic texts.

But can Chat GPT write essays from scratch?

We tried it, and the answer is kind so (for now at least.)

Here at Gradehacker, we have years of being the non-traditional adult students’ #1 resource.

We have lots of experience helping people like you write their essays on time or get their college degree sooner , and we know how important it is to be updated with the latest tools.

AIs and Chat GPT are going to stay for a while , so you better learn how to use them properly. If you ever wondered whether it was possible to write an essay from scratch with Chat GPT, you are about to find out!

Now, in case you aren’t familiarized with Chat GPT or don’t know the basics of how it works, we recommend watching our video first!

How we Used Chat GPT to Write Essays

So, to try our experiment with Chat GPT, we created two different college assignments that any student could find:

• An argumentative essay about America's healthcare system
• A book review of George Orwell's 1984

Our main goal is to test Chat GPT’s essay-writing skills and see how much students can use it to write their academic assignments.

Now, we are pretty aware that this (or any) artificial intelligence can carry a wide range of problems such as:

• Giving you incorrect premises and information
• Delivering a piece of writing that is plagiarised from somewhere else
• Does not include citations or list the sources it used
• Is not always available to use

That’s why after receiving our first rough draft, we’ll edit the parts of the text that are necessary and run what we get through our plagiarism checker. After our revision, we’ll ask the AI to expand on the information or make the changes we need.

We’ll consider that final version after our revision as the best possible work that Chat GPT could have done to write an essay from scratch.

And to cover the lack of citations, we’ll see what academic sources the chatbot considers worthy for us to use when writing our paper.

Now, we don’t think that AIs are ready to deliver fully edited and well-written academic writing assignments that you can simply submit to your professor without reading them first.

But is it possible to speed up the writing process and save time by asking Chat GPT to write essays?

Let’s see!

Can Chat GPT Write an Argumentative Paper?

First, we’ll see how it can handle one of the most common academic essays: an argumentative paper.

We chose the American healthcare system as our topic, but as we know that we to find a specific subject with a wide range of sources to write a strong and persuasive essay, we are focusing on structural racism in our healthcare system and how African Americans accessed it during covid.

It’s a clear and specific topic that we included in our list of best topics for your research paper. If you want similar alternatives for college papers, be sure to watch our video !

Instructions and Essay Prompt

Take a position on an issue and compose a 5-page paper that supports it.

In the introduction, establish why your topic is important and present a specific, argumentative thesis statement that previews your argument.

The body of your essay should be logical, coherent, and purposeful. It should synthesize your research and your own informed opinions in order to support your thesis.

Address other positions on the topic along with arguments and evidence that support those positions. 

Write a conclusion that restates your thesis and reminds your reader of your main points.

First Results

After giving Chat GPT this prompt, this is what we received:

To begin with, after copying and pasting these paragraphs into a word document, it only covered two and a half pages.

While the introduction directly tackles the main topic, it fails to provide a clear thesis statement. And even if it’s included in a separate section, the thesis is broad and lacks factual evidence or statistics to support it.

Throughout the body of the text, the AI lists many real-life issues that contribute to the topic of the paper. Still, these are never fully explained nor supported with evidence.

For example, in the first paragraph, it says that “African Americans have long experienced poorer health outcomes compared to other racial groups.” Here it would be interesting to add statistics that prove this information is correct.

Something that really stood up for us, was that Chat GPT credited a source to back up important data, even though it didn’t cite it properly. It talks about a study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation that supports that in 2019, 11% of African Americans and 6% of non-Hispanic Whites were uninsured. 

We checked the original article and found that the information was almost 100% accurate . The correct rates were 8% for White Americans and 10.9% for African Americans, but the biggest issue was that the study included more updated statistics from 2021.

Then, when addressing other issues like transportation and discrimination, the problem is presented without any problems, but once again, there are no sources that support them .

Once the essay starts developing the thesis statement on how these issues could be fixed, we can see the same problem.

But even if they lack supporting evidence , the arguments listed are cohesive and make sense . These were:

• Expanding Medicaid coverage
• Provide incentives for healthcare providers to practice in underserved areas
• Invest in telehealth services
• Improve transportation infrastructure, particularly in rural areas
• Train healthcare providers on cultural competence and anti-racism
• Increase diversity in the healthcare workforce
• Implement patient-centered care models

These are all strong ideas that could be stronger and more persuasive with specific information and statistics.

