Reasons Why ChatGPT Essay Writer Is Not Advisable For Students To Write Essays

Is artificial intelligence changing the world for the better? Will ChatGPT help students? Or corrupt them?

Since its launch, the world has been gaga over ChatGPT and is amazed by its functions. Every student, writer, and even a coder has their eyes on this marvelous technology. Undoubtedly, the world is bowled over by its features; however, to all its positives, does this technology have any downsides? 

Every creation or innovation has two sides to it – positive and negative. While the world knows about ChatGPT’s positives, let us know what the negatives are, especially from an academic point of view. 

This article will discuss some cons that explain why ChatGPT essay writer is not recommended for students.

What Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is the new AI system launched in November 2022 by OpenAI, a San Francisco-based start-up focusing on Artificial Intelligence and its research. It is basically a chatbot that employs Generative Pretrained Transformer 3 (GPT3), a language processing model, to produce content.

Purpose: The primary objective of this chatbot is to provide or develop content or text as an answer for any command or query that the user raises. In simple words, the chatbot gives answers or solutions for the questions asked by users in a very human-like manner. The responses by this bot are very similar to human writing. 

This AI content generator has numerous applications across various fields, and academia is no exception. In fact, due to its incredible proficiency, this application has been a go-to place for students to complete their assignments. However, some downsides of this application can prove disastrous for students.

Disadvantages Of Using OpenAI ChatGPT Writer

One of the most significant disadvantages of using AI-generated text is its mechanical or unnatural tone that lacks “human perspective.” Apart from sounding unnatural, there are several other reasons why students should not use this AI tool for their essays or other assignments:

• Inaccurate content: The tool can sometimes produce factually erroneous content. This doesn’t mean that it always produces incorrect text; instead, there is a probability of generating false content. This can be attributed to its language model, which helps predict the next word in the word sequence without bothering about accuracy.

For instance, a technology analyst used this tool to write a bio about himself, and though it sounded correct, the content had a string of inaccuracies regarding his personal life. Thus, this kind of incorrect information will likely affect students and their scores.

• Outdated data: When using ChatGPT, one must understand that it is not a search engine like Google. Instead, it is an AI bot that answers questions asked by the user. The tool doesn’t scan the web in real time; thus, there’s a possibility that the content that it generates is outdated. Furthermore, the body of knowledge of this tool is restricted, and it entails that information that is prior to 2021.

Therefore, if one is working on something that is related to the current timeline, one may get incorrect information. 

• Controversial answers: Although the tool gives you good answers and the API filters our unsafe content, there’s a high chance that it may include biased information or content that can potentially instigate certain groups of people. This can be a huge problem when students use it for their assignments without thinking much. For instance, if the tool gives biased information on topics on violence, religion, or sex, it can stir controversy for sure. 

• Repeated content: AI tools are prone to repetition since the content it gives it taken from the internet database. Moreover, OpenAI, the parent company, gave a statement that the tool uses some repetitive phrases or words because of biased training and optimization issues. This may result in subpar or shallow essays

• Works as summarizer: As we discussed above, ChatGPT does not have access to real-time data, and whatever answer or content that it generates is a summary or gist that addresses the question. As noted by a scholar, the content has no insight or depth to it. Furthermore, one cannot find subjectiveness or opinions in AI-generated content. 

For instance, if a student is asked to write about their vacation experience, the AI tool may provide a summary of the experience of any writer in the world, which can be a very generalized view without any personal opinions.

Apart from these reasons, one must remember that ChatGPt is not fully trained and is not expressive. 

How Can Educational Institutions Tackle Such AI-Generated Content?

Schools and colleges do not approve of AI-based content as it directly threatens the learning process. Furthermore, the accuracy of such content is also a bone of contention in educational institutions. Thus, numerous organizations are restricting ChatGPT on their networks. 

Furthermore, one can also find other content verification tools that check whether a text is written by humans or AI. Apart from this, an experienced writer or a teacher can also determine whether a text is penned by humans or not. 

This is done by checking whether the content has any personal experience. Also, one can keep an eye on writing style, consistency, repetitive phrases, and filler phrases to ascertain the originality of the content.

Conclusion

Although ChatGPT has become the town’s talk, it has some cons attached to it. While it is an excellent tool, one cannot completely rely on it as it has its own shortcomings. Students, primarily, must refrain from depending on it for content as it may spoil their learning process.