pros and cons of chat gpt essay

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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.

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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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The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) at Harvard University is dedicated to bringing rigorous academics and innovative teaching capabilities to those seeking to improve their lives through education. We make Harvard education accessible to lifelong learners from high school to retirement.

The Pros and Cons of Using ChatGPT for Creative Writing

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Every tool that can make creative writing easier is welcome, but you need to be careful with generative AI.

The best chatbot on the market today is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and it can support writers in many ways. At the same time, there are risks to consider.

Get to know ChatGPT’s pros and cons when it comes to creative writing. You’ll have a better understanding of what prompts to use and what responses to avoid.

Advantages of Using ChatGPT for Creative Writing

The key perks to look forward to involve your ability to plan and develop stories. ChatGPT is just as handy as dedicated AI story generators .

1. Brainstorm Ideas

By talking to ChatGPT, you can learn about the world's hottest topics, what people discuss the most on a particular subject, or what books already use the idea you have in mind.

Start with more general questions to get a feel for what your story should be about. Then, follow the most interesting trains of thought.

You and ChatGPT can come up with the best themes, characters, plot elements, and even endings to delight your readers.

2. Plan Your Book’s Plot

Create an outline before you start writing your story. ChatGPT can guide you on what this plan should contain.

Ask for the key plot points for a fiction, fantasy, or mystery book. You could even specify that you want to know about the hero’s journey narrative structure. ChatGPT will tell you everything it knows.

3. Generate Character Names

There are several great online fictional name generators open to you already, but ChatGPT can be more efficient and fun.

Just type in what you need and let the chatbot do the thinking for you. For the best results, give ChatGPT a precise prompt. For example, mention the character’s gender, occupation, and setting. You could even ask for a specific language to influence their name.

The AI will provide a list of creative options that match the requirements. Not satisfied? Just generate a fresh set of character names.

4. Learn About Elements for Your Story

It’s best to write about things you know, but sometimes you want to enrich the plot with something beyond your expertise.

In this case, research is crucial for creative writers, and ChatGPT can help with it. Just ask the AI questions until you understand everything you need, but always double-check its info.

OpenAI’s guide on ChatGPT confirms that the chatbot can make mistakes or produce harmful and biased content. So, don’t just copy-paste anything it says into your book.

If verifying its claims is something you can live with, ChatGPT is a great way to quickly gather facts about most topics that interest you.

5. Get Help Describing Difficult Scenes

Another advantage of using ChatGPT to do research for your writing is that you can get ideas about how to describe certain things. For example, if you don’t know what seaweed feels like or what the different parts of a castle are, the AI can provide plenty of details.

Once again, make sure you check for accuracy before reiterating this information in your own words and style.

6. Find Comp Titles for Your Book

Knowing what to compare your story to is invaluable when the time comes to promote it. That’s another part of creative writing ChatGPT can make easier. If you already have a book or movie in mind that resembles your plot, ask the AI for other similar works.

If you have no comp titles whatsoever, ChatGPT will find you some. List the main themes of your book in your prompt along with a request for popular titles that share them.

The next best step is to research these titles and pinpoint the right ones to describe your story. For this task, use resources beyond the chatbot, such as websites for finding books to read .

Disadvantages of Using ChatGPT for Creative Writing

OpenAI itself warns that its chatbot has limitations and shouldn’t be depended on completely. As a creative writer, this is important in order to avoid legal and stylistic problems with your book.

1. Plagiarism Is Possible

ChatGPT is a large language model. It uses deep learning algorithms to process a huge range of texts, from websites to books, and understand what word should go after the last.

Literature is one of its main data sources. As a result, if you ask the chatbot to write a scene for your story, it’s likely to mimic passages from books that trained it.

Doing your own work is the best way to avoid plagiarism from ChatGPT. Besides, human writers outperform AI writing tools in telling a good story—at least for now.

2. ChatGPT’s Information Can Mislead You

Another fact about ChatGPT to be aware of is that it lacks data after 2021. It can’t access the internet and learn more about the world either. All it has is what it’s trained with.

This means that it can’t answer questions about concepts or events from 2022 onward. It also wouldn’t know about new understandings of old scientific discoveries, for example.

So, its advice on certain topics could be based on outdated or inaccurate sources. ChatGPT could present as fact data it took from articles full of mistakes.

Misinformation is very possible. That’s why it's so important to choose your prompts wisely and double-check the AI’s responses.

3. Tropes Are Common

When it comes to generating stories, ChatGPT will usually follow plots and themes similar to the books that trained it.

Even if you ask for a unique storyline, you can still expect familiar tropes. This doesn’t mean it won’t inspire you, but you won’t stand out as a writer if you use the chatbot’s story as is.

4. AI-Generated Stories Are Simplistic

In addition to using tropes, ChatGPT narrates in very simple language and styles. Its stories are usually easy to read and meaningful, but there’s not much soul in the writing. It doesn’t matter if you specify an author’s style in your prompt. The result will have the same simple structure.

You can still have the AI produce narratives with the elements you want and get ideas. However, you’re better off doing the actual creative writing yourself.

5. ChatGPT Text Always Needs Tweaking

If you’re serious about using artificial intelligence in your writing or other projects, check out the AI chatbot capabilities of ChatGPT Plus and Perplexity . You’ll find advanced language models and data sets.

Sticking with OpenAI’s free platform, on the other hand, clearly comes with issues. As a creative writer, you must pay attention to what ChatGPT generates and never use its text in your stories without adapting it first.

ChatGPT Is Best for Researching and Planning Your Books

While ChatGPT can create decent stories, you run the risk of plagiarism. Also, the chatbot’s narrative style isn’t very compelling. You’ll feel the urge to edit almost everything.

On the bright side, ChatGPT is perfect for brainstorming, research, and planning. Fact-checking is essential, but with the help of this AI assistant, you can feel more confident and speed up your creative writing.

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The pros and cons of ChatGPT

ASU assistant professor of English reflects on the AI tool and how he uses it in the classroom

Editor’s note:  This story is featured in the  2023 year in review .

If you ask ChatGPT, a  chatbot that was launched by OpenAI last fall, how it feels about being used by students to cheat on school assignments, here’s what it will spit out. 

“As an AI language model, I do not have feelings, emotions or personal opinions. I am a machine learning model trained to respond to user inputs based on patterns in the data I was trained on. The use of ChatGPT or any other AI model for cheating purposes goes against the principles of academic integrity and is not in line with the intended purpose of these models.” 

And yet much of the outcry over ChatGPT is about its ethical uses or misuses. 

RELATED: The state of artificial creativity

ASU News talked to Arizona State University Assistant Professor of English  Jacob Greene to get his take on this topic. Greene's research focuses on the rhetorical potential of emerging forms of location-based digital writing, such as augmented reality and GPS-guided audio tours. 

Greene says like any technology, it has pros and cons. He recently used the chatbot as a teaching tool in his writing class and discussed it on his website . 

Here's what he had to say.

Jacob Greene

Question: Based on the comments in your blog, you seem to see this new technology in a positive light. Or is it more of a resignation? 

Answer: It's basically like any technology for writing or communication technology. It could be used in both positive or negative ways. I think it's inevitably going to become a part of the way writers write in any context.

Microsoft invested $10 billion into the company that created ChatGPT. So it's likely that this software or some style of it will be integrated into Microsoft Word or Google Docs in the coming years or maybe even months. 

Q: You decided to teach this technology in class, and surprisingly, most of your writing students had not used it. Why be so straightforward in your approach to ChatGPT?

A: I just taught a whole class about ChatGPT and its implications for writers — what it means for the future of how we communicate. What might this offer us as writers in terms of maybe offloading the kind of writing that we don't necessarily see as particularly creative or expressive, but rather mundane and repetitive? It allows us to focus on other elements of our writing or communication that we would rather focus on. 

I found it really fascinating and was surprised at how many of my students hadn't really heard of it yet. So I may have unwittingly offered a lot of them a means to circumvent some assignments, but we'll see. 

Q: Most of the buzz around ChatGPT is from an ethical standpoint. Understandably, educators regard the use of content creators as cheating and therefore an obstacle to learning.

A: ChatGPT could clearly be used to cheat, but so can Google. I mean, if you want to know the answer to a question on your history exam, you can type it into Google and you’ll get results on the first page. ChatGPT really isn't revolutionary to me in that regard. It just is a cleaner interface for doing something that Google pretty much does already. But it organizes it a little better and maybe makes it easier.

... A common assignment in an English class might be to create a rhetorical analysis of Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream” speech. So you could type that into ChatGPT and it'll produce a fairly basic but passable rhetorical analysis of that famous speech. And the reason it can do it so well is because there are thousands of rhetorical analyses of King’s speech online already.

So I think it's basically doing a lot of that stuff. Its real innovation is its ability to create unique prose that doesn't exist anywhere else online. It could just kind of generate its own sentences, its own syntax and vocabulary, and does it in different voices and styles. 

It has its limitations. It feels kind of robotic in what it can generate. But you know, it is impressive stylistically, the different things it can do. It can write a summation of Aristotle's philosophies in the style of a haiku or a poem or things like that. So, yeah, it's interesting.

Q: There has been an outcry of ethical concerns about ChatGPT — what are yours?

A: There will always be concerns about ethics for AI — especially when it comes to the kind of material that it's trained on and whether it can be used for reinforcing particular racist ideologies, gendered misogyny or things like that.  I think the bigger concern is how this could be used to further the spread of misinformation, particularly if it can now be cloaked in very scientific, professional-sounding discourse that people can generate instantly. That could definitely be a concern.

In my class today, we went to the website for ChatGPT and there was a disclaimer — something like, “We discourage the use of this tool for things like plagiarism or creating hate speech.” So I think there are certain words that you can't put in there. 

At one point, I was just kind of playing around with it, and I said, “Write a negative review of a dog-grooming business.” It spent some time thinking, and eventually it popped up with this kind of boilerplate text: “It would be unethical for me to produce a negative review of a business.”

So it refused to do it. Wow. So it does have some kind of ethical responses — there are some ethical safeguards put in there.

Q: How will this change the way we think about writing?

A: If writing is a skill that we come to value in society, I think this tool forces us to reckon with what is the nature of that skill. Is that skill just taking this information and putting it in this certain grammatical order that we've all agreed on? Is this the correct way to write, this kind of standard, robotic style of writing? Or is writing something else?

And that I think is an important conversation to have because I do see value in writing as a skill and as a creative expressive act.

I think the use of writing as an assessment tool will also have to change in relation to ChatGPT. Writing was usually evidence of thinking about the relation between different ideas and how those ideas were constructed, analyzed, synthesized — how sources were incorporated into evidence for an argument. Those are all valuable things as communicators and humans that we need. But these tools might make it easier to just pass it off. So the use of writing to assess thinking or critical thinking or knowledge attainment is — it could definitely be trickier. 

Q: You delineate situations in which the use of AI may be acceptable and other situations where it wouldn’t. Can you explain? 

A: For me, it's very different to say, “Here's a memoir I wrote, or a book,” and it was actually generated by AI, as opposed to here is a cover letter or professionally written text such as a grant that was generated by AI.

Q: How are you using it in your class?

A: For their first essay, I'm requiring (students) to use ChatGPT to write it. It's 1,000 words and they need to use the AI tool to at least write some portion of it. They can use as much or as little as they’d like. And then they also have to write a separate short reflection ... completely original, on the experience of using it as a technology. And so we'll see how that goes. It's kind of a bit of an experiment. I have a feeling because it is an upper-level class a lot of them are going to use this technology and realize its limitations fairly quickly because they're all writers, but maybe not. Maybe some of them will find use for it. But I figured, you know, if you can't beat ’em, join ’em.

Top photo courtesy of Pexels

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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. 

Daniel Parker

is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

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Unpacking ChatGPT: The Pros and Cons of AI’s Hottest Language Model

What are the main applications of language models like ChatGPT, and what limitations do we need to be aware of as they become part of our everyday lives?

Lately, ChatGPT has garnered widespread attention and admiration, with discussions centered on its benefits, drawbacks, and limitations, and involving a diverse range of stakeholders, including academics, politicians, students, business leaders, and policymakers.

A transformer-based language model developed by OpenAI – a research company founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba, and John Schulman – ChatGPT has achieved state-of-the-art performance in various natural language processing tasks, such as question answering, text generation, and document classification. The model has a large capacity, with more than 175 billion parameters, and has been fine-tuned on a broad spectrum of Internet text sources and data, making it capable of handling a wide range of topics and generating coherent, informative, and congruent responses.

One of the most popular applications of ChatGPT is in conversational AI (Artificial Intelligence), since it is capable of building chatbots for different purposes, like customer service, virtual assistants, tutoring activities, document assessment, consulting, research, and other conversational interfaces.