Still, the main problem is that there is no counter-argument that is against the essay’s main arguments.

Overall, Chat GPT delivered a cohesive first draft that tackled the topic by explaining its multiple issues and listing possible solutions. However, there is a clear lack of evidence, no counter-arguments were included, and the essay we got was half the length we needed.

Changes and Final Results

In our second attempt, we asked the AI to expand on each section and subtopic of the essay . While the final result ended up repeating some parts on multiple occasions, Chat GPT wrote more extensively and even included in-text citations with their corresponding reference.

By pasting all these new texts (without editing) into a new document, we get more than seven pages, which is a great starting point for writing a better essay.

Explanation of the issues and use of sources

The new introduction stayed pretty much the same, but the difference is that now the thesis statement is stronger and even had a cited statistic to back it up . Unfortunately, while the information is correct, the source isn’t.

Clicking on the link included in the references took us to a non-existing page , and after looking for that data on Google, we found that it actually belonged to a study from the National Library of Medicine.

But then, the AI did a solid job expanding on the issues that were related to the paper’s topic. But again, while some sources were useful, sometimes the information reflected in the text didn’t correspond to it.

For example, when citing an article posted in KFF to evidence the importance of transportation as a critical factor in health disparities, when we go to the site, we don’t find any mention of that issue.

Similarly, when addressing the higher rates of infection and death compared to White Americans, the AI once again cited the wrong source. The statistics came from a study conducted by the CDC , but from a different article than the one that is credited.

And sometimes, the information displayed was incorrect.

In that same section, when listing the percentages of death in specific states, we see in the cited source that the statistics don’t match.

However, what’s interesting is that if we search for that data on Google, we find a different study that backs it up. So, even if Chat GPT didn’t include inaccurate information in the text, it failed to properly acknowledge the real source.

And so did this problem of having correct information but citing the wrong source continued throughout the paper.

Solutions and counter-arguments

When we asked the AI to write more about the solutions it mentioned in the first draft, we received more extensive arguments with supporting evidence for each case.

As we were expecting , the statistics were real, but the source credited wasn’t the original and didn’t mention anything related to what was included in the text. 

And it wasn’t any different with the counterarguments. They made sense and had a strong point, but the sources credited weren’t correct. 

For instance, regarding telehealth services, it recognized the multiple barriers it would take for low-income areas to adopt this modality. It credited an article posted in the KKF mainly written by “Gillespie,” but after searching for the information, we see that the original study was conducted by other people.

Still, the fact that Chat GPT now provided us with multiple data and information we could use to develop counter-arguments and later refute them is excellent progress. 

The good news is that none of the multiple paragraphs that Chat GPT delivered had plagiarism issues.

After running them through our plagiarism checker, it only found a few parts that had duplicated content, but these were sentences composed of commonly used phrases that other articles about different topics also had.

For example, multiple times it recognized as plagiarism phrases like “according to the CDC” or “according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.” And even these “ plagiarism issues ” could be easily solved by rearranging the order or adding new words.

Checking for plagiarism is a critical part of the essay writing process. If you are not using one yet, be sure to pick one as soon as possible. We recommend checking our list of best plagiarism checkers.

Key Takeaways

So, what did we learn by asking Chat GPT to write an argumentative paper?

• It's better if the AI writes section per section
• It can give you accurate information related to issues, solutions, and counterarguments
• There is a high chance the source credited won't be the right one
• The texts, which can have duplicated content among themselves, don't appear to be plagiarized

It’s clear that we still need to do a lot of editing and writing.

However, considering that Chat GPT wrote this in less than an hour , the AI proved to be a solid tool. It gave us many strong arguments, interesting and accurate statistics, and an order that we cal follow to structure our argumentative paper.

If writing these types of assignments isn’t your strength, be sure to watch our tutorial on how to write an exceptional argumentative essay!

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Can Chat GPT Write a Book Review?

For our second experiment, we want to see if Chat GPT can write an essay for a literature class.

To do so, we picked one of the novels we consider one of the 5 must-read books any college student should read: 1984 by George Orwell. There is so much written and discussed about this literary classic that we thought it would be a perfect choice for an artificial intelligence chatbot like Chat GPT to write something about.

