The use of artificial intelligence to generate essays and other written works for academic purposes is a phenomenon that has gained attention in recent years.

There are various tools and services that claim to be able to produce original written works based on input provided by the user. Some students may be tempted to use these tools in order to save time or to avoid having to write assignments themselves.

One of those services is ChatGPT, responsible for the production of the paragraph above.

It goes on to warn lazy students about the consequences of plagiarism and the likelihood of their getting caught.

The information the AI provides is correct.

In fact, the rise of ChatGPT and other programs like it have already caused many colleges to take note and seek to prevent this new form of academic dishonesty.

ChatGPT is a Generative Pre-trained Transformer (hence the GPT).

What this means is that it can respond to you.

ChatGPT is capable of answering trivia questions, remembering previous parts of a ‘conversation,’ and, crucially, responding to an essay prompt much in the same way that a human would.

This aspect is what is making ChatGPT so popular among students.

It is worth noting, however, that ChatGPT’s essay writing is not very good, consisting mostly of summary, and at times it is even liable to include completely incorrect information.

Nonetheless, it is far harder to detect a student’s usage of an AI resource than their usage of something that has already been turned in or published somewhere else.

The popularity of ChatGPT and other similar resources is forcing colleges to reevaluate their approach regarding writing assignments.

At this time, the AI seems capable only of writing surface-level analysis. But, the technology will only improve, and schools will be forced to adapt.

ChatGPT comes from OpenAI, a company that claims to be dedicated to researching and developing AI tools for “the benefit of all humanity.”

OpenAI is also responsible for DALL-E 2, an image-generating AI that recently gained popularity for its ability to generate images from descriptions.

AI tools are a relatively new phenomenon and pose a unique problem to writing education.

As their use becomes more prevalent and more fruitful, schools will have to either turn to other ways of assessing students or find some way to regulate the usage of AI resources in an educational manner.