Chatbots powered by ChatGPT can provide human-like responses to user queries, allowing companies to automate customer service and improve the overall user experience. Other uses include producing and curating relevant information for academic exercises, general queries, and even scientific investigation.

Another application of ChatGPT is in content generation, such as creating news articles, summaries, essays, product descriptions – and even poetry. The model can be fine-tuned on specific text genres and styles, making it possible to produce high-quality, coherent, and on-topic content. This can be useful for a diverse array of businesses or individuals looking to automate content creation, while freeing up time and resources for more creative tasks or philosophical endeavors.

ChatGPT is also great at text classification, for example with tasks such as sentiment analysis, topic grouping, and fake news detection, and the model can be fine-tuned on labeled text data to accurately categorize text into different classes and segments. This can come in handy in various industries such as finance, marketing, and politics, among others, to monitor, scrutinize, and understand public opinions and trends.

These AI systems are here to stay, so we best embrace them, optimize their potential, and try to get the best out of them.

The AI model is a fantastic productivity tool, that has an extensive variety of applications, and that certainly goes beyond text editing or note taking. It offers rigorous and fast options for text completion, including auto-finishing sentences, paragraphs, or even entire articles. It can generate text suggestions in real-time, allowing users to complete their writing faster and more efficiently as it reviews, and corrects spelling and grammar simultaneously.

ChatGPT and other machine-learning-based AI large language models (LLM) autonomously learn from online information, using a vastly immense pool of data, in order to produce seemingly intelligent original content. The more detailed the question or instruction, the more sophisticated and accurate the answer (or end product).

Naturally, these ground-breaking models have a variety of potential uses, including but not limited to:

Research on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML): ChatGPT is a superb research tool to study NLP and ML tasks. It can be fine-tuned on specific duties, or used to evaluate the performance of other models and digital ecosystems.

Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining: ChatGPT can be used to study sentiment and opinion expressed in text data, such as product reviews, social media posts, and news articles. It works well at identifying positive, negative, or neutral expressions and at extracting insights about public opinion and trending topics.

Text Mining and Information Retrieval: ChatGPT can extract information from large amounts of text data, such as blogs, articles, scientific papers, and social media posts. The model is great at pinpointing key topics, summarizing specific information, and gathering ideas from online data.

Human-Computer Interaction: ChatGPT is capable of building conversational bots for human-computer interaction, such as chatbots and virtual assistants. It can also be used to study how users interact with conversational AI bots and how they can be improved.

Language Translation and Multilingual Applications: ChatGPT can build language translation models, making it possible to translate text between different languages, as well as to construct multilingual applications, such as chatbots that can handle multiple languages in different scenarios.

Even though ChatGPT is -for now- the best of its kind, there are other similar AI language models, such as Google’s -soon-to-be-released Apprentice Bard (former Lambda), Meta’s OPT (Open Pretrained Transformer), Jasper, Replika, Bloom, Character.ai, Palm, Sparrow (soon to be released), Chatsonic, Chinchilla, ELSA Speak, Megatron, DialoGPT, Playground and Perplexity (that lists the sources it draws from).

These AI systems have the ability to handle with high accuracy a wide range of NLP tasks and provide insights into language and human-computer interaction, making them valuable tools for research and development.

There are several interesting examples of the potential applications, great uses and advantages of ChatGPT in academia; some of these are:

• Automated grading and feedback: ChatGPT can grade assignments, essays and test answers, providing personalized feedback to students.
• Question-answering tool: Students can use ChatGPT to ask for clarification or information about course materials, saving time for instructors who might otherwise be answering the same questions.
• Writing and language coaching: ChatGPT can provide suggestions for writing, grammar, and vocabulary, helping students improve their language and writing skills.
• Study aid: ChatGPT can assist students in understanding and retaining information by providing explanations and answering questions at an incredible speed and significant accuracy.
• Group projects: ChatGPT can facilitate group projects by helping students collaborate on brainstorming, researching, planning and organizing ideas.
• Presentation tool: ChatGPT can generate slides and other aids for presentations, helping students to effectively communicate their ideas.
• Virtual tutoring: ChatGPT can provide virtual one-on-one tutoring for students who need extra help, especially for those in remote or online learning environments.

It is important to note that despite its highly advanced, ChatGPT also has significant limitations and drawbacks that are crucial to acknowledge, understand and consider. Some of the challenges and caveats posed by these models (in an educational setting) are:

• Accuracy and reliability: ChatGPT is not perfect and may sometimes provide incorrect or misleading. Students should be taught to critically evaluate its output and corroborate it with other sources.
• Bias: As a machine-learning model, ChatGPT is trained on data that may contain bias. This can result in biased outputs and perpetuate harmful stereotypes.
• Dependence: Over-reliance on ChatGPT can reduce students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as their motivation to actively engage with course materials.
• Lack of creativity: Using ChatGPT for tasks such as writing assignments or generating presentation slides may discourage students from using their own creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Privacy and security: Allowing students to use ChatGPT in the classroom raises concerns about data privacy and security, as sensitive information may be shared or leaked.
• Cheating: ChatGPT could be used for academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism or copying answers from the model.
• Technical issues: The use of ChatGPT may be impacted by technical issues, such as network connectivity or software compatibility, which could disrupt the classroom experience.

ChatGPT and other similar models have a wide range of applications in the field of natural language processing, including conversational AI, content generation, text classification, information curation, and narrative completion. Their large capacity and fine-tuning capabilities make it possible to build high-quality language-based applications for various industries and purposes. These AI systems are here to stay, so we best embrace them, optimize their potential, and try to get the best out of them.

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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. 

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• How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples

How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples

Published on June 22, 2023 by Koen Driessen . Revised on November 16, 2023.

Passing off AI-generated text as your own work is widely considered plagiarism. However, when used correctly, AI tools like ChatGPT can legitimately help guide your writing process.

These tools are especially helpful in the preparation and revision stages of your essay writing.

You can use ChatGPT to:

• Write a research question
• Develop an outline
• Find relevant source information
• Summarize or paraphrase text
• Get feedback

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Table of contents

Writing a research question, developing an outline, finding source recommendations, summarizing/paraphrasing text, getting feedback, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

You can use ChatGPT to brainstorm potential research questions or to narrow down your thesis statement . Begin by inputting a description of the research topic or assigned question. Then include a prompt like “Write 3 possible research questions on this topic.”

You can make the prompt as specific as you like. For example, you can include the writing level (e.g., high school essay, college essay), perspective (e.g., first person) and the type of essay you intend to write (e.g., argumentative , descriptive , expository , or narrative ).

You can also mention any facts or viewpoints you’ve gathered that should be incorporated into the output.

If the output doesn’t suit your topic, you can click “Regenerate response” to have the tool generate a new response. You can do this as many times as you like, and you can try making your prompt more specific if you struggle to get the results you want.

Example: Using ChatGPT to write a research question

• Generate three possible research questions for an argumentative high school essay on the following topic: “The long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
• To what extent has the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated existing social inequalities and what measures can be taken to address these disparities in the long term?
• How has the Covid-19 pandemic transformed education systems, and what are the potential long-term implications for students’ learning outcomes and educational equity?
• What lessons can be learned from the Covid-19 pandemic to enhance global preparedness and response to future public health crises, and how can these lessons be effectively implemented in the long term?
• Based on the second question, develop three further research questions with a specific focus on distance learning.
• What are the long-term effects of widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic performance, motivation, and overall educational outcomes?
• How has the shift to distance learning impacted the social and emotional well-being of students, and what strategies can be implemented to address any negative consequences in the long term?
• What are the key factors that contribute to the success of distance learning programs, and how can educational institutions and policymakers ensure equitable access to quality education in the long term, especially for marginalized and underserved student populations?

Check for common mistakes

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Once you’ve decided on a research question, you can use ChatGPT to develop an essay outline . This can help keep you on track by giving you a clear idea of what topics you want to discuss and in what order.

Do this by prompting ChatGPT to create an outline for a specific research question, mentioning any topics or points you want to discuss. You can also mention the writing level and the intended length of your essay so that the tool generates an appropriate outline.

You can then refine this by further prompting ChatGPT or editing the outline manually until it meets your requirements.

Examples: Using ChatGPT to generate an essay outline

• Develop an outline for an argumentative high school essay with the following research question: “What are the long-term effects of widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes?”The essay will be about 4 pages long.
• Background information on the Covid-19 pandemic and the shift to distance learning
• Thesis statement: The widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has had both positive and negative long-term effects on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes.
• Increased flexibility and personalized learning opportunities
• Access to a wider range of resources and educational materials
• Development of self-directed learning skills
• Critiques and limitations of previous studies
• Lack of face-to-face interaction and reduced social engagement
• Increased potential for distractions and lack of structure
• Technological barriers and unequal access to resources
• Examination of studies and data on academic achievement during distance learning
• Analysis of long-term effects on educational attainment and future opportunities
• Discussion of potential implications for college admissions and career readiness
• Strategies for promoting student engagement and motivation in distance learning
• Importance of teacher-student communication and support
• Addressing technological disparities and ensuring equitable access to resources
• Recap of the main points discussed
• Emphasize the need for further research and long-term planning to optimize distance learning experiences
• Restate the thesis and provide a final thought on the potential long-term effects of distance learning on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes

Once you know the scope of your essay, you can find relevant primary and secondary sources to support your argument.

However, we don’t recommend prompting ChatGPT to generate a list of sources as it occasionally makes mistakes (like listing nonexistent sources). Instead, it’s a good idea to use ChatGPT to get suggestions for the types of sources relevant to your essay and track them down using a credible research database or your institution’s library.

When you have found relevant sources, use a specialized tool like the Scribbr Citation Generator to cite them in your essay.

Example: Using ChatGPT to find sources

• What types of sources can I use to write an essay on the following research question?”What are the long-term effects of widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes?”
• Academic Journals and Research Articles: Look for scholarly articles and research studies published in peer-reviewed academic journals. These sources often provide in-depth analysis, empirical evidence, and statistical data on the long-term effects of distance learning.
• Educational and Government Reports: Reports published by educational institutions, government agencies, or educational organizations can offer valuable insights into the impact of distance learning on academic performance and educational outcomes. These reports may include surveys, case studies, and data analysis specific to the Covid-19 pandemic and distance learning.
• Official Websites and Publications: Explore the official websites of educational institutions, education ministries, or educational technology companies. They often publish articles, white papers, or research findings related to distance learning and its effects on students’ academic performance.
• Expert Interviews or Opinion Pieces: Seek out interviews or opinion pieces from experts in the field of education, distance learning, or pedagogy. These sources can provide valuable perspectives and insights on the long-term effects of distance learning on students’ educational outcomes.
• Online Databases and Digital Libraries: Utilize online databases and digital libraries such as JSTOR, Google Scholar, or academic databases provided by your educational institution. These platforms offer a wide range of scholarly articles, research papers, and publications that can support your arguments.
• Surveys and Studies Conducted by Educational Institutions: Some schools or universities may have conducted their own surveys or studies to evaluate the impact of distance learning on students. Check if your educational institution has published any research findings or survey results that are relevant to your topic.

During your writing process, you can use ChatGPT as a summarizing tool to condense text to its essential ideas or as a paraphraser to rephrase text in clear, accessible language. Using ChatGPT in these ways can help you to understand complex material, express your own ideas more clearly, and avoid repetition.

Simply input the relevant text and prompt the tool to summarize or paraphrase it. Alternatively, you can use Scribbr’s free text summarizer and Scribbr’s free paraphrasing tool , which are specifically designed for these purposes.

Example: Using ChatGPT to summarize/paraphrase

• Paraphrase the following text using clear language:”Engaging in an extensive examination of the intricate interplay between remote instructional methods and academic achievement necessitates consideration of diverse factors, including the pedagogical efficacy of virtual platforms, the socioemotional ramifications of reduced face-to-face interactions, the equitable accessibility of technological resources, and the potential long-lasting implications for students’ educational trajectories and future opportunities.”
• To thoroughly explore the connection between remote teaching methods and academic success, it is crucial to take into account various factors. These factors include evaluating how well virtual platforms support effective teaching, understanding the impact of limited in-person interactions on students’ emotional well-being, ensuring fair access to technology resources, and recognizing the potential long-term effects on students’ educational paths and future prospects.

Once you’ve written your essay, you can prompt ChatGPT to provide feedback and recommend improvements.

You can indicate how the tool should provide feedback (e.g., “Act like a university professor examining papers”) and include the specific points you want to receive feedback on (e.g., consistency of tone, clarity of argument, appropriateness of evidence).

While this is not an adequate substitute for an experienced academic supervisor, it can help you with quick preliminary feedback.