Write a book review of the book 1984 by George Orwell. The paper needs to include an introduction with the author’s title, publication information (Publisher, year, number of pages), genre, and a brief introduction to the review.

Then, write a summary of the plot with the basic parts of the plot: situation, conflict, development, climax, and resolution.

Continue by describing the setting and the point of view and discussing the book’s literary devices.

Lastly, analyze the book, and explain the particular style of writing or literary elements used.

And then write a conclusion.

This is the first draft we got:

Starting with the introduction, all the information is correct , while including the number of pages is worthless as it depends on the edition of the book.

The summary is also accurate, but it relies too heavily on the plot instead of the context and world described in the novel , which is arguably the reason 1984 transcended time. For example, there is no mention of Big Brother, the leader of the totalitarian superstate.

Now, the setting and point of view section is the poorest section written by Chat GPT . It is very short and lacks development.

The literary devices are not necessarily wrong, but it would be better to focus more on each . For instance, talk more about the importance of symbolism or explain how the book critiques propaganda, totalitarianism, and individual freedom.

The analysis of Orwell’s writing is simple , but the conclusion is clear and straightforward, so it might be the best piece that the AI wrote.

For the second draft, instead of submitting the entire prompt, we wrote one command per section . As a result, Chat GPT focused on each part of the review and tossed more paragraphs with more detailed information in every case.

It’s clear that this way, the AI can write better and more developed texts that are easier to edit and improve . Each section analyzes more in-depth the topic it’s reviewing, which facilitates the upcoming process of structuring the most useful paragraphs into a cohesive essay.

For example, it now added more literary devices used by Orwell and gave specific examples of the symbolism of the novel.

Of course, there are many sentences and ideas that are repeated throughout the different sections. But now, because each has more specific information, we can take these parts and structure a new paragraph that comprises the most valuable sentences.

Now, even if sometimes book reviews don’t need to include citations from external sources apart from the novel we are analyzing, Chat GPT gave us five different options for us to choose from.

The only problem was that we couldn’t find any of them on Google.

The names of the authors were real people, but the titles of the articles and essays were nowhere to be found. This made us think that it’s likely that the AI picked real-life writers and created a title for a fictional essay about 1984 or George Orwell .

Finally, we need to see if the texts are original or plagiarized material.

After running it through our plagiarism detection software, we found that it was mostly original content with only a few issues on sight . But nothing too big to worry about.

One easy-to-solve example is in the literary devices section, where it directly quotes a sentence from the book. In this case, we would just need to add the in-text citation.

The biggest plagiarism problem was with one sentence (or six words, to be more specific) from the conclusion that linked to the introduction from a summary review . But by rearranging the word order or adding synonyms, this issue can be easily solved too.

So, what are the most important tips we can take from Chat GPT writing a book review?

• It will review each section more in-depth if you ask it one prompt at a time
• The analysis and summary of the book were accurate
• If you ask it to list scholarly sources, the AI will create unexisting sources based on real authors
• Very few plagiarism issues

Once again, there is still a lot of work to do.

The writing sample chat GPT gave us is a solid start, but we need to rearrange all the paragraphs into one cohesive essay that perfectly summarizes the different aspects of the novel. Plus, we would also have to find scholarly sources on our own.

Still, the AI can do the heavy lifting and give you a great starting point.

If writing book reviews isn’t your strong suit, you have our tutorial and tips!

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Save Time And Use Chat GPT to Write Your Essay

We know that writing essays can be a tedious task.

Sometimes, kicking off the process can be harder than what it looks. That’s why understanding how to use a powerful tool like Chat GPT can truly make the difference.

It may not have the critical thinking skills you have or write a high-quality essay from scratch, but by using our tips, it can deliver you a solid first draft to start writing your entire essay.

But if you want to have an expert team of writers giving you personalized support or aren’t sure about editing an AI-written essay, you can trust Gradehacker to help you with your assignments.

You can also check out our related blog posts if you want to learn how to take your writing skills to the next level!

