'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?

ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.

When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.

ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form .

5 ways ChatGPT can help you write an essay

screenshot-2024-03-27-at-4-28-37pm.png

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

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

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

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

Below, we show you how to use ChatGPT for both writing and assisting and include some other helpful writing tips. 

How ChatGPT can help you write an essay

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

It is also worth noting before you get started that other AI chatbots can output the same results as ChatGPT or are even better, depending on your needs. For example,  Copilot , Perplexity , and Gemini also have access to the internet and include footnotes linking back to the original source for all of their responses, making the chatbots solid alternatives if you rather skip out on ChatGPT. 

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

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

1. Use ChatGPT to generate essay ideas

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

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

Also: How do AI checkers actually work?

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

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

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

2. Use the chatbot to create an outline

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

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

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

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

Also: How my 4 favorite AI tools help me get more done at work

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

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

If you want ChatGPT to include links and sources throughout, you can ask it to and it will regenerate the answer using its web-browsing feature , further expediting your essay-writing process. 

3. Use ChatGPT to find sources

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

All you need to do is ask the AI to find sources for your essay topic. The biggest thing to remember is to include the type of source you want, whether it be web pages, books, PDFs, research, papers, etc. 

Also:   How to make ChatGPT provide sources and citations

The specifics are necessary because when you specify web pages, ChatGPT will activate the web browsing feature and include web links in its article. If you use a very general prompt, however, it will likely default to generating its answer from its database, which isn't up to date. 

For example, I asked the following: 

"Examining the Leadership Style of Abraham Lincoln through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

The chatbot outputs links, accessible right at the top of the answer under the drop-down that says "Searched # of sites." Then, within the response, it will answer your prompt conversationally, also including sources with site names and links in parathesis. 

4. Use ChatGPT to write an essay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. Use ChatGPT to co-edit your essay

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

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

Also:  How to use ChatGPT to make charts and tables

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

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

6 ways to write better ChatGPT prompts - and get the results you want faster

5 ways college students can use gemini ai to keep up with school work, google's notebooklm can discuss your notes with you now. how to access it (and why you should).

Celebrating 150 years of Harvard Summer School. Learn about our history.

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.

Explore Our High School Programs

How to Use AI as a Tool to Support Your Work

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

Generate ideas for essays

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

Generate outlines

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

Generate titles for your essays

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

The Benefits of Writing Your Essays Yourself

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

Create your own ideas

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

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

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

Develop your critical thinking and analysis skills

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

Improve your research skills

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

Learn to be a great communicator

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

Be impacted by what you’re learning about : 

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

Resources to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills

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

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

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

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

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

The Future of AI in the Classroom

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

About the Author

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

5 Key Qualities of Students Who Succeed at Harvard Summer School (and in College!)

This guide outlines the kinds of students who thrive at Harvard Summer School and what the programs offer in return.

Harvard Division of Continuing Education

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.

Harvard Division of Continuing Education Logo

Learn Prompt logo

Mastering ChatGPT: The Ultimate Prompts Guide for Academic Writing Excellence

ChatGPT, with its advanced AI capabilities, has emerged as a game-changer for many. Yet, its true potential is unlocked when approached with the right queries. The prompts listed in this article have been crafted to optimize your interaction with this powerful tool. By leveraging them, you not only streamline your writing process but also enhance the quality of your research and insights. As we wrap up, we urge you not to take our word for it. Dive into the world of ChatGPT, armed with these prompts, and witness the transformation in your academic writing endeavors firsthand.

ChatGPT Prompts for Idea Generation

If you’re stuck or unsure where to begin, ChatGPT can help brainstorm ideas or topics for your paper, thesis, or dissertation.

  • Suggest some potential topics on [your broader subject or theme] for an academic paper.
  • Suggest some potential topics within the field of [your broader subject] related to [specific interest or theme].
  • I’m exploring the field of [broader subject, e.g., “psychology”]. Could you suggest some topics that intersect with [specific interest, e.g., “child development”] and are relevant to [specific context or region, e.g., “urban settings in Asia”]?
  • Within the realm of [broader subject, e.g., “philosophy”], I’m intrigued by [specific interest, e.g., “existentialism”]. Could you recommend topics that bridge it with [another field or theme, e.g., “modern technology”] in the context of [specific region or era, e.g., “21st-century Europe”]?
  • Act as my brainstorming partner. I’m working on [your broader subject or theme]. What topics could be pertinent for an academic paper?
  • Act as my brainstorming partner for a moment. Given the broader subject of [discipline, e.g., ‘sociology’], can you help generate ideas that intertwine with [specific theme or interest, e.g., ‘social media’] and cater to an audience primarily from [region or demographic, e.g., ‘South East Asia’]?