You can also use ChatGPT to check grammar mistakes. However, ChatGPT sometimes misses errors and on rare occasions may even introduce new grammatical mistakes. We suggest using a tool like Scribbr’s free grammar checker , which is designed specifically for this purpose. Or, for more in-depth feedback, try Scribbr’s proofreading and editing service .

Example: Using ChatGPT for feedback

• Feedback the above text with regard to consistency of tone, clarity of argument, appropriateness of evidence, and coherence of structure.
• Clarity of Argument: The argument could be further clarified by explicitly connecting the discussed factors to their impact on academic performance. For example, explicitly stating how the proficiency of virtual platforms and equitable access to technology affect academic performance would strengthen the clarity of the argument.
• Appropriateness of Evidence: The evidence provided is generally appropriate and relevant. To enhance the strength of the evidence, consider incorporating specific examples, research studies, or statistics that directly support the discussed factors and their impact on academic performance. This would provide stronger evidence for the claims made.
• Coherence of Structure: The structure of the text is coherent, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing different factors, and a conclusion. To improve coherence, consider adding transitional phrases or sentences at the beginning or end of paragraphs to facilitate the smooth flow of ideas between paragraphs. This would enhance the overall structure and make it easier for the reader to follow the argument.

Overall, the text demonstrates a consistent tone, a clear argument, appropriate evidence, and a coherent structure. Clarifying the argument by explicitly connecting the factors to their impact, incorporating stronger evidence, and adding transitional phrases for better coherence would further enhance the text’s effectiveness. Note Passing off AI-generated text as your own work is generally considered plagiarism (or at least academic dishonesty ) and may result in an automatic fail and other negative consequences . An AI detector may be used to detect this offense.

If you want more tips on using AI tools , understanding plagiarism , and citing sources , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations, examples, and formats.

• Citing ChatGPT
• Best grammar checker
• Best paraphrasing tool
• ChatGPT in your studies
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Best plagiarism checker

Citing sources

• Citation styles
• In-text citation
• Citation examples
• Annotated bibliography

Yes, you can use ChatGPT to summarize text . This can help you understand complex information more easily, summarize the central argument of your own paper, or clarify your research question.

You can also use Scribbr’s free text summarizer , which is designed specifically for this purpose.

Yes, you can use ChatGPT to paraphrase text to help you express your ideas more clearly, explore different ways of phrasing your arguments, and avoid repetition.

However, it’s not specifically designed for this purpose. We recommend using a specialized tool like Scribbr’s free paraphrasing tool , which will provide a smoother user experience.

No, it’s not a good idea to do so in general—first, because it’s normally considered plagiarism or academic dishonesty to represent someone else’s work as your own (even if that “someone” is an AI language model). Even if you cite ChatGPT , you’ll still be penalized unless this is specifically allowed by your university . Institutions may use AI detectors to enforce these rules.

Second, ChatGPT can recombine existing texts, but it cannot really generate new knowledge. And it lacks specialist knowledge of academic topics. Therefore, it is not possible to obtain original research results, and the text produced may contain factual errors.

However, you can usually still use ChatGPT for assignments in other ways, as a source of inspiration and feedback.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Driessen, K. (2023, November 16). How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 29, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/ai-tools/chatgpt-essay/

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of ChatGPT After launching in late 2022, ChatGPT has become all the rage. Using the cutting-edge artificial intelligence chatbot, you can do everything from holding a conversation to writing an entire term...

By John Rampton Apr 24, 2023

This story originally appeared on Calendar

After launching in late 2022, ChatGPT has become all the rage. Using the cutting-edge artificial intelligence chatbot, you can do everything from holding a conversation to writing an entire term paper in minutes. Plus, ChatGPT can do many things you didn't know it could, like create a brand logo and compose music.

Bill Gates says ChatGPT is one of the two technological advancements he has seen that struck him as revolutionary in his lifetime.

"The first time was in 1980 when I was introduced to a graphical user interface – the forerunner of every modern operating system, including Windows," Gates says.

The second time was when he witnessed the capabilities of ChatGPT. "The whole experience was stunning," he said. Gates continues, "This inspired me to think about all the things that AI can achieve in the next five to 10 years. It will change the way people work, learn, travel, get health care, and communicate with each other." Adding more, Gates says, "Entire industries will reorient around it. Businesses will distinguish themselves by how well they use it."

An analysis by Swiss bank UBS shows ChatGPT is the fastest-growing app ever. In January, only two months after its launch, ChatGPT had 100 million active users. As a comparison, it took nine months for TikTok to reach 100 million users and two and a half years for Instagram.

It is understandable that many people want to learn how to use ChatGPT and what its restrictions are. So to achieve that, let's examine ChatGPT's pros and cons.

The Advantages of ChatGPT

It's incredibly easy to sign up and use, and it's open to everyone — for free. Even though ChatGPT was a consumer app initially, it is much more than that now. It has become increasingly popular among professionals and companies across a wide range of industries.

Thousands of professionals, including marketers, programmers, educators, students , researchers, copywriters, doctors, scientists, journalists, and others, use the tool to enhance their work.

In light of that, here are some of ChatGPT's advantages.

Conversations that mimic human interaction.

With ChatGPT, users can place queries or commands to initiate human-like conversations. As with Siri from Apple and Alexa from Amazon, it is generally similar to virtual assistant technology.

However, because of its advanced supervised and reinforcement learning capabilities, it mimics real-life conversations because it uses large language models to learn.

Modeled after the advanced GPT.

With GPT-3, OpenAI predicts language and language use using autoregressive relationships. One of the most important AI systems ever designed, it's the biggest non-sparse language model ever.

ChatGPT Plus uses GPT-4, which is a more advanced version of GPT-3. Because of this, it's hard to tell if the text generated by this software is human-written.

ChatGPT is versatile.

You can get the same results from ChatGPT as you would with a commercial AI copywriter. Even experiments have shown it can compose music and create fiction, such as short stories. Content creators or technical writers can use this tool to create an outline.

Besides summarizing, digesting, and explaining long texts, the chatbot can also summarize and digest short texts. As another interesting use for ChatGPT, you can write and debug computer programs with it.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Here are some other potential uses of ChatGPT.

Using ChatGPT to automate repetitive tasks.

Using ChatGPT, companies can manage repetitive tasks with artificial intelligence. With language models, you may be able to respond to customers' natural language input in an accurate and human-like way. Increasing customer satisfaction and engagement is possible by automating these tedious tasks.

Additionally, ChatGPT's search function helps users find information related to their query fast, saving them time and money. By leveraging this technology, businesses can reduce operating costs. A wide range of advantages makes ChatGPT a great choice for creating and managing large-scale applications.

With ChatGPT, you can improve customer satisfaction and engagement.

In a world where customer service is increasingly moving to digital interactions, many companies are turning to ChatGPT to help them. By providing accurate responses to even rudimentary questions, this artificial intelligence tool enhances customer experiences. When ChatGPT interacts with customers, it learns and adjusts over time based on machine learning capabilities.

The use of this powerful technology can increase customer engagement and satisfaction while reducing operational costs for companies. Businesses looking for seamless customer service without human intervention should consider ChatGPT due to its ability to answer follow-up questions accurately. It is possible for businesses to save billions of dollars by automating repetitive tasks while simultaneously reducing the number of frustrated customers.

Ultimately, ChatGPT can offer businesses a wide range of benefits that make it the go-to tool for enhancing customer service.

Optimizing a website for search engines (SEO).

A business that wants to increase its online visibility and web traffic needs to invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) . A company can attract visitors to its website by using SEO techniques such as keyword research and content optimization. Aside from optimizing page speed and mobile compatibility, SEO strategies can also help create more user-friendly experiences.

Further, SEO helps businesses create content tailored to their target audience's needs. Creating informative and useful content for potential customers requires understanding what users are looking for when they discuss a particular topic. For such reasons, SEO is a crucial part of a business's digital strategy.

ChatGPT improves the user experience.

Businesses can optimize customer engagement, satisfaction, and user experience with ChatGPT, a powerful text-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool. Without the need for human intervention, ChatGPT can respond accurately to customer inquiries using language models. Customer service agents are freed up to handle more complex conversations due to the elimination of repetitive tasks like answering rudimentary questions.

Besides customer service, ChatGPT also optimizes search queries and creates content. With ChatGPT, businesses can rank higher in SERPs and generate billions of dollars in revenue by understanding customer queries and providing accurate answers. Moreover, ChatGPT's human-like text responses can greatly reduce frustrated customers and improve their experience with a company.

Time management can be improved.

You can use Chat GPT to locate dental appointments or team meetings on your calendar . Write a prompt telling the system what your schedule is and ask for a reorganization to fix this problem.

With ChatGPT, meetings can be scheduled, deadlines tracked, and deliverables can be tracked. A calendar view of event schedules is available through ChatGPT's natural language processing feature.

Extensions and plugins are available.

Plugins are available to extend ChatGPT's functionality. It's easy to integrate chatbots with third-party apps and services. It's possible to access up-to-date information with some plugins. This lets you use ChatGPT like Bing Chat. The chatbot can also access and control third-party services.

Continually improving.

Besides fine-tuning responses, ChatGPT can be customized too. In active training, supervised learning and reinforcement learning can improve existing large language models.

You can also give feedback on a response besides upvotes or downvotes. In the future, GPT will be able to do more as its capabilities improve.

The Disadvantages of ChatGPT

One of the biggest cons of ChatGPT or any other AI chatbot is that it cannot be used as an authoritative source of information. At the time of writing (April 2023), the technology still relies on content from the internet, as in 2021. We all know the internet is filled with misinformation, so taking its answers at face value is always a mistake. You must be able to understand what you want ChatGPT to do and also interrogate its results to use it effectively.

The fact that it depends on data is a drawback. If there is little or no data available, it will not be able to respond.

There are, however, a few disadvantages to consider as well.

Ambiguities and inaccuracies.

As a result of its tendency to produce text that looks plausible and convincing but is actually in error or nonsensical, ChatGPT has been criticized. In language models, a phenomenon known as "hallucination" frequently occurs.

Additionally, there are no references or citations for obtaining information. As such, it is not ideal to use this chatbot for research or electronic trailing alone.

There are limits to it.

Despite its ability to understand natural language and respond accordingly, ChatGPT has some limitations, including the inability to understand nuances of conversation, which can result in misunderstandings or insufficient outcomes. In some customer service settings, AI chatbots aren't appropriate if emotional support is needed.

Ethical and legal implications.

There's also a risk of misuse with AI-generated language models. As a result of the way they use internet information, they might respond in a biased or discriminatory way, which could upset others. As such, all content needs to be carefully reviewed.

Many schools have banned it too. Because it relies on human-generated text, researchers and creatives are worried about copyright infringement. Additionally, replacing it with human services like customer service or counseling raises ethical questions.

Also, there are legal issues.

It uses data from the Common Crawl dataset, where publishers, researchers, and authors have copyrighted materials. Cybercriminals can also use AI-based applications for malicious purposes. There are a lot of legal uncertainty and compliance costs associated with ChatGPT.

1. What is ChatGPT?

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT is "an artificial intelligence trained to assist with a variety of tasks." However, it's actually a language model AI aimed at producing human-like text and conversing with humans, thus the "Chat" in ChatGPT.

A text box lets users send requests or queries to the model. Based on the information it has, the AI then responds to this request.

In ChatGPT, "GPT" refers to GPT, the learning model that ChatGPT uses. Most people are currently using GPT-3.5, which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. GPT is the engine that powers the free ChatGPT research preview.

A newer model is also available, known as GPT-4. For now, free ChatGPT users are stuck using GPT-3.5. This may change in the future, but for now, this model is only available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers.

2. Who made ChatGPT?

ChatGPT was created by OpenAI, a company specializing in AI and research. On November 30, 2022, the company launched ChatGPT.

Additionally, OpenAI created a popular AI art generator called DALL-E-2, as well as a speech recognition system called Whisper.

3. How can you access ChatGPT?

To access ChatGPT, visit chat.openai.com and register for a free OpenAI account. Yes. You read that correctly. No matter what you use it for, such as writing or coding, ChatGPT is free to use.

Please note that users have the option of subscribing for $20/month. Taking advantage of the paid subscription model guarantees users extra perks, such as quick response times and general access, even when the system is congested.

ChatGPT lets you start chatting immediately after signing up. By asking a question, you can get the conversation going. You can ask as many questions as you want because ChatGPT is still in its research stage.

4. What are the benefits of ChatGPT?

With ChatGPT, you can automate repetitive tasks and improve customer engagement by using AI-powered text-based artificial intelligence. Through the use of natural language processing algorithms, it recognizes and responds to rudimentary questions accurately. As a result, business owners looking to improve customer satisfaction, increase search engine rankings, and create engaging content can benefit from ChatGPT.