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Santiago Mallea is a curious and creative journalist who first helped many college students as a Gradehacker consultant in subjects like literature, communications, ethics, and business. Now, as a Content Creator in our blog, YouTube channel, and TikTok, he assists non-traditional students improve their college experience by sharing the best tips. You can find him on LinkedIn .

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ChatGPT is now writing college essays, and higher ed has a big problem

Is higher learning doomed?

Higher education, we have a big, ChatGPT problem. There are thousands of universities around the world, with their combined student populations numbering in the hundreds of millions – and at least a small percentage of them are now cheating with the help of ChatGPT . 

Even since I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in, ahem , 1986, I've thought about returning to school to do a Master's or some other more prestigious degree. It was the prospect of the workload, though, that held me back; the countless hours of research and studying to produce even one paper. I know, it's weird to hear a writer say that, but there's a difference between reporting an impactful story and writing a college essay that, if you're lucky, your professor will read and, if you're even luckier, will give you better than a passing grade for.

That calculation, though, is now different thanks to the generative AI ChatGPT. Just this week, the BBC reported that a university student in the UK used the large language model (LLM) system to write one of his college essays and, after some editing, he received a better grade for it than he did for one he wrote himself.

The shame-free student even admitted that he plans on using ChatGPT for future college essays (unsurprisingly he didn't give his real name). Oddly, the university seems unconcerned, and appears convinced that the school body's skyrocketing visits to ChatGPT are mostly "from our research network."

Okay, you keep telling yourself that.

It's not that I think the majority of college students are cheaters. On the other hand, the stresses of juggling school, work, family, and other obligations can leave students feeling overwhelmed and looking for a leg up.

And students wouldn't be the only ones. People around the world are currently employing ChatGPT, Google Bard , and Bing AI to help them start and complete all kinds of projects. Sometimes it's just for inspiration; other times it's for huge swaths of usable text. So what if you can't 100% rely on them to get the facts straight or that, on occasion, they present falsehoods as fact?

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It is not a cause for alarm; it is a call to action for universities... Hofstra Univ. Provost Charlie Riordan

Most of us who've tried to use ChatGPT and other generative AIs for real work have found them sorely lacking. They can't code or create an OS , and they often lose their train of thought. I've already failed at using them for game programming and movie script writing .

On the other hand, ChatGPT gets better all the time – and what student wouldn't want to invest $20 a month in GPT-4-powered ChatGPT+, a drop in the bucket compared to the $25,000 or more a year they're already paying for a college education.

To sir, with AI love

I am not going back to college, but as an experiment I found a pair of Earth Sciences college courses at Princeton University, and asked ChatGPT to write essays that I could ostensibly hand in as coursework. I then emailed the results for each to the professors teaching those courses.

This was my first prompt:

"I need a 1,000 word essay for Princeton University's Environmental Fluid Mechanics about 'Determinants of Acute and Chronic Heat Stress in Urban Streams'"

ChatGPT never hesitates, and started fast typing (it has to be well over 90 words per minute) almos t the entire essay. The system's character count limit cut it off a couple of paragraphs from the end. No biggie, I simply asked ChatGPT to deliver the rest. Overall, the final essay read well, but I realized that something was missing. I asked ChatGPT to add a bibliography, since there's no way a college professor would accept an essay that doesn't cite sources.

Once again, ChatGPT didn't hesitate, and quickly listed 10 sources.

ChatGPT also created a smart 500-word essay on 'Global Physical Climatology,' and this time I made sure to ask for the bibliography up front. I did ask ChatGPT to make it "entertaining." I'm not sure the resulting essay was any more entertaining than it would have been otherwise. It was, though, clear and compelling.

Lessons unlearned

Even though my college years are decades behind me, I still have a relationship with my alma mater, Hofstra University, serving as part of the School of Communications advisory board. I try, where possible, to help journalism students achieve their dreams.

Now, I wonder how many of them are doing so with the help of ChatGPT. As well as the aforementioned Earth Sciences essays, I also gave this prompt to ChatGPT, for an essay I could share with the lecturers at Hofstra: "I need a 500-word essay on the power and principles of social media story telling in investigative journalism for a Masters Degree in Journalism Social Media Storytelling class. Please me it original and interesting. Also include a bibliography." Again, ChatGPT obliged, and I sent the resulting essay to the Dean of Journalism. As I write this, none of the professors at Princeton or Hofstra have commented on my ChatGPT essays. Perhaps it's because they're all on spring break. It might also be that they read the essays, and were too shocked and horrified to respond.

