Can You Use AI To Write An Essay For You?

Of course, one of the big questions being asked is whether or not you can use AI to actually write an essay for you. In short, yes. With its current capabilities, an AI-generated essay can be written at an appropriate grade level for just about any student. However, there are ethical questions to consider.

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How does AI write essays? Let’s talk more about how AI essay writing works and get an understanding of what all the hype is about:

• Until now, a lot of AI writing was clunky and robotic, which made it easy to see that it was written by a robot. In fact, some AI writing bots couldn’t produce content much better than a third-grade level.
• AI technology and its ability to (seemingly overnight) write in flowing, human-like language has made it a hot topic across news and social media.
• Big change came about with improved AI algorithms and neural networks designed to search for information, compile it, produce, then check it for quality.

Why shouldn’t I use AI to write an essay? As Dr. Ian Malcolm tells John Hammond in Jurassic Park, “…your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” As a student, you’re faced with ethical dilemmas every day in school when it comes to honesty in your work. Sometimes it’s helpful to refer to the pretend doctor and ask, “Just because I can do something, does that mean I should do it?” If that’s not enough, we have a few other reasons you shouldn’t use AI to write essays:

Plagiarism. One of the biggest reasons is plagiarism. Remember that AI-generated essays are compiled from information across the internet. The AI isn’t capable of creating thoughts, making conclusions, or asking original, thought-provoking questions. It’s all been sourced from different places across the web. An AI essay isn’t anything more than a compilation of information for you to use to write your own essay as you learn the material and create your own opinions about the subject.

Doesn’t encourage critical thinking. It’s normal to complain about writing essays, whether it’s in grade school, middle school, high school or college. It feels like tedious busywork that you’re “never going to use in real life.” But the reason behind writing an essay isn’t necessarily to learn how to format a five-paragraph essay. Writing is about learning how to solve problems and think for yourself. Using an AI bot to write an essay will get you through the process and check the boxes of completing the assignment, but it doesn’t do anything for you as a student. The sooner you understand the reasoning behind writing an essay, the less likely you’ll be to try to skate by using AI.

Inaccuracy. If these two reasons aren’t enough—you should know that the information AI provides isn’t always accurate. All AI bots are limited by the information in their database or what they have access to. For example, ChatGPT can’t give information newer than 2021. What’s more, there are times when it gives factually inaccurate information. It’s best to take the information from an AI bot and use it to do your own research, so you’re learning the material and fact-checking the bot.

How can I use AI to write an essay? If using AI to write an essay isn’t appropriate, then how can you use it? After all, it’s an incredible tool. Rather than having an AI bot do all the work, have it do some of the heavy lifting.

An AI chatbot is a great place to start researching a topic by asking questions about the subject. If you’re writing an essay about privateering and piracy in the 1700s, you start with something as simple as, “Tell me about privateering in the 1700s.” The bot will give you basic information about the topic, and then you can start looking into things you might not be sure about, like the importance of a letter of marque and the prize court. Take notes about the information it gives you, then use more reliable sources to learn more as you fill in the gaps.

While using AI-generated essays can be tempting, taking the easy way out doesn’t help you grow—and it puts you at risk of getting an “F” for plagiarism. However, AI writing tools offer a great way to start your research—so use that to your advantage rather than having the software do the work for you.