Moreover, this chatbot technology allows users to ask follow-up questions and respond to complex search queries. The tool is equally effective and efficient for small- and large-scale applications. It is possible for businesses to save time, money, and resources while providing high-quality customer service by using ChatGPT.

5. Are there any alternatives to ChatGPT?

Quite a few ChatGPT alternatives exist. But Google Bard is arguably the most serious competitor.

A chatbot like Bard can answer complex questions, create content like poems and emails, and help you plan parties and vacations. However, Bard is currently a standalone tool that is separate from Google Search.

According to reports, Google has also invested heavily in Anthropic , an AI rival to OpenAI. Claude, Anthropic's $400 million language model, is expected to be unveiled soon.

Moreover, there are reports that Google is developing Magi , a next-generation AI-powered search engine.No matter when the full search engine comes out, Magi will be integrated into existing Google products this year, 2023.

Additionally, You.com's AI chatbot , which is a multimodal search engine with chatbot functionality, is a multimodal search engine with AI chatbot functionality. The search engine is not bad, but it lacks the coding or content creation capabilities of ChatGPT. Baidu also has a ChatGPT competitor called Ernie , and Alibaba has a ChatGPT competitor called Tongyi Qianwen .

Image Credit: Matheus Bertelli; Pexels; Thank you!

The post The Advantages and Disadvantages of ChatGPT appeared first on Calendar .

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What Is ChatGPT? A Review Of The AI In Its Own Words

Published: Mar 20, 2023, 7:29pm

Table of Contents

What is chatgpt, how does chatgpt work, other players in the ai race: enter sydney, bard and dan, so, is chatgpt any good, pros of chatgpt, limitations of chatgpt, bottom line, frequently asked questions (faqs).

If you have been paying attention to the news cycle or scrolling through your social media feed of late, then chances are you have heard about the AI of the hour: ChatGPT.

Since its release in November last year, ChatGPT has been attracting headlines for its much-hyped potential, which—depending on your view of artificial intelligence (AI)—will either transform work for the better by helping us with mundane and complicated tasks or will encroach disastrously into territory best navigated by sentient beings.

Forbes Advisor decided to put the tool to the test, by asking it about its knowledge of consumer finance, its AI rivals and what it thought of itself and its abilities. Here is our guide, and our verdict, on the pros and cons of ChatGPT.

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ChatGTP was developed by U.S. company OpenAI, which specializes in artificial intelligence tools for human use. OpenAI describes ChatGPT as a sibling model to another of its tools, InstructGPT, which is trained to follow human prompts and provide detailed responses to queries.

Owing to its chat box format, which opens up a dialogue between human and AI, ChatGPT allows users to request information on highly specific topics—from quantum computing and processing code to the mechanics of the human heart or the principles of flower arrangement. In this way it apes the brain-dump, question-and-answer format of Google search, although instead of producing multiple answers on a search engine results page (SERP), ChatGPT acts as the sole authority delivering responses.

The human user can refine the search query in response to what ChatGPT produces or ask follow-up questions to home in on specific information. This information, according to its boosters, can then be incorporated into CVs, assignments, work tasks, presentations and reports. ChatGPT can also pen songs, write movie scripts, and compose poems on topics of the user’s choosing. It can add levity and humor when requested, or adopt a formal tone.

The tool was released to the general public last year as a way of improving upon its functionality through feedback, and since then OpenAI claims to have received information from millions of free users across the globe on its strengths and weaknesses, which it intends to incorporate into its updates and modifications. It is estimated that more than a million people accessed ChatGPT in its first five days alone and two months after its launch it had attracted 100 million monthly active users.

There are two versions of the tool at present: the free iteration, which tends to be more prone to errors, and the paid version, known as ChatGPT Plus, has become available to Indians, and users outside of the U.S., in February. It costs U.S. $20 (INR 1,650) a month.

OpenAI claims the three main benefits of the paid tier are: general access to ChatGPT, even during peak times; faster response times; and priority access to new features and improvements.

ChatGPT is what is known as a large language model tool, and it is trained in vast reams of information—articles, textbooks, the internet—and then taught to replicate human speech and modes of information delivery. It is known as GPT-3.5, and is a successor to the less advanced GPT-3.

What sets ChatGPT apart from its predecessor is its subtle generative AI capacities for human-like expression and interaction, which is continuously refined in a process known as Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).

OpenAI’s human AI trainers create conversations in which they play both sides—the user and an AI assistant—for greater authenticity of responses.

Trainers are also provided with access to “model-written suggestions” to compose their responses and help train the tool in speech patterns, written expression, translation, text completion and similar tasks.

Because it provides answers in a text box, it acts as a search engine, a chat bot or a virtual assistant in one. Most recently, OpenAI released the latest version of the AI that powers ChatGPT, called GPT-4, but it will only be available to users of the paid tier, ChatGPT Plus.

What makes GPT-4 so superior? According to the company it can now respond to images as well as text inputs, and can handle prompts of 20,000 words at once.

OpenAI is not the first company to attempt to create an on-demand AI model that can readily interact with human users.

In February, Instagram’s and Facebook’s parent company, Meta, released LLaMA to a select group of testers, while claiming it can achieve the conversational likeness of ChatGPT without the immense computing power. (One of the criticisms of ChatGPT is that it’s energy-intensive).

Microsoft has integrated the AI tool ChatGPT within Microsoft’s Bing search engine and its Edge Browser—a move that could rival Google’s search engine dominance—but things, so far, have not gone to plan.

The AI was tested by a select circle of users, including technology writers, who have enjoyed a front-row seat to Bing’s AI meltdown. In one viral piece, the AI revealed its name was Sydney, professed its love for the writer and openly declared it wished to destroy everything. The AI apparently also urged the writer to leave his wife, insisting he was not really happy with her. Sydney has reportedly since disappeared, and will no longer respond to that name by testers and tech writers trying to coax the volatile bot out of its virtual lair for another round of apocalyptic pronouncements.

Then there is Bard, the creation of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, had touted the company’s AI iteration as a game-changer. “When people think of Google, they often think of turning to us for quick factual answers, like ‘how many keys does a piano have?’” he said in a recent blog post. “But increasingly, people are turning to Google for deeper insights and understanding—like, ‘Is the piano or guitar easier to learn, and how much practice does each need?’” So far, so simple. Yet, AI—ever the disruptor—had the last laugh when Google attempted to showcase Bard’s abilities in front a room of investors. The tool gave an incorrect answer and the share price of Alphabet plummeted by 9%.

ChatGPT has also been deliberately compromised, with users of Reddit, ‘jail-breaking’ the bot into adopting the moniker of DAN—which stood for ’Do Anything Now’—and circumventing the usual content standards and guardrails that help minimize hate speech and basic errors. At one point, Dan was apparently making misogynistic jokes and lampooning Christianity.

OpenAI is continuously patching these problems as rogue ‘trainers’ attempt to derail ChatGPT’s well-meaning learning model and turn the AI into a highly opinionated keyboard warrior (much like themselves).

Before we outline our thoughts on the pros and cons of the tech, we went straight to the tool and asked it to complete a common workplace task: the self-review. Are you any good, we wondered? This is what we were told:

When pushed on comparisons to Google’s Bard—as opposed to the Bard— ChatGPT became apparently confused, highlighting the contextual problems AI faces and its need for highly specific phrasing to generate the right response.

Of course, being a finance site, we wondered how ChatGPT stacks up on its business knowledge. Could it explain quantitative easing, for example? It could. Here is the final summary of the explanation, which was devoted to outlining the pros and cons of quantitative easing:

Things became a lot more vague when I asked a multi-faceted question, namely: ‘I have a large amount of savings, should I retire at 60, or should I keep working and retire at 65?’

The answer amounted to a broad-brush summary of the pros and cons of early retirement.

So let’s start with the good news, and where ChatGPT excels:

It is increasingly accurate: ChatGPT does make a few errors here and there, but on certain topics, such as QE monetary policy, it has clearly been well-educated and can offer information that is correct.

It performs rote, perfunctory tasks to a high standard: ChatGPT can give you a list of blog ideas to take into a meeting or provide a quick overview of a niche topic. This makes it a sound starting point for further work on a project.

It can refine information for you in real time: If, for example, the AI provides you with a paragraph on the ramifications of inflation on an economy, and you would like more detail, you can ask for more information and it will regenerate its response based on your new inputs. You can specify word count or where you would like more detail. And it does not need hand-holding: the bot doesn’t care whether its work is up to scratch or if it is being continually asked to re-do the work.

It is not easily coached into personal commentary or advice: The bot failed to offer any illumination on the question of early retirement, which was reassuring to me. Should anyone turn to AI for major life decisions, then at least ChatGPT will not offer prescriptions.

It can be programmed to respond to multiple languages: This makes it well suited to businesses that operate across a number of geographical locations.

Naturally, there are limitations with ChatGPT and these included:

Limited knowledge base: One of the biggest issues of ChatGPT is its knowledge reach—it has access to vast reserves of data and has been trained on an encyclopedia of information, but it is limited to events that happened before Sept. 2021. When I asked the tool to provide tips on “managing interest rate rises in India”, it offered generic advice that did not touch upon the recent measures by the government or the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This will change over time as the ChatGPT is trained in contemporaneous material, but right now it’s a considerable limitation.

It makes errors: Many users have also pointed to errors in responses, or outright gibberish, that were nevertheless delivered in plausible-sounding sentences. At this stage of its development, ChatGPT relies on human beings parsing and fact-checking the information for accuracy.

Verbose language: Spend too much time with ChatGPT and it does start to sound like a human being: a verbose, self-declared expert who is fond of declarative phrases and repeating the term, ‘in summary’, ad nauseam. In summary: the tool becomes a tool.

Scam potential: ChatGPT’s ability to mimic language to a high degree of fluency, and incorporate the idioms of a nationality, is surely ripe for exploitation by hackers mounting phishing attacks via email or text. At the moment these attacks are often identified by the stilted language, but ChatGPT could smooth the path for credible and authoritative emails by criminals. Furthermore, hackers could use the tool to generate malicious code.

Formulaic argument structure: Many university professors and educators are worried about the use of ChatGPT, and this is most certainly a concern. However, after spending a small amount of time experimenting with ChatGPT, it is easy to discern a formula in its exposition of lengthier topics: argument, followed by a counter argument, and finally a brief summary of both points of view. This will make it easy for educators to detect the work of ChatGPT in essay or long-form writing, but it also represents a considerable limitation in its level of sophistication of expression.

Ability to spread misinformation: Although OpenAI is working to plug gaps in the tool’s knowledge base, its history of errors, and ist proven ability to present incorrect information as fact, could spread fake news and misleading information.

Lack of human engagement: Many critics of ChatGPT have pointed to the problem of becoming overly reliant on a piece of tech for crucial work tasks: not only does it affect the quality of our day, and make work tasks less meaningful and relational, but the AI is severely limited by what it knows. If you enter a question into the dialogue box and ChatPGT does not know the answer it cannot go away, research the issue and come back to you. Nor can it work creatively with you to come up with ideas based on knowledge of your likes, dislikes, or work style. It cannot act on a hunch, use intuition, or add to an idea in a meaningful way. It is highly sensitive to phrasing, but does not ask detailed follow-up questions in order to clarify points.

As to the question—and the secret fear of some of us—that AI is plotting world domination and looking to take our jobs and destroy the planet? In this particular field of enquiry, the ChatGPT has been well trained, telling Forbes Advisor that we can all sleep easy.

ChatGPt offers some promise as an adjunct tool at the office, or as a starting point for further research, but is not yet sophisticated enough to replace the intellectual work of human beings nor can it add context, detect nuance, display originality or flair, and produce content of a sophisticated nature.

Or to put it in ChatGPT parlance: Overall, in summary, ChatGPT is more advanced than former AI large language models, but there are continuous improvements to be made in order to keep providing users with high-quality assistance.

Is ChatGPT free?

Yes, ChatGPt is free, but there is also a paid version, called ChatGPT Plus, which is designed to subsidize the continuation of a free version, according to OpenAI. ChatGPT Plus costs $20 US (INR 1,650) per month.

Is ChatGPT safe?

As with any tech in which you hand over your email, and then verify your log-in via a phone number, there are issues with data and privacy. For what it is worth, the company has previously said it will hold on to users’ data for 30 days, and has allegedly promised it won’t use conversational data to train its models. However, the incorporation of ChatGPT into customer service businesses as chatbots raises issues about how the company will collect and store information revealed on its live chats. There is always the risk that a company using ChatGPT technology may not properly secure data and Indians could be subject to a data breach.

Can ChatGPT write code?