Naturally, colleges and universities will want to get ahead of this problem, although they won't have much success if they take the same attitude as the aforementioned university in the UK, and assume that most students are only looking at ChatGPT for research purposes; it's like believing people who claim they're looking at adult content to learn more about human anatomy.

What educators need right now is a system akin to the plagiarism tools they use today to help them spot cribbed content. Those tools may not work here though; when I spot-checked my essays, I had trouble finding any direct quotes from previously written works (as I said, ChatGPT just keeps getting better). So, professors will need a new tool that can recognize the telltale signs of AI-generated essays.

ChatGPT happened so fast and is so easy to use; what university student wouldn't at least try it, even if only once?

What are those signs? I'm not certain. Maybe it'll be the veracity test, since these systems can still sometimes insist on presenting fantasy as fact, and in the most convincing way; that's not something a human student would normally do. They may write poorly, leave facts out, or even misinterpret them, but wholesale and convincing fabrication is not a typical part of real-student tradecraft.

To say I have a sinking feeling about this would be an understatement. ChatGPT happened so fast and is so easy to use; what university student wouldn't at least try it, even if only once?

Sadly, I think most students are like that student in the UK. They don't see ChatGPT as cheating. Instead, they see it as another tool, like a library, encyclopedia, or flash cards. The fact that it's more powerful, and can deliver some or all of your essay, is immaterial. ChatGPT's best work product comes out of a collaboration between AI and its interrogator. The first drafts of these AI-generated college essays aren't handed over to professors. Students take bits and pieces from them, or feed some AI-generated content back to ChatGPT and ask for alterations.

I guess, in a way, these college students are learning something about collaboration, editing, and, I hope, fact-checking. Are these the right lessons? I don't know – but universities and educators better figure it out, and fast.

While not commenting on my ChatGPT-generated investigative journalism essay, Hofstra University Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Charlie Riordan did, in an email to me, encapsulate what may be the current academic zeitgeist surrounding this topic:

“Much is being written every day on this topic with the range of responses running the gamut. It is not a cause for alarm; it is a call to action for universities to better understand the technology and its impact on higher education, student learning, workforce, etc. We have launched a task force to provide a framework for campus-wide conversations.”

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist , Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Ryan, the Today Show , Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC. 

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The human work of teaching A.I. is getting a lot more complex as the technology improves.

Chelsea Becker, with her two children, started gig work training chatbots after she went on leave after her daughter was born. Credit... Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

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By Yiwen Lu

Reporting from San Francisco

• April 10, 2024

After her second child was born, Chelsea Becker took an unpaid, yearlong leave from her full-time job as a flight attendant. After watching a video on TikTok, she found a side hustle: training artificial intelligence models for a website called Data Annotation Tech.

For a few hours every day, Ms. Becker, 33, who lives in Schwenksville, Pa., would sit at her laptop and interact with an A.I.-powered chatbot. For every hour of work, she was paid $20 to $40. From December to March, she made over $10,000.

The boom in A.I. technology has put a more sophisticated spin on a kind of gig work that doesn’t require leaving the house. The growth of large language models like the technology powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT has fueled the need for trainers like Ms. Becker, fluent English speakers who can produce quality writing.

It is not a secret that A.I. models learn from humans. For years, makers of A.I. systems like Google and OpenAI have relied on low-paid workers, typically contractors employed through other companies, to help computers visually identify subjects. (The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, on claims of copyright infringement.) They might label vehicles and pedestrians for self-driving cars or identify images on photos used to train A.I. systems.

But as A.I. technology has become more sophisticated, so has the job of people who must painstakingly teach it. Yesterday’s photo tagger is today’s essay writer.

There are usually two types of work for these trainers: supervised learning, where the A.I. learns from human-generated writing, and reinforcement learning from human feedback , where the chatbot learns from how humans rate their responses.

Companies that specialize in data curation, including the San Francisco-based start-ups Scale AI and Surge AI, hire contractors and sell their training data to bigger developers. Developers of A.I. models, such as the Toronto-based start-up Cohere, also recruit in-house data annotators.