ChatGPT Prompts for Academic Writing

ChatGPT Prompts for Structuring Content

The model can provide suggestions for how to organize your content, including potential section headers, logical flow of arguments, etc.

  • How should I structure my paper on [your specific topic]? Provide an outline or potential section headers.
  • I’m writing a paper about [your specific topic]. How should I structure it and which sub-topics should I cover within [chosen section, e.g., “Literature Review”]?
  • For a paper that discusses [specific topic, e.g., “climate change”], how should I structure the [chosen section, e.g., “Literature Review”] and integrate studies from [specific decade or period, e.g., “the 2010s”]?
  • I’m compiling a paper on [specific topic, e.g., “biodiversity loss”]. How should I arrange the [chosen section, e.g., “Discussion”] to incorporate perspectives from [specific discipline, e.g., “socio-economics”] and findings from [specified region or ecosystem, e.g., “tropical rainforests”]?
  • Act as an editor for a moment. Based on a paper about [your specific topic], how would you recommend I structure it? Are there key sections or elements I should include?
  • Act as a structural consultant for my paper on [topic, e.g., ‘quantum physics’]. Could you suggest a logical flow and potential section headers, especially when I aim to cover aspects like [specific elements, e.g., ‘quantum entanglement and teleportation’]?
  • Act as my editorial guide. For a paper focused on [specific topic, e.g., “quantum computing”], how might I structure my [chosen section, e.g., “Findings”]? Especially when integrating viewpoints from [specific discipline, e.g., “software engineering”] and case studies from [specified region, e.g., “East Asia”]?

ChatGPT Prompts for Proofreading

While it might not replace a human proofreader, ChatGPT can help you identify grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, or inconsistencies in your writing.

  • Review this passage for grammatical or stylistic errors: [paste your text here].
  • Review this paragraph from my [type of document, e.g., “thesis”] for grammatical or stylistic errors: [paste your text here].
  • Please review this passage from my [type of document, e.g., “dissertation”] on [specific topic, e.g., “renewable energy”] for potential grammatical or stylistic errors: [paste your text here].
  • Kindly scrutinize this segment from my [type of document, e.g., “journal article”] concerning [specific topic, e.g., “deep-sea exploration”]. Highlight any linguistic or structural missteps and suggest how it might better fit the style of [target publication or audience, e.g., “Nature Journal”]: [paste your text here].
  • Act as my proofreader. In this passage: [paste your text here], are there any grammatical or stylistic errors I should be aware of?
  • Act as my preliminary proofreader. I’ve drafted a section for my [type of document, e.g., “research proposal”] about [specific topic, e.g., “nanotechnology”]. I’d value feedback on grammar, coherence, and alignment with [target publication or style, e.g., “IEEE standards”]: [paste your text here].

ChatGPT Prompts for Citation Guidance

Need help formatting citations or understanding the nuances of different citation styles (like APA, MLA, Chicago)? ChatGPT can guide you.

  • How do I format this citation in [desired style, e.g., APA, MLA]? Here’s the source: [paste source details here].
  • I’m referencing a [type of source, e.g., “conference paper”] authored by [author’s name] in my document. How should I format this citation in the [desired style, e.g., “Chicago”] style?
  • Act as a citation guide. I need to reference a [source type, e.g., ‘journal article’] for my work. How should I format this using the [citation style, e.g., ‘APA’] method?
  • Act as my citation assistant. I’ve sourced a [type of source, e.g., “web article”] from [author’s name] published in [year, e.g., “2018”]. How should I present this in [desired style, e.g., “MLA”] format?

ChatGPT Prompts for Paraphrasing

If you’re trying to convey information from sources without plagiarizing, the model can assist in rephrasing the content.