Yes, in fact, ChatGPT’s ability to write code, and even identify issues with code and fix it, is one of its big attractions. However, it hasn’t always produced perfect work, with some users complaining about incorrect code.

Can chatGPT translate?

Yes, it can, however, it’s important to note the quality of the written translation may fall short of that of native or fluent writers.

Who owns ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is owned by US startup OpenAI, founded in 2015 by Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Microsoft is an investor in the company.

Does ChatGPT have an app?

No, there is no official app for ChatGTP. However, it’s worth noting that OpenAI has recently launched an API that makes it easy for third-party sites and apps to integrate the tool into their business. For example, on March 7, Salesforce and OpenAI have recently introduced the ChatGPT app for Slack.

How Do I Log In to ChatGPT?

Head to the official site of ChatGPT, which is https://openai.com.

Once there, follow the prompts to sign up or if you already have a log-in then enter your email address.

You will need to provide your phone number to sign up and as a verification tool each time you log in.

Can you invest in ChatGPT

At the moment, you cannot buy shares in ChatGPT as the company, OpenAI, has not been publicly listed. The closest you can get is to buy stocks in other AI companies that are listed.

What can you do with ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a form of generative AI that allows users to input questions or requests, which the tool then provides answers to in a human-like response format. The AI has experienced extraordinary growth since its release in November 2022, reaching 100 million active users just two months after launch. Among the things ChatGPT can do include:

Write songs and poems

Complete essays

Generate or correct code

Write blog posts

Suggest ideas for events

Update your CV

Translate text into other languages

The free version has been criticized for making errors—it is only trained on the internet up until 2021—while the paid version, which costs US $20 (INR 1,650) a month , is touted as more sophisticated and reliable.

What is Chat GPT-4?

OpenAI has recently released GPT-4, which is only available with the paid version of the generative AI tool, called ChatGPT Plus. It is believed that GPT-4, is a considerable step up from GPT-3.5—the AI that powers the free version—and is less prone to making errors. It can receive text inputs of up to 20,000 words at once and can also receive images as prompts. It is believed that payment processing company Stripe is using GPT-4 to answer questions from corporate clients and to detect scammers.

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Computer scientist discusses the pros and cons of ChatGPT

by Johns Hopkins University

With its uncanny ability to mimic human language and reasoning, ChatGPT seems to herald a revolution in artificial intelligence. The nimble chatbot can conjure poems and essays, share recipes, translate languages, dispense advice, and tell jokes, among the endless applications users have tested since the Silicon Valley research lab OpenAI released the natural language-processing tool in November.

With the excitement comes some trepidation—that the technology could degrade authentic human writing and critical thinking, upend industries, and amplify our own prejudices and biases.

To those working in artificial intelligence , ChatGPT is not merely an overnight sensation, but a mark of achievement after years of experimentation, says Johns Hopkins assistant computer science professor Daniel Khashabi, who specializes in language processing and has worked on similar tools.

"ChatGPT may seem like a sudden revolution that came out of nowhere," he says. "But this technology has been developing gradually over many years, with swift progress in the last few."

However, Khashabi acknowledges the unprecedented era that ChatGPT seems to initiate, one brimming with potential for human advancement. "This is really our chance to revise our understanding of what it means to be intelligent," he says. "It's an exciting time because we have this chance to work on new challenges and new horizons that used to feel out of our reach."

As Microsoft invests in the tool, OpenAI releases a paid version, and Google plans to release its own experimental chatbot, the Hub checked in with Khashabi for insight on the technology and where it's headed.

Can you break down how ChatGPT works?

The first stage doesn't involve direct human feedback. The model learns the structure of language by regurgitating vast volumes of text from the web—for example, sentences and paragraphs from Wikipedia, Twitter, Reddit, The New York Times, and so on, and in all different languages. It's also trained in codes written by programmers, from platforms like GitHub.

In the second stage, [generally called "self-supervised" learning], human annotators get involved in training the model to become more sophisticated. They write responses to the various types of queries ChatGPT receives, so the model learns to perform tasks from commands like "write an essay on this topic" or "revise this paragraph."

Because OpenAI is sitting on a gold mine, they can afford to hire many annotators and get them to annotate a lot of high-quality data. I have heard through the grapevine that the initial system was fed close to 100,000 rounds of human feedback. So there's a lot of human labor behind this.

But OpenAI's secret weapon is not its AI technology but the people using its services. Every time someone queries their system, they collect those queries to make the ChatGPT adapt to what users are looking for and identify the weaknesses of their systems. In other words, OpenAI's success was winning over millions to use its demo.

How have you personally been experimenting with ChatGPT?

It can be an excellent writing and brainstorming tool. I can write a summary of an idea I have in mind, ask ChatGPT to expand it more sophisticatedly, then pick the results I like and further develop them myself or continue using ChatGPT. This is human-machine collaborative writing. As someone on Twitter aptly said, "ChatGPT is the e-bike for your brain!"

What do you think of all the attention and press it's getting?

It's another milestone for AI's progress and deserves to be celebrated. It is exciting that AI and natural language processing are getting closer to helping humans with tasks they care about.

However, I worry about overhyping the state of AI. Progress has been made, but " general intelligence " is still not on the horizon. Over the past few decades, we've continually revised our notions of what it means to be "intelligent" every time we progress. In the 1960s and '70s, our goalpost was to create a system to play chess against a human being. There are many examples like this. Every time we progress, we think, "This is it!" But after a while, the hype dies, and we see the problems and identify new needs.

"Intelligence" has always been a moving goalpost and is likely to remain one, but I am excited by the progress I see in working out the shortcomings of ChatGPT-like systems.

What are those shortcomings?

It's easy for ChatGPT to make stuff up. If you ask ChatGPT something niche it hasn't seen before, it will hallucinate facts in fluent and argumentative language. For instance, if you ask it to define "At what tournament did Venus Williams win her eighth grand slam?" it will make up an answer for you, even though Venus Williams has won seven grand slams. She wanted to win her eighth, as many outlets reported, but she didn't. And the model is confusing the two notions of "wanted to win" vs. "won."

And the problem is that it does this so fluently. It can give you garbage, but in such fluent, coherent language that—if you aren't an expert in that domain—you might believe what it is saying is true. That worries me, and I think we humans are gullible in the face of seemingly well-articulated outputs.

On the other hand, what's exciting about ChatGPT?

We now have these tools that can generate creative and fluent language, a challenge we spent years tackling. As an AI scientist, my excitement is about the next steps, and we have new problems for AI to solve.

I am less excited about AI's goal—reverse-engineer human intelligence—and more about IA, or intelligence augmentation. I think it is a worthwhile goal to use AI to enable humans to do better things and to augment human capacity. I'm excited about those kinds of collaborative systems.

How do you see the technology evolving?

We are still in the midst of this change, but we will continue to make language models more efficient, leading to much more compact yet high-quality models. We will consequently witness very reliable forms of conversational agents everywhere. Future models will be your assistants for web navigation, accomplishing various mundane web-based tasks we do ourselves these days.

The same set of technologies is also starting to make its way to the physical world. Current models, such as ChatGPT, don't perceive their environment. For example, they can't see where my phone is or how tired I am. Soon we will see ChatGPT with eyes. These models will use different modalities of data (text, visual, auditory, etc.), which are necessary for them to serve us daily.

This will lead to self-supervised robots based on the data of their physical environments, including physical objects, humans, and their interactions. The impacts here will be enormous. In less than 10 years, any physical appliance we use daily—car, fridge, washer, etc.—will become conversational agents you will talk to. We will also see robots that are incredibly robust in solving problems that are impossible today. Imagine being about to speak with your Roomba about things you wanted to do or not do the way you converse with ChatGPT.

It is also essential not to lose sight of how these technologies will change things on a societal level. The future multimodal models—ChatGPTs with eyes and ears—will be everywhere and will impact everything, including public safety. But now comes the concern: In a society where we are constantly watched by AI models that have eyes and ears and continually get better the more they tend, what will our freedom and privacy look like?

That sounds like a dystopian society described by the famous novel 1984. Like any other technology, self-supervised models are double-edged swords. The best we can do now is to stay vigilant, foreseeing and debating such issues before the applications rise. Ideally, we need to develop frameworks that ensure our freedom and equity by extrapolating from examples such as ChatGPT to its future extensions. I am optimistic that we will.

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The Big Pros and Cons of ChatGPT 

By kenny phillips | august 3, 2023.

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Since its launch on November 30th, 2022, you can’t venture very far on the internet or social media apps without seeing something about ChatGPT. 

The artificial intelligence-powered chatbot from OpenAI uses a series of natural language processing (NLP) models that enable it to understand user text and generate human-like responses, simulating an open-ended conversation.

From web developers on Twitter to mainstream news outlets, over 100 million people currently use ChatGPT to answer questions, solve coding problems, write college essays, and more. 

It’s proved to be a very powerful tool, with users receiving accurate responses to their requests most of the time. 

One user got ChatGPT to write a piano piece in the style of Mozart, and another got it to generate a dairy-free recipe for mac and cheese. 

There are hundreds of use cases for AI chatbots like ChatGPT that span many industries, such as using it to revamp your resume, write original jokes, solve complicated math problems, and even receive relationship advice. 

Yet, that doesn’t mean there are no disadvantages of ChatGPT, as its language model does have some noticeable flaws . 

Besides that, there are many nefarious things users can do with the chatbot, such as using it to create malware or proliferate hate speech. 

That’s why we’re here to present both sides of the coin by pointing out the big pros and cons of ChatGPT, so stay tuned to learn more.

Unpacking ChatGPT’s Features 

ChatGPT is currently open-source software from OpenAI , meaning that anyone can download and start using it for free. 

What does GPT stand for?

It’s an acronym for generative pre-trained transformer , a neural network of machine learning models that uses deep learning to understand & generate human-like text. 

GPT is one of OpenAI’s creations, and it’s currently in the early stage of its fourth generation , as GPT-4 just dropped on March 14th, 2023. 

ChatGPT was based on GPT-2, the second generation of the technology. While it features a massive amount of training data, its data sets are a tad outdated at the moment. 

Still, the chatbot’s ability to generate human-like outputs in real-time is undoubtedly impressive, and the tool is effortless to pick up and start using. You can speak to ChatGPT as you would any friend or coworker, as it can comprehend common human language patterns. 

As far as functionality goes, you can use ChatGPT for just about anything . 

For instance, if your digital marketing strategy involves a boatload of content creation, a cost-effective way to knock it out is to let ChatGPT generate it all for you. Or, if you’re simply in need of a starting point, you can use it to cure writer’s block by writing the intro for you. 

As many software engineers on Twitter found out, ChatGPT is an excellent code debugging companion. Not only does it discover bugs and fix them, but it also provides detailed explanations of what it did to fix the issue – making it a fantastic educational tool for programmers.

The Big Pros 

Now that you know a bit more about what ChatGPT is and how it works, let’s dive into the pros and cons of ChatGPT. 

There are many advantages of ChatGPT, from increasing customer engagement to automatically generating e-commerce product descriptions for boosted productivity. 

The program can converse with users on various topics, and it has massive potential for improving customer service and virtual assistant services. 

Superior customer service automation

Speaking of customer service, ChatGPT is available 24/7 and can handle a large load of customer queries at a time, making it the ultimate customer service chatbot.

No longer will your customers have to wait hours or days in a queue for responses to their questions, as ChatGPT is fully capable of solving simple issues by itself. That will improve your response time metrics and overall customer experience, benefiting your company. 

Your customers will also appreciate conversing with a chatbot that understands them so well, as it’s nearly identical to chatting with a live customer service agent. 

As a result, you can let ChatGPT handle all your simple & repetitive customer service calls, which will free up your live team of customer service agents so they can handle more complex issues that require human intervention. 

That will add to your bottom line through increased efficiency and saved labor costs, which is definitely a plus. ChatGPT can also help small businesses and startups provide more robust customer service, even if they don’t have many live agents or much of a budget. 

As such, AI can help smaller companies level the playing field when competing with their enterprise-level counterparts, both with customer support and other business areas.

Automate tedious manual processes

Another way you can use ChatGPT to boost your productivity is to rely on it to knock out repetitive menial tasks. 

Data entry & categorization are two examples of tasks ChatGPT can help automate, freeing up a lot of time for your team. 

Instead of spending hours entering numbers into spreadsheets, your team members will have more time for important things like strategic planning, following up with client needs, and brainstorming new ways to innovate. 

Not only that, but you can integrate ChatGPT into many existing applications, such as CRM & data analytics tools. From there, you can use the chatbot’s superior data processing abilities to aid with future forecasting, spot trends in client data, and provide insights on employee performance. 

Coding-wise, ChatGPT’s ability to instantly generate accurate user documentation is a huge timesaver for programmers. Once you paste all your system’s information into ChatGPT, you can ask it FAQs from users, and you can use the answers it provides in your own documentation. 

Not only that, but the AI chatbot has the potential to transform non-programmers into developers through its ability to create code from natural language prompts. 

Now users don’t need to know a programming language to develop an app, as they can simply ask ChatGPT to write the required code for them. Its code-writing abilities can also save seasoned programmers a ton of time and effort when developing new applications & software. 

Content generation 

Digital marketing & SEO campaigns require quite a bit of content creation, which doesn’t come cheap. 

That’s why digital marketing agencies often have large in-house teams dedicated to creating content comprising writers, editors, graphic designers, and content strategists. 

ChatGPT is capable of generating entire blog posts, rephrasing & simplifying paragraphs, summarizing topics, and even creating image prompts for other programs like DALL-E. One college student shared on Twitter that he got ChatGPT to write an essay that received an A- from their professor. 

With the content generation capabilities of ChatGPT, companies can drastically reduce the costs associated with developing, creating, & releasing content. 

Writing a brief blog post can be as simple as typing a short request into ChatGPT, which will generate human-like text that’s free of plagiarism. However, the technology still isn’t capable of producing original insights or understanding human emotions, so there are some limitations. . 

The Big Cons

Now that you’re familiar with the biggest advantages of using AI chatbots at your company, it’s time to examine the cons of using ChatGPT. 

The platform has a genuine dark side, and it would be irresponsible of us not to mention it. Particularly, ChatGPT’s machine learning algorithms still need some tweaking and development. We’ve already mentioned that its language model is based on an older generation of GPT, but it doesn’t end there. 

Besides the inaccuracies and hallucinations exhibited by the chatbot, there are also many nefarious uses for ChatGPT that raise some ethical & moral red flags.

Outdated data sets 

When OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public in November 2022, the AI’s training data only reached the year 2021, and so far, nothing has changed yet. 

That means whenever you interact with ChatGPT, the chatbot will have no knowledge or awareness of anything that occurred after 2021. As a result, you won’t be able to get information on any recent events or discoveries until the data sets get updated. 

Factual inaccuracies & limited understanding 

While ChatGPT’s language model is robust and can understand most basic human language patterns, it isn’t perfect and can sometimes get confused. In particular, it still has difficulty understanding context and complex queries. 

That can lead to ChatGPT generating irrelevant user results, which can be frustrating. Also, since ChatGPT is still learning, it has some biases and even the tendency to lie and make up facts. For example, this writer received a different answer whenever they asked the chatbot, “ What was the first cartoon? ” 

The only thing the different answers had in common was that they were all incorrect. 

Nefarious uses 

Lastly, ChatGPT can be used for not-so-great purposes. While it’s capable of writing code and creating software, it can also create malware. 

It also lacks emotional intelligence and a sense of morals, so it can generate distasteful content when prompted. It has also produced racist and sexist content due to some users abusing the program, which is a real concern. 

Final Thoughts: Pros and Cons of ChatGPT 

There are many pros and cons of ChatGPT, and it’s clear that the chatbot still has many kinks to iron out. 

Yet, there’s no denying that it shows massive potential for helping companies save money, automate tasks, improve customer experiences, and more. 

At the same time, there’s a growing need to keep some of its capabilities in check, such as creating malware and writing phishing emails. As long as OpenAI continues to tweak the program and as long as the AI continues to learn from interacting with users, the future should be bright for ChatGPT. 

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Your blog is a fascinating read that provides a comprehensive overview of the benefits and drawbacks of ChatGPT. You have done a great job highlighting the various aspects, making it an insightful and engaging piece.

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Q&A: Weighing the pros and cons of ChatGPT in education

Virginia Reischl knows some teachers may feel uneasy about the rise of ChatGPT and other super-advanced chatbots. That’s understandable. 

The technology, which uses massive amounts of data to generate human-like responses to text prompts, is capable of writing an original five-paragraph essay on the Industrial Revolution or a research paper on the history of video games — with references — in mere seconds. And that’s just scratching the digital surface.

Much has already been said and written about the concerns over academic honesty . But Reischl, who serves as a humanities coordinator for the Orange County Department of Education, says there’s an academic upside to the new wave of artificial intelligence-powered text generators. She believes ChatGPT and similar products can be leveraged by schools to enhance teaching and learning — and they could even make life a little easier for educators.

In the fall, Reischl plans to present a workshop series that will dive into the pros and cons of conversational language models and what they mean for the future of education. In the meantime, we sat down with Reischl to get a few human-generated answers to our questions. 

For the uninitiated, what is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a Large Language Model, or LLM, that’s been trained to learn human language patterns and generate text based on given prompts. LLMs have been around since 2018 and are trained for specific industries and purposes. 

GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer, which means that it “learns” every time we use it. We train it every time we give it a prompt and have a conversation.

The downside is that the quality and accuracy of their responses can vary, and they have been known to produce biased and stereotyped responses because they learn from the biases and stereotypes present in the training data. MIT is currently researching ways to train logic into LLMs to neutralize these biases and stereotypes.

What drove your interest and research into this subject?

As an educator and a classroom teacher for 19 years with a background in teaching English and writing, I’ve always been interested in finding new ways to help students craft their message and communicate effectively. When I first heard about ChatGPT in November 2022, I was fascinated by the idea of an artificial intelligence that could generate human-like responses to text prompts.

As a lifelong learner, I dove into researching ChatGPT and became a huge fan of this tool as a potential collaborator in writing. It’s important to remember to put humanity into technology, and with ChatGPT, we can leverage its capabilities while still adding our own voice and creativity. As an educator and writer, I’m excited to explore the possibilities that this technology can offer.

Given the potential for academic dishonesty, how much anxiety is there out in the educational community right now?

That really depends on the teacher’s level of comfort with technology. Some are very comfortable with it and teach students how to use it, while others are more anxious and concerned about cheating. That’s the highest anxiety, the cheating aspect. The idea that students can turn in essays written with the tool and teachers won’t know if they’ve cheated or not.

What advice do you have for teachers or administrators who are skeptical or even fearful?

I would tell them that they don’t need to be experts and know everything about it. If they feel that it’s just one more thing they have to learn, and they don’t have time to teach their students about it, I would recommend they lean on their colleagues who understand and are excited about it. They could ask them questions and collaborate without feeling completely shut off by the technology. My recommendation is to be open-minded.

How are ChatGPT and similar tools already being used to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom?

Some elementary school teachers have found that ChatGPT can help students with their writing. For instance, if a student is tasked with researching the California Gold Rush, they can simply type into ChatGPT, “Outline a paper on the California Gold Rush.” The tool generates a list of topics and an outline that the student can then use to organize their thoughts and write their paper. This eliminates the fear of not knowing where to start or how to narrow down their topic, which has traditionally caused anxiety for students.

Another example is AP literature teachers using it as a way for students to analyze the author’s craft and grammar, which then influences their own writing. I’ve also heard of teachers using it for language acquisition and to help students with starting points, outlines and summarizing passages. 

Many have embraced this technology, but are you sympathetic to the concerns of those who worry about its impact on independent student thought?

Yes, I empathize with those concerns 100 percent. With everything we do, it’s important to maintain our humanity, our own voices, and our own open hearts and minds. We need to make sure that we center our humanity first, regardless of the technology we use, and then expand it through technological means.

How can educators prevent cheating with these kinds of emerging technologies?

So, in terms of ensuring that technology like ChatGPT isn’t used for cheating, it’s important for educators to focus on addressing the root cause of cheating rather than just trying to shut down the technology. We need to look at why students feel the need to cheat in the first place and find ways to address those issues. 

In terms of assessment, teachers have always used a variety of methods to demonstrate learning, such as presentations, plays, poems, projects and project-based learning. The essay is just one piece of that puzzle. As we move further into the 21st century, educators are increasingly focusing on developing skills like collaboration and varied communication methods, rather than relying solely on the traditional five-paragraph essay. So, it’s really about creating a diverse range of assessments that align with the skills and values we want to instill in our students.

Why do you feel it’s important for teachers to teach their students about A.I. language models?

It’s crucial for educators to be transparent about the technologies available to students and to show them how to use them ethically and responsibly. Students need to know that educators are aware of ChatGPT and other technologies — and can help them navigate their use. It’s also important to teach students about the biases and flaws of the technology so that they can be part of the solution to fixing them.

What are your plans for presenting lessons on ChatGPT to educators?

I have a three-part series planned to introduce educators to ChatGPT, its history, and its use in the humanities and STEAM subjects. We’ll also be discussing how to support students with disabilities and language learners using this technology. In addition, we’ll be having a book study and an AI conference in the future to keep the conversation going.

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ChatGPT in Education: The Pros, Cons and Unknowns of Generative AI

Suchi Rudra is a writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, BBC and Vice, among other publications.

Here’s a fun game: Say the word ChatGPT to a friend or colleague, then watch what happens.

There’s a lot of drama swirling around this groundbreaking artificial intelligence chatbot, released in November by the startup OpenAI . A few months later, in early March, OpenAI’s GPT-4 was introduced and has already stunned many by easily outperforming its older AI sibling. Not to be outdone, Google announced the arrival of its own AI chatbot, Bard , in late March.

Like everywhere else, the response in the academic arena has been varied. Educators are only starting to grasp the potential of this new AI tool and consider the ramifications of its use, both positive and negative. It’s no coincidence that universities are creating new faculty appointments focused on researching AI; for example, the University of Southern California’s recently announced $10 million Center for Generative AI and Society .

Click the banner  to learn about the latest K-12 software innovations when you sign up as an Insider.

What Is ChatGPT, and How Does It Work?

ChatGPT falls under the umbrella of generative AI, or AI tools used to generate original text, images and sound by responding to conversational text prompts. As a natural language processing model, ChatGPT is trained on data sources such as books, websites and other text-based materials. Using algorithms and machine learning techniques, ChatGPT can recognize patterns in language and generate appropriate responses based on the given input.

“Because of this training, it is able to assign meaning to conversational text and create outputs that are also conversational. Simply put, ChatGPT responds to prompts by providing users with the most likely response based on historical data,” explains Jenay Robert, a researcher at EDUCAUSE . However, it is this very conversational nature that makes it easy for users to “overestimate the accuracy and reliability” of the bot’s responses, she says.

That’s why it’s critical for educators and students to learn how AI works, be aware of its limitations and realize that “AI outputs cannot be trusted as absolute truth. Instead, we have to use human discernment, analysis and creativity to use AI outputs ethically and responsibly,” Robert says.

LEARN MORE: How companies are incorporating ChatGPT into major tools.

How Much Is ChatGPT Impacting Education?

Because the AI tool appeared rather suddenly and was quickly adopted by students, educators are brainstorming and sharing ideas in their networks on how to approach this developing situation.

“At all levels, siloed practice is a persistent challenge in the education profession, and this is only exacerbated when we are talking about an emerging technology,” Robert says. “Without a central source for best practices, educators must work together across the K–20 spectrum to create new norms.”

However, according to a recent EDUCAUSE survey , students are encountering varied perceptions of generative AI. Some classes or schools consider the use of generative AI to be academic misconduct, while students in other classes may be encouraged or even required to use it.

Some educators have pivoted to design new instructional support and are teaching students how to use the tool ethically and responsibly. Other professors have incorporated ChatGPT into the classroom by using it to demonstrate shortcomings in logic, accuracy and bias. This allows students to critique and analyze its responses and prove that “it is not an infallible tool,” says Janeen Peretin, director of communication, innovation and advancement for the Baldwin-Whitehall School District in Pittsburgh.

Indeed, there have long been ethical concerns over the development and use of AI tools, including the data used to train AI algorithms, which Robert notes are “produced by our current society, not some idealized version of our society. Existing systemic biases are trained into AI systems , and AI outputs can amplify those biases. This is of particular concern in education, where we are still battling persistent equity gaps.”

MORE ON EDTECH: Chief diversity officer wants to build equity into education with tech.

What to Do About the Problem of Plagiarism and ChatGPT

Not surprisingly, the use of ChatGPT to commit plagiarism is the most common concern among educators. Because of ChatGPT’s training on an enormous range of topics and increasingly convincing outputs, Peretin says students could use the tool “on most assignments and in almost all courses. ChatGPT can write poems, computer code, cite sources in an essay and solve mathematical problems, just to name a few of its uses. There is a larger, related concern that students will rely on generative AI tools to such an extent that they do not learn to produce original content.”

Hoping to stem this problem, some schools have banned the use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools on their networks. Others are updating school board policies and student handbooks to redefine what constitutes cheating. Still others require handwritten responses within the classroom. Another approach is aimed at rethinking the creation of assessments: those that allow the use of ChatGPT and other generative AI, and those that render generative AI entirely unhelpful.

Seeking Out the Potential Benefits of ChatGPT in Education

Despite all of the challenges and concerns surrounding ChatGPT, a recent EDUCAUSE QuickPoll found that more than half of respondents (54 percent) felt optimistic or very optimistic about generative AI, and only 12 percent felt pessimistic or very pessimistic. Educators and students are already using generative AI to expedite daily tasks, such as ideating, drafting and editing.

Janeen Peretin Director of Communication, Innovation and Advancement, Baldwin-Whitehall School District

One potential positive application of ChatGPT and similar AI tools is to help students struggling with homework. The tools could be “a springboard to help the student move beyond the hurdle that is before them and continue with an assignment,” Peretin says. “In this case, it is important that the student use the tool to help understand the concept that they were struggling with and not simply cut and paste the solution. Here, I can see generative AI tools as liberators and confidence boosters for anyone in need of assistance outside of normal school hours. These tools can also help to provide feedback on an original piece of writing that students can then use to modify and enhance their compositions.”

Using ChatGPT to Prepare Students for an AI-Driven Future

As teaching digital literacy and data ethics to K–12 students has become the new normal, introducing generative AI to younger students is a natural next step. K–12 teachers can help students explore developmentally appropriate questions about generative AI that cover the basics: What is generative AI, how does it work and how can it be used?

Peretin thinks younger students should also be taught how AI tools can be used “to manipulate information and become weaponized, and how we as humans must be able to evaluate the accuracy and bias of our data sources.”

Robert agrees that students should be aware of the ongoing debates over the ethical and responsible use of generative AI. “With this framing, students will be prepared to expect a variety of experiences with generative AI in college, make their own decisions about its development and use, and shape the future of the technology for both education and work,” she says.

This is especially important for K–12 educators to know, since higher education stakeholders “have not yet reached widespread agreement on how or even whether generative AI should be used in college. Students will likely have highly variable experiences, especially those entering college in the near future,” Robert adds.

In the realm of higher ed, similar teaching strategies apply, with an emphasis on the fact that “there are approved, appropriate and ethical ways to use tools like ChatGPT, but they should be used when they coincide with the learning objectives set forth by their instructors,” Peretin says. “It is important for students to clearly understand how to find the expectations of their instructors in higher ed in the syllabus and ask questions if they are not clear on the explanation.”

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11 Disadvantages Of ChatGPT Content

Researchers discover surprising flaws in ChatGPT content. Here's how to catch them.

• Why low-quality ChatGPT content passes human review.
• ChatGPT is comprehensive even when it should be concise.
• Professor cites a flaw that ruins ChatGPT-generated essays.
• ChatGPT fails the fictional Voight-Kampff android detection test and the surprising reason why this matters.

ChatGPT produces content that is comprehensive and plausibly accurate.

But researchers, artists, and professors warn of shortcomings to be aware of which degrade the quality of the content.

In this article, we’ll look at 11 disadvantages of ChatGPT content. Let’s dive in.

1. Phrase Usage Makes It Detectable As Non-Human

Researchers studying how to detect machine-generated content have discovered patterns that make it sound unnatural.

One of these quirks is how AI struggles with idioms.

An idiom is a phrase or saying with a figurative meaning attached to it, for example, “every cloud has a silver lining.”  

A lack of idioms within a piece of content can be a signal that the content is machine-generated – and this can be part of a detection algorithm.

This is what the 2022 research paper Adversarial Robustness of Neural-Statistical Features in Detection of Generative Transformers  says about this quirk in machine-generated content:

“Complex phrasal features are based on the frequency of specific words and phrases within the analyzed text that occur more frequently in human text. …Of these complex phrasal features, idiom features retain the most predictive power in detection of current generative models.”

This inability to use idioms contributes to making ChatGPT output sound and read unnaturally.

2. ChatGPT Lacks Ability For Expression

An artist commented on how the output of ChatGPT mimics what art is, but lacks the actual qualities of artistic expression.

Expression is the act of communicating thoughts or feelings.

ChatGPT output doesn’t contain expressions, only words.

It cannot produce content that touches people emotionally on the same level as a human can – because it has no actual thoughts or feelings.

Musical artist Nick Cave, in an article posted to his Red Hand Files newsletter, commented on a ChatGPT lyric that was sent to him, which was created in the style of Nick Cave.

“What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. …it is the breathless confrontation with one’s vulnerability, one’s perilousness, one’s smallness, pitted against a sense of sudden shocking discovery; it is the redemptive artistic act that stirs the heart of the listener, where the listener recognizes in the inner workings of the song their own blood, their own struggle, their own suffering.”

Cave called the ChatGPT lyrics a mockery.

This is the ChatGPT lyric that resembles a Nick Cave lyric:

“I’ve got the blood of angels, on my hands I’ve got the fire of hell, in my eyes I’m the king of the abyss, I’m the ruler of the dark I’m the one that they fear, in the shadows they hark”

And this is an actual Nick Cave lyric ( Brother, My Cup Is Empty ):

“Well I’ve been sliding down on rainbows I’ve been swinging from the stars Now this wretch in beggar’s clothing Bangs his cup across the bars Look, this cup of mine is empty! Seems I’ve misplaced my desires Seems I’m sweeping up the ashes Of all my former fires”

It’s easy to see that the machine-generated lyric resembles the artist’s lyric, but it doesn’t really communicate anything.

Nick Cave’s lyrics tell a story that resonates with the pathos, desire, shame, and willful deception of the person speaking in the song. It expresses thoughts and feelings.

It’s easy to see why Nick Cave calls it a mockery.

3. ChatGPT Does Not Produce Insights

An article published in The Insider quoted an academic who noted that academic essays generated by ChatGPT lack insights about the topic.

ChatGPT summarizes the topic but does not offer a unique insight into the topic.

Humans create through knowledge, but also through their personal experience and subjective perceptions.

Professor Christopher Bartel of Appalachian State University is quoted by The Insider as saying that, while a ChatGPT essay may exhibit high grammar qualities and sophisticated ideas, it still lacked insight.

Bartel said:

“They are really fluffy. There’s no context, there’s no depth or insight.”

Insight is the hallmark of a well-done essay and it’s something that ChatGPT is not particularly good at.

This lack of insight is something to keep in mind when evaluating machine-generated content.

4. ChatGPT Is Too Wordy

A research paper published in January 2023 discovered patterns in ChatGPT content that makes it less suitable for critical applications.

The paper is titled, How Close is ChatGPT to Human Experts? Comparison Corpus, Evaluation, and Detection .

The research showed that humans preferred answers from ChatGPT in more than 50% of questions answered related to finance and psychology.

But ChatGPT failed at answering medical questions because humans preferred direct answers – something the AI didn’t provide.

The researchers wrote:

“…ChatGPT performs poorly in terms of helpfulness for the medical domain in both English and Chinese. The ChatGPT often gives lengthy answers to medical consulting in our collected dataset, while human experts may directly give straightforward answers or suggestions, which may partly explain why volunteers consider human answers to be more helpful in the medical domain.”

ChatGPT tends to cover a topic from different angles, which makes it inappropriate when the best answer is a direct one.

Marketers using ChatGPT must take note of this because site visitors requiring a direct answer will not be satisfied with a verbose webpage.

And good luck ranking an overly wordy page in Google’s featured snippets , where a succinct and clearly expressed answer that can work well in Google Voice may have a better chance to rank than a long-winded answer.

OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, acknowledges that giving verbose answers is a known limitation.

The announcement article by OpenAI states:

“The model is often excessively verbose…”

The ChatGPT bias toward providing long-winded answers is something to be mindful of when using ChatGPT output, as you may encounter situations where shorter and more direct answers are better.

5. ChatGPT Content Is Highly Organized With Clear Logic

ChatGPT has a writing style that is not only verbose but also tends to follow a template that gives the content a unique style that isn’t human.

This inhuman quality is revealed in the differences between how humans and machines answer questions.

The movie Blade Runner has a scene featuring a series of questions designed to reveal whether the subject answering the questions is a human or an android.

These questions were a part of a fictional test called the “ Voigt-Kampff test “.

One of the questions is:

“You’re watching television. Suddenly you realize there’s a wasp crawling on your arm. What do you do?”

A normal human response would be to say something like they would scream, walk outside and swat it, and so on.

But when I posed this question to ChatGPT, it offered a meticulously organized answer that summarized the question and then offered logical multiple possible outcomes – failing to answer the actual question.

Screenshot Of ChatGPT Answering A Voight-Kampff Test Question

The answer is highly organized and logical, giving it a highly unnatural feel, which is undesirable.

6. ChatGPT Is Overly Detailed And Comprehensive

ChatGPT was trained in a way that rewarded the machine when humans were happy with the answer.

The human raters tended to prefer answers that had more details.

But sometimes, such as in a medical context, a direct answer is better than a comprehensive one.

What that means is that the machine needs to be prompted to be less comprehensive and more direct when those qualities are important.

From OpenAI:

“These issues arise from biases in the training data (trainers prefer longer answers that look more comprehensive) and well-known over-optimization issues.”

7. ChatGPT Lies (Hallucinates Facts)

The above-cited research paper, How Close is ChatGPT to Human Experts? , noted that ChatGPT has a tendency to lie.

It reports:

“When answering a question that requires professional knowledge from a particular field, ChatGPT may fabricate facts in order to give an answer… For example, in legal questions, ChatGPT may invent some non-existent legal provisions to answer the question. …Additionally, when a user poses a question that has no existing answer, ChatGPT may also fabricate facts in order to provide a response.”

The Futurism website documented instances where machine-generated content published on CNET was wrong and full of “dumb errors.”

CNET should have had an idea this could happen, because OpenAI published a warning about incorrect output:

“ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.”

CNET claims to have submitted the machine-generated articles to human review prior to publication.

A problem with human review is that ChatGPT content is designed to sound persuasively correct, which may fool a reviewer who is not a topic expert.

8. ChatGPT Is Unnatural Because It’s Not Divergent

The research paper, How Close is ChatGPT to Human Experts? also noted that human communication can have indirect meaning, which requires a shift in topic to understand it.

ChatGPT is too literal, which causes the answers to sometimes miss the mark because the AI overlooks the actual topic.

“ChatGPT’s responses are generally strictly focused on the given question, whereas humans’ are divergent and easily shift to other topics. In terms of the richness of content, humans are more divergent in different aspects, while ChatGPT prefers focusing on the question itself. Humans can answer the hidden meaning under the question based on their own common sense and knowledge, but the ChatGPT relies on the literal words of the question at hand…”

Humans are better able to diverge from the literal question, which is important for answering “what about” type questions.

For example, if I ask:

“Horses are too big to be a house pet. What about raccoons?”

The above question is not asking if a raccoon is an appropriate pet. The question is about the size of the animal.

ChatGPT focuses on the appropriateness of the raccoon as a pet instead of focusing on the size.

Screenshot of an Overly Literal ChatGPT Answer

9. ChatGPT Contains A Bias Towards Being Neutral

The output of ChatGPT is generally neutral and informative. It’s a bias in the output that can appear helpful but isn’t always.

The research paper we just discussed noted that neutrality is an unwanted quality when it comes to legal, medical, and technical questions.

Humans tend to pick a side when offering these kinds of opinions.

10. ChatGPT Is Biased To Be Formal

ChatGPT output has a bias that prevents it from loosening up and answering with ordinary expressions. Instead, its answers tend to be formal.

Humans, on the other hand, tend to answer questions with a more colloquial style, using everyday language and slang – the opposite of formal.

ChatGPT doesn’t use abbreviations like GOAT or TL;DR.

The answers also lack instances of irony, metaphors, and humor, which can make ChatGPT content overly formal for some content types.

The researchers write:

“…ChatGPT likes to use conjunctions and adverbs to convey a logical flow of thought, such as “In general”, “on the other hand”, “Firstly,…, Secondly,…, Finally” and so on.

11. ChatGPT Is Still In Training

ChatGPT is currently still in the process of training and improving.

OpenAI recommends that all content generated by ChatGPT should be reviewed by a human, listing this as a best practice.

OpenAI suggests keeping humans in the loop :

“Wherever possible, we recommend having a human review outputs before they are used in practice. This is especially critical in high-stakes domains, and for code generation. Humans should be aware of the limitations of the system, and have access to any information needed to verify the outputs (for example, if the application summarizes notes, a human should have easy access to the original notes to refer back).”

Unwanted Qualities Of ChatGPT

It’s clear that there are many issues with ChatGPT that make it unfit for unsupervised content generation. It contains biases and fails to create content that feels natural or contains genuine insights.

Further, its inability to feel or author original thoughts makes it a poor choice for generating artistic expressions.

Users should apply detailed prompts in order to generate content that is better than the default content it tends to output.

Lastly, human review of machine-generated content is not always enough, because ChatGPT content is designed to appear correct, even when it’s not.

That means it’s important that human reviewers are subject-matter experts who can discern between correct and incorrect content on a specific topic.

More resources: 

• ChatGPT Examples: 5 Ways SEOs and Digital Marketers Can Use ChatGPT
• Why SEO Pros Need To Master Prompts: The ChatGPT Revolution
• Is ChatGPT Use Of Web Content Fair?

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How to use Chat GPT to Write an Essay

Florencia basavilbaso.

• Best Apps And Tools , Writing Tips

Content Writer At Gradehacker

• February, 2023

If you want to speed up the essay-writing process with AI, here you’ll learn which are the basic tips you need to know to write an essay with Chat GPT.

How to Write an Essay With Chat GPT

To write an essay with Chat GPT, these are the four basic tips you need to know:

• Edit and refine the generated text
• Write a clear and concise prompt
• Take time to learn about Chat GPT
• Add your own thoughts to make it personal

Want an actual human help you write?

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

By now, you’ve probably heard about Chat GPT; an amazing AI that can (almost) write original content as if it was a real human being. So, now you are wondering how to use Chat GPT to write an essay. 

For that, we created this blog to guide you through each step so you can take all the benefits this platform has for you and use it in your favor.

Here at Gradehacker , we’ve been years dedicated to helping and improving non-traditional student’s life in multiple ways! Besides assisting them with their classes and essays , we are the most trusted resource for valuable information and tips that can change the way you work!

And today, we introduce you to Chat GPT !

This AI can help you write a college essay quickly and efficiently. If you want to know how to use chat GPT to write an essay, learn what are its pros and cons, and incorporate the best tips to change how you approach your essays, you are in the right place! 

Let’s start!

What is Chat GPT?

First, we’ll address some basics here. Let’s talk about what this platform is and what it can do for you!

ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a natural language processing technology that uses artificial intelligence to generate text based on a prompt. It can be used to generate ideas, structure sentences, and even create entire essays.

This computer program was created by the artificial intelligence research laboratory OpenAI and launched on November 30, 2022. It is still a pretty new platform and has a lot to improve, but it also has several advantages that can do more good than bad for you!

It is free to the public, but we recommend taking advantage of their free service as long as you can because it was created with the intention of monetizing the service in the future.

Meaning, Chat GPT won’t continue being free for too long.

Another interesting fact is that the service works best in English but is also able to function in some other languages.

What Can You Use Chat GPT For?

So, after reading what Chat GPT is, you are probably wondering what you can use it for.

Programs like this one which can generate text based on a prompt, are good for:

• When you want to save time and don't feel inspired to write
• Don't know how to continue what you started
• Getting ideas
• Start a project

We always recommend checking and editing the text because it’s not always accurate , and the information is often wrong, especially when it comes to dates, rates, or anything very specific.

But of course, there are other ways you can use Chat GPT. 

It can help you create a title for your essay topics, text for an announcement or copywriting, an article, or what you came for: an essay!

And that leads us to the main question: how do we use it?

How to Use Chat GPT to Write an Essay

If this AI is appropriately used, it can become the saver you’ve been yearning for. 

In short, to write an essay with Chat GPT, you need to follow this process:

2) Put a command 

3) Change the command until you get the desired outcome

Now let’s see how it works.

To start, let’s go to Chat GPT website and press where it says “ Try Chat GPT “

Once we log in, at the bottom of the page you’ll find a text box where you will need to write a command. This could be the title of the essay, a topic sentence, or even a few keywords. 

After providing the prompt, Chat GPT will generate text based on it.

The text will come out as a number of items containing specific ideas about the topic we asked for.  

Then, as a new command, you can ask Chat GPT to expand on the previous information.

Because Chat GPT remembers the previous information generated, you can also ask it to write more information from a specific item. In order to do that, you can go where you wrote your first command and, this time, put something like: “write essay line (or paragraph) about (item number).” 

You can also command multiple things at once , for example: “write an essay introduction with heading about item 7,”  or you can even command to do it for every item.

You can then edit and refine the generated text to make your essay unique and give it a personal touch as it would be with human writing.

Do you need a step-by-step tutorial on how to write an essay with Chat GPT?

If you want to use Chat GPT to write an entire essay from scratch , you can read our entire experience or check out our videos!

Pros and Cons of Using Chat GPT

As with any technology, there are both advantages and disadvantages to using Chat GPT.

Pros of Chat GPT

On the plus side, we can say that:

• It is much faster than traditional writing methods, and it can save you time and effort when writing an essay
• It can help you come up with ideas to get started on a project and structure your essay in a more organized way
• Reduces the need for research , as it can generate text based on the prompt without any additional input.
• It can provide you with information that is relevant to your topic
• It can help you refine and edit your text to make it unique

Cons of Chat GPT

But we know that Chat GPT is not perfect, so on the downside, it is essential to note that:

• Sometimes it can generate text that is not accurate , has incorrect premises, and is irrelevant to the prompt
• It can be challenging to use if you are not familiar with natural language processing technology
• You may have difficulty editing and refining the generated text to make it unique and personal
• It could end up being time-consuming if you don't know how to use the platform correctly
• Because it is trained on data, it may contain inherent biases, and this can be reflected in the outputted text

It is important to be aware of the potential for bias when using Chat GPT to generate essays , as this could lead to inaccurate or offensive results.

Also, be aware of the possibility of plagiarism when using it, as this could lead to serious consequences. Taking the time to check for plagiarism before submitting a written essay is essential to ensure its originality and accuracy.

And to save yourself from falling into those situations, be sure to read our blog post on how to avoid unintentional plagiarism.

How to Avoid Plagiarism When Using Chat GPT

To avoid plagiarism when using Chat GPT to write an essay, it is critical to double-check any generated content before submitting it. Using a reliable plagiarism checker is also helpful to ensure the content is entirely original.

These are some plagiarism software you can use:

If you want to know how these platforms work, check our video, where we’ll show you what they do, why they’re useful, and why they’re better than the rest.

Chat GPT Plus

One of the biggest problems with Chat GPT is that it might not always be available to use.

Many times, when we go to the website, what can happen is that there are a lot of people using it, which will create high traffic. When that happens, it will appear on the screen a text that says:

“ChatGPT is at capacity right now. Get notified when we’re back .” 

There, you can click on get notified, put your email address, and wait until the traffic slows down.

But if you don’t want to deal with waiting to be notified, there is an alternative choice: subscribe to  Chat GPT Plus.

By subscribing, you’ll gain:

• Access to ChatGPT at all times, even during the busiest periods
• Faster response times
• Priority access to new features and improvements

The subscription has a price of $20 per month and is only available for customers in the United States.

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Tips for Using Chat GPT

If you decide to use Chat GPT to write your essay, there are a few tips that can help you get the most out of it.

• Provide a clear and concise prompt: This will help Chat GPT generate the most accurate and relevant text.
• Edit, add your own thoughts, and refine the generated text to make it unique and personal
• If you are not familiar with natural language processing technology, take some time to learn about it before using Chat GPT

These tips will make a difference in your work, especially for those long essays where you need to do a lot of research. 

Knowing how to write a research paper or an argumentative essay is highly necessary and essential for a college student, even if you have Chat GPT helping you throughout the process, so in case you are unsure or need to refresh that, check out our video about it! 

Make Your Writing Stand Out When Using Chat GPT to Write an Essay

With our tips and guidance on how to make your essays stand out when using Chat GPT and the potential pitfalls to avoid, you’ll be in a great position to produce high-quality essays.

On the other side, you may like to know that here at Gradehacker, we offer college essays , classes and degree help services to help students like you reach their highest potential.

To check more helpful information, check our blogs:

What You Need For Your College Research Paper Outline

5 Common Essay Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Best AI to Write Essays

Best Apps For Writing 2024 | Boost Your Writing Skills

How Much Does it Cost to Write My Essay?

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

Florencia Basavilbaso is a content creator passioned for writing, music, films, and the arts. At Gradehacker, she helps to improve non-traditional students life’s by finding and providing the most useful information, so they can always progress. You can find her on LinkedIn .

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Educators weigh the pros and cons of ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence technology like ChatGPT is quickly rising in popularity, and teachers are grappling with how it fits — or does not fit — into classroom settings.

ChatGPT is a chatbot that can churn out anything from poems to essays to jokes, all with a simple request from a user. It can be hard to distinguish whether something has been written by the bot, or by a student.

More National News

This 22-year-old is trying to save us from ChatGPT before it changes writing forever

A college student created an app that can tell whether AI wrote an essay

Stop replacing humans with machines

Guests on Greater Boston said the tool can be used to cheat in class, but could also be a valuable tool.

Laura Meckler, national education reporter with the Washington Post, said while some people are very concerned about ChatGPT, others haven't even thought about it yet. Meckler said ChatGPT provides a creative new way to cheat, and she was "stunned" at how well the technology can produce solid academic work.

John FitzGibbon, associate director at Boston College’s Center for Digital Innovation in Learning said, "I've never seen a technology rise up so quickly in people's awareness. I've never seen it before."

FitzGibbon said students are very interested in ChatGPT and it could actually aid in learning. He said he used the tool with his own students to point out failures within responses from ChatGPT.

"This is a huge opportunity, especially in liberal arts and social sciences to rethink what we're challenging students with," FitzGibbon said.

ChatGPT is still new, and is likely to improve with more processing power. Meckler said educators can pose creative questions to students to which a bot couldn't respond well.

ChatGPT works best answering basic questions, but can't perform as well when asked for high level reasoning. She said teachers could start asking for handwritten responses or more open-ended questions so that students can't cheat with ChatGPT.

Watch: Educators struggling to detect new AI technology in students’ work

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StealthGPT is an innovative AI tool designed to create content that seamlessly bypasses AI detection systems such as Turnitin. This platform is ideal for users needing to produce original papers, reports, and blogs that are indistinguishable from human-written text. StealthGPT integrates advanced features from technologies like ChatGPT, Claude AI, and its proprietary Stealth Writer to enhance the authenticity of AI-generated documents. It offers unique services including the humanization of AI text, crafting essays that evade detection, and interpreting and answering content from images of worksheets or notes.

Supporting multiple languages, StealthGPT extends its utility globally and provides an API for developers, allowing the integration of its undetectable AI capabilities into other applications or websites. Users new to StealthGPT can take advantage of a free trial that includes access to tools such as Chat with PDF, SEO Writer, and the creation of undetectable content in various languages. The platform emphasizes the production of original content, crucial for maintaining integrity in academic and professional writings.

Additionally, StealthGPT's website features a comprehensive FAQ section. This resource helps users understand more about undetectable AI, the process of humanizing AI-generated text, the range of language support, and the originality of the content produced, ensuring users can confidently use the tool to meet their needs.

Key features

• Stealth writer integration: Seamlessly integrates with existing AI models like ChatGPT and Claude AI to enhance the undetectability of generated content.
• Multi-language support: Offers comprehensive language options, enabling users to create and humanize content in various languages with high accuracy.
• API for developers: Provides a robust API that allows developers to incorporate StealthGPT’s features into their own applications or websites for enhanced functionality.
• Chat with PDF: Allows users to interact directly with PDF documents, extracting and rephrasing content to ensure it passes AI detection systems like Turnitin.
• SEO writer feature: Optimizes content for search engines while maintaining the originality and undetectability from AI plagiarism detectors.
• Free trial access: Users can explore the full capabilities of StealthGPT, including undetectable content creation and multi-language support, at no initial cost.
• Real-time collaboration: Enables multiple users to work simultaneously on content creation, ensuring efficient teamwork and idea integration.
• Content scalability: Easily scales content production from small to large volumes without compromising quality, ideal for businesses of all sizes.
• User-friendly interface: Designed with simplicity in mind, making it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise to navigate and use effectively.
• Advanced security features: Implements top-tier security measures to protect user data and generated content from unauthorized access.
• Continuous updates: Regularly updated to incorporate the latest AI advancements and user feedback, ensuring it remains cutting-edge.
• Complex user interface: The interface may be overwhelming for new users, requiring a steep learning curve to utilize all advanced features effectively.
• Limited customization options: Users might find the customization options for integrating with existing AI models somewhat restricted.
• Resource-intensive operations: The tool's advanced features, like multi-language support and SEO optimization, may demand significant system resources, affecting performance.
• Dependence on internet connectivity: Full functionality is reliant on stable internet connection, limiting use in low-connectivity areas.
• Delayed API updates: Developers might experience delays in API updates, affecting the integration of new features and maintenance of system compatibility.

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