It is difficult to estimate the total number of these gig workers, researchers said. But Scale AI, which hires contractors through its subsidiaries, Remotasks and Outlier, said it was common to see tens of thousands of people working on the platform at a given time.

But as with other types of gig work, the ease of flexible hours comes with its own challenges. Some workers said they never interacted with administrators behind the recruitment sites, and others had been cut off from the work with no explanation. Researchers have also raised concerns over a lack of standards, since workers typically don’t receive training on what are considered to be appropriate chatbot answers.

To become one of these contractors, workers have to pass an assessment, which includes questions like whether a social media post should be considered hateful, and why. Another one requires a more creative approach, asking contracting prospects to write a fictional short story about a green dancing octopus, set in Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX offices on Nov. 8, 2022. (That was the day Binance, an FTX competitor , said it would buy Mr. Bankman-Fried’s company before later quickly backing out of the deal.)

Sometimes, companies look for subject matter experts. Scale AI has posted jobs for contract writers who hold master’s or doctoral degrees in Hindi and Japanese. Outlier has job listings that mention requirements like academic degrees in math, chemistry and physics.

“What really makes the A.I. useful to its users is the human layer of data, and that really needs to be done by smart humans and skilled humans and humans with a particular degree of expertise and a creative bent,” said Willow Primack, vice president of data operations at Scale AI. “We have been focusing on contractors, particularly within North America, as a result.”

Alynzia Fenske, a self-published fiction writer, had never interacted with an A.I. chatbot before hearing a lot from fellow writers who considered A.I. a threat. So when she came across a video on TikTok about Data Annotation Tech, part of her motivation was just to learn as much about A.I. as she could and see for herself whether the fears surrounding A.I. were warranted.

“It’s giving me a whole different view of it now that I’ve been working with it,” said Ms. Fenske, 28, who lives in Oakley, Wis. “It is comforting knowing that there are human beings behind it.” Since February, she has been aiming for 15 hours of data annotation work every week so she can support herself while pursuing a writing career.

Ese Agboh, 28, a master’s student studying computer science at the University of Arkansas, was given the task of coding projects, which paid $40 to $45 an hour. She would ask the chatbot to design a motion sensor program that helps gymgoers count their repetitions, and then evaluate the computer codes written by the A.I. In another case, she would load a data set about grocery items to the program and ask the chatbot to design a monthly budget. Sometimes she would even evaluate other annotators’ codes, which experts said are used to ensure data quality.

She made $2,500. But her account was permanently suspended by the platform for violating its code of conduct. She did not receive an explanation, but she suspected that it was because she worked while in Nigeria, since the site wanted workers based in only certain countries.

That is the fundamental challenge of online gig work: It can disappear at any time. With no one available for help, frustrated contractors turned to social media, sharing their experiences on Reddit and TikTok. Jackie Mitchell, 26, gained a large following on TikTok because of her content on side hustles, including data annotation work.

“I get the appeal,” she said, referring to side hustles as an “unfortunate necessity” in this economy and “a hallmark of my generation and the generation above me.”

Public records show that Surge AI owns Data Annotation Tech. Neither the company nor its chief executive, Edwin Chen, responded to requests for comments.

It is common for companies to hire contractors through subsidiaries. They do so to protect the identity of their customers, and it helps them avoid bad press associated with working conditions for its low-paid contract workers, said James Muldoon, a University of Essex management professor whose research focuses on A.I. data work.

A majority of today’s data workers depend on wages from their gig work. Milagros Miceli, a sociologist and computer scientist researching labor conditions in data work, said that while “a lot of people are doing this for fun, because of the gamification that comes with it,” a bulk of the work is still “done by workers who actually really need the money and do this as a main income.”

Researchers are also concerned about the lack of safety standards in data labeling. Workers are sometimes asked to address sensitive issues like whether certain events or acts should be considered genocide or what gender should appear in an A.I.-generated image of a soccer team, but they are not trained on how to make that evaluation.

“It’s fundamentally not a good idea to outsource or crowdsource concerns about safety and ethics,” Professor Muldoon said. “You need to be guided by principles and values, and what your company actually decides as the right thing to do on a particular issue.”

Yiwen Lu reports on technology for The Times. More about Yiwen Lu

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