  • Can you help me paraphrase this statement? [paste your original statement here].
  • Help me convey the following idea from [source author’s name] in my own words: [paste the original statement here].
  • I’d like to reference an idea from [source author’s name]’s work on [specific topic, e.g., “quantum physics”]. Can you help me paraphrase this statement without losing its essence: [paste the original statement here]?
  • Act as a wordsmith. I’d like a rephrased version of this statement without losing its essence: [paste your original statement here].
  • Act as my rephraser. Here’s a statement from [author’s name]’s work on [topic, e.g., ‘cognitive development’]: [paste original statement here]. How can I convey this without plagiarizing?
  • Act as my plagiarism prevention aid. I’d like to include insights from [source author’s name]’s research on [specific topic, e.g., “solar energy”]. Help me convey this in my own words while maintaining the tone of my [type of work, e.g., “doctoral thesis”]: [paste the original statement here].

ChatGPT Prompts for Vocabulary Enhancement

If you’re looking for more sophisticated or subject-specific terminology, ChatGPT can suggest synonyms or alternative phrasing.

  • I want a more academic or sophisticated way to express this: [paste your sentence or phrase here].
  • In the context of [specific field or subject], can you suggest a more academic way to express this phrase: [paste your phrase here]?
  • I’m writing a paper in the field of [specific discipline, e.g., “bioinformatics”]. How can I convey this idea more academically: [paste your phrase here]?
  • Within the purview of [specific discipline, e.g., “astrophysics”], I wish to enhance this assertion: [paste your phrase here]. What terminologies or phrasing would resonate more with an audience well-versed in [related field or topic, e.g., “stellar evolution”]?
  • Act as my thesaurus. For this phrase: [paste your sentence or phrase here], is there a more academic or sophisticated term or phrase I could use?
  • Act as a lexicon expert in [field, e.g., ‘neuroscience’]. How might I express this idea more aptly: [paste your phrase here]?

ChatGPT Prompts for Clarifying Concepts

If you’re working in a field that’s not your primary area of expertise, the model can provide explanations or definitions for unfamiliar terms or concepts.

  • Can you explain the concept of [specific term or concept] in the context of academic research?
  • In [specific field, e.g., “sociology”], what does [specific term or concept] mean? And how does it relate to [another term or concept]?
  • In the realm of [specific discipline, e.g., “neuroscience”], how would you define [term or concept A], and how does it differentiate from [term or concept B]?
  • Act as my tutor. I’m a bit lost on the concept of [specific term or concept]. Can you break it down for me in the context of [specific academic field]?
  • Act as my academic tutor for a moment. I’ve encountered some challenging terms in [specific discipline, e.g., “metaphysics”]. Could you elucidate the distinctions between [term A], [term B], and [term C], especially when applied in [specific context or theory, e.g., “Kantian philosophy”]?

ChatGPT Prompts for Draft Review

You can share sections or excerpts of your draft, and ChatGPT can provide general feedback or points for consideration.

  • Please provide feedback on this excerpt from my draft: [paste excerpt here].
  • Could you review this excerpt from my [type of document, e.g., “research proposal”] and provide feedback on [specific aspect, e.g., “clarity and coherence”]: [paste excerpt here]?
  • I’d appreciate feedback on this fragment from my [type of document, e.g., “policy analysis”] that centers on [specific topic, e.g., “renewable energy adoption”]. Specifically, I’m looking for guidance on its [specific aspect, e.g., “argumentative flow”] and how it caters to [intended audience, e.g., “policy-makers in Southeast Asia”]: [paste excerpt here].
  • Act as a reviewer for my journal submission. Could you critique this section of my draft: [paste excerpt here]?
  • Act as my critique partner. I’ve written a segment for my [type of document, e.g., “literature review”] on [specific topic, e.g., “cognitive biases”]. Could you assess its [specific quality, e.g., “objectivity”], especially considering its importance for [target audience or application, e.g., “clinical psychologists”]: [paste excerpt here].

ChatGPT Prompts for Reference Pointers

If you’re looking for additional sources or literature on a topic, ChatGPT can point you to key papers, authors, or studies (though its knowledge is up to 2022, so it won’t have the latest publications).

  • Can you recommend key papers or studies related to [your topic or research question]?
  • I need references related to [specific topic] within the broader field of [your subject area]. Can you suggest key papers or authors?
  • I’m researching [specific topic, e.g., “machine learning in healthcare”]. Can you suggest seminal works from the [specific decade, e.g., “2000s”] within the broader domain of [your general field, e.g., “computer science”]?
  • My study orbits around [specific topic, e.g., “augmented reality in education”]. I’m especially keen on understanding its evolution during the [specific time frame, e.g., “late 2010s”]. Can you direct me to foundational papers or figures within [your overarching domain, e.g., “educational technology”]?
  • Act as a literature guide. I’m diving into [your topic or research question]. Do you have suggestions for seminal papers or must-read studies?
  • Act as my literary guide. My work revolves around [specific topic, e.g., “virtual reality in pedagogy”]. I’d appreciate direction towards key texts or experts from the [specific era, e.g., “early 2000s”], especially those that highlight applications in [specific setting, e.g., “higher education institutions”].

ChatGPT Prompts for Writing Prompts

For those facing writer’s block, ChatGPT can generate prompts or questions to help you think critically about your topic and stimulate your writing.

  • I’m facing writer’s block on [your topic]. Can you give me some prompts or questions to stimulate my thinking?
  • I’m writing about [specific topic] in the context of [broader theme or issue]. Can you give me questions that would enhance my discussion?
  • I’m discussing [specific topic, e.g., “urban planning”] in relation to [another topic, e.g., “sustainable development”] in [specific region or country, e.g., “Latin America”]. Can you offer some thought-provoking prompts?
  • Act as my muse. I’m struggling with [your topic]. Could you generate some prompts or lead questions to help steer my writing?
  • Act as a muse for my writer’s block. Given the themes of [topic A, e.g., ‘climate change’] and its impact on [topic B, e.g., ‘marine ecosystems’], can you generate thought-provoking prompts?

ChatGPT Prompts for Thesis Statements

If you’re struggling with framing your thesis statement, ChatGPT can help you refine and articulate it more clearly.

  • Help me refine this thesis statement for clarity and impact: [paste your thesis statement here].
  • Here’s a draft thesis statement for my paper on [specific topic]: [paste your thesis statement]. How can it be made more compelling?
  • I’m drafting a statement for my research on [specific topic, e.g., “cryptocurrency adoption”] in the context of [specific region, e.g., “European markets”]. Here’s my attempt: [paste your thesis statement]. Any suggestions for enhancement?
  • Act as my thesis advisor. I’m shaping a statement on [topic, e.g., ‘blockchain in finance’]. Here’s my draft: [paste your thesis statement]. How might it be honed further?

ChatGPT Prompts for Abstract and Summary

The model can help in drafting, refining, or summarizing abstracts for your papers.

  • Can you help me draft/summarize an abstract based on this content? [paste main points or brief content here].
  • I’m submitting a paper to [specific conference or journal]. Can you help me summarize my findings from [paste main content or points] into a concise abstract?
  • I’m aiming to condense my findings on [specific topic, e.g., “gene therapy”] from [source or dataset, e.g., “recent clinical trials”] into an abstract for [specific event, e.g., “a biotech conference”]. Can you assist?
  • Act as an abstracting service. Based on the following content: [paste main points or brief content here], how might you draft or summarize an abstract?
  • Act as my editorial assistant. I’ve compiled findings on [topic, e.g., ‘genetic modifications’] from my research. Help me craft or refine a concise abstract suitable for [event or publication, e.g., ‘an international biology conference’].

ChatGPT Prompts for Methodological Assistance

If you’re unsure about the methodology section of your paper, ChatGPT can provide insights or explanations about various research methods.

  • I’m using [specific research method, e.g., qualitative interviews] for my study on [your topic]. Can you provide insights or potential pitfalls?
  • For a study on [specific topic], I’m considering using [specific research method]. Can you explain its application and potential challenges in this context?
  • I’m considering a study on [specific topic, e.g., “consumer behavior”] using [research method, e.g., “ethnographic studies”]. Given the demographic of [target group, e.g., “millennials in urban settings”], what might be the methodological challenges?
  • My exploration of [specific topic, e.g., “consumer sentiment”] deploys [research method, e.g., “mixed-method analysis”]. Given my target demographic of [specific group, e.g., “online shoppers aged 18-25”], what are potential methodological challenges and best practices in [specific setting or platform, e.g., “e-commerce platforms”]?
  • Act as a methodological counselor. I’m exploring [topic, e.g., ‘consumer behavior patterns’] using [research technique, e.g., ‘qualitative interviews’]. Given the scope of [specific context or dataset, e.g., ‘online retail platforms’], what insights can you offer?

ChatGPT Prompts for Language Translation

While not perfect, ChatGPT can assist in translating content to and from various languages, which might be helpful for non-native English speakers or when dealing with sources in other languages.

  • Please translate this passage to [desired language]: [paste your text here].
  • I’m integrating a passage for my research on [specific topic, e.g., “Mesoamerican civilizations”]. Could you assist in translating this content from [source language, e.g., “Nahuatl”] to [target language, e.g., “English”] while preserving academic rigor: [paste your text here]?
  • Act as my translation assistant. I have this passage in [source language, e.g., ‘French’] about [topic, e.g., ‘European history’]: [paste your text here]. Can you render it in [target language, e.g., ‘English’] while maintaining academic integrity?

ChatGPT Prompts for Ethical Considerations

ChatGPT can provide a general overview of ethical considerations in research, though specific guidance should come from institutional review boards or ethics committees.

  • What are some general ethical considerations when conducting research on [specific topic or population]?
  • I’m conducting research involving [specific group or method, e.g., “minors” or “online surveys”]. What are key ethical considerations I should be aware of in the context of [specific discipline or field]?
  • My investigation encompasses [specific method or technique, e.g., “genome editing”] on [target population or organism, e.g., “plant species”]. As I operate within the framework of [specific institution or body, e.g., “UNESCO guidelines”], what ethical imperatives should I foreground, especially when considering implications for [broader context, e.g., “global food security”]?
  • Act as an ethics board member. I’m conducting research on [specific topic or population]. Could you outline key ethical considerations I should bear in mind?
  • Act as an ethics overview guide. My research involves [specific technique or method, e.g., ‘live human trials’] in the realm of [specific discipline, e.g., ‘medical research’]. What general ethical considerations might be paramount, especially when targeting [specific population or group, e.g., ‘adolescents’]?

ChatGPT’s advanced AI capabilities have made it a standout tool in the world of academic writing. However, its real strength shines when paired with the right questions. The prompts in this article are tailored to optimize your experience with ChatGPT. By using them, you can streamline your writing and elevate the depth of your research. But don’t just take our word for it. Explore ChatGPT with these prompts and see the transformation in your academic writing for yourself. Excellent writing is just one prompt away.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

  • Argumentative
  • Ecocriticism
  • Informative
  • Explicatory
  • Illustrative
  • Problem Solution
  • Interpretive
  • Music Analysis
  • All Essay Examples
  • Entertainment
  • Law, Crime & Punishment
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Environment
  • Geography & Travel
  • Government & Politics
  • Nursing & Health
  • Information Science and Technology
  • All Essay Topics

Supercharge Your Essay Writing With EssayGPT

Your Best AI Essay Writing Copilot

Your Best AI Essay Writing Copilot

Supercharge Your Essay Writing With EssayGPT

Write, edit, and improve your essay with the best AI essay writing copilot. Research, cite, & check plagiarism easily - all in one place.

Supercharge Your Essay Writing With EssayGPT

AI Essay Generator for All Grade Level Students

Save time by quickly generating outlines, draft essays, or even complete essays on a given topic.

Undetectable AI Essay

With EssayGPT, you can seamlessly humanize your AI-generated essay to bypass AI detection.

Avoid getting flagged by Turnitin, GPTZero, Originality.ai, etc

Confidently submit your work knowing it meets the standards of academic integrity

Credit all sources, including AI-generated content, to avoid plagiarism

Comprehensive Academic Help

Count on EssayGPT to generate essays across a diverse array of topics, including

Literary critiques

Business strategies

Scientific discourse

Medical findings

Historical events

Environmental concerns

Sociological debates

All types of essays are also covered, such as

Narrative essays

Argumentative essays

Descriptive essays

Analytical essays

Expository essays

Comparison essays

Persuasive essays

AI Essay Generator for All Grade Level Students

Next-Gen Writing Workspace for Undergrad & Postgrad

Get Over Writer's Block

Whether you need help with abstracts, rewriting, or summarizing sections, simply type // and our AI tools will be there for you without any delay.

Research Made Simple

Find relevant and credible papers from our database of 200+ million scholarly sources. Enrich the accuracy and depth of your essays.

Cite In Style

EssayGPT can automatically add proper citations in popular formats such as APA, MLA, or Chicago. Align perfectly with any style guide or publication.

Let AI Write With You

When you're stuck for words, EssayGPT can pick up where you've left off and write content that flows and aligns perfectly with your ongoing piece of writing.

Export With A Click

With EssayGPT, you can seamlessly export your finished essays with a single click. Choose from various file formats for easy sharing or submission.

Next-Gen Writing Workspace for Undergrad & Postgrad

Access 200M+ Papers, Get Science-Based Answers

Chat with HIX ScholarChat, the best AI research assistant by EssayGPT, to find and summarize insights from 200M+ scholarly sources, receive science-based answers, and effortlessly draft content with accurate citations .

Unleash Your Writing Superpowers with EssayGPT

Over 1,000,000 users have trusted essaygpt.

Dive into a World of Inspiration

  • Different types of Bullying Essay
  • The Altar of the Family
  • Kelly Clarkson Quote
  • Module 1 Cartoon Analysis
  • Why Are Sand Dunes Important To Coastal Environment?
  • Persuasive Essay On Racial Profiling
  • Positive Reinforcement
  • Advantages And Disadvantages Of Ftp
  • Examples Of Who Was Responsible For The Assassination Of Julius Caesar
  • My Interest On Computer Science Essay
  • Technology Used by Ups
  • Advantages And Disadvantages Of Lacquer
  • Plants Respond To Gravity
  • Political Institutions Essay
  • Case Study On Lookbook Store

Diverse Topics and Perspectives for Essay Writing

What is essaygpt.

EssayGPT is a comprehensive AI essay writing copilot. It integrates several features such as a Generator for crafting outlines or drafts, a Writer workspace for researching, citing, and formatting, and ScholarChat, a research chatbot that assists with locating sources.

By combining these features into a single AI system, EssayGPT simplifies essay writing, allowing users to create, refine, and enhance their essays efficiently. EssayGPT as their trusted companion to produce high-quality content with ease.

How does this AI essay maker help in research?

Is this ai essay maker secure and reliable, can essaygpt add citations, does essaygpt offer high-quality ai auto completion features, does essaygpt support multilingual essay writing.

Try EssayGPT for Free Today!

Try EssayGPT for Free Today!

With EssayGPT , you can transform your academic writing process and produce top-notch essays in record time.

  • PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
  • EDIT Edit this Article
  • EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Happiness Hub Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
  • Browse Articles
  • Learn Something New
  • Quizzes Hot
  • Happiness Hub
  • This Or That Game
  • Train Your Brain
  • Explore More
  • Support wikiHow
  • About wikiHow
  • Log in / Sign up
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Online Communications

How to Get ChatGPT to Write an Essay: Prompts, Outlines, & More

Last Updated: June 2, 2024 Fact Checked

Getting ChatGPT to Write the Essay

Using ai to help you write, expert interview.

This article was co-authored by Bryce Warwick, JD and by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA . Bryce Warwick is currently the President of Warwick Strategies, an organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area offering premium, personalized private tutoring for the GMAT, LSAT and GRE. Bryce has a JD from the George Washington University Law School. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 51,864 times.

Are you curious about using ChatGPT to write an essay? While most instructors have tools that make it easy to detect AI-written essays, there are ways you can use OpenAI's ChatGPT to write papers without worrying about plagiarism or getting caught. In addition to writing essays for you, ChatGPT can also help you come up with topics, write outlines, find sources, check your grammar, and even format your citations. This wikiHow article will teach you the best ways to use ChatGPT to write essays, including helpful example prompts that will generate impressive papers.

Things You Should Know

  • To have ChatGPT write an essay, tell it your topic, word count, type of essay, and facts or viewpoints to include.
  • ChatGPT is also useful for generating essay topics, writing outlines, and checking grammar.
  • Because ChatGPT can make mistakes and trigger AI-detection alarms, it's better to use AI to assist with writing than have it do the writing.

Step 1 Create an account with ChatGPT.

  • Before using the OpenAI's ChatGPT to write your essay, make sure you understand your instructor's policies on AI tools. Using ChatGPT may be against the rules, and it's easy for instructors to detect AI-written essays.
  • While you can use ChatGPT to write a polished-looking essay, there are drawbacks. Most importantly, ChatGPT cannot verify facts or provide references. This means that essays created by ChatGPT may contain made-up facts and biased content. [1] X Research source It's best to use ChatGPT for inspiration and examples instead of having it write the essay for you.

Step 2 Gather your notes.

  • The topic you want to write about.
  • Essay length, such as word or page count. Whether you're writing an essay for a class, college application, or even a cover letter , you'll want to tell ChatGPT how much to write.
  • Other assignment details, such as type of essay (e.g., personal, book report, etc.) and points to mention.
  • If you're writing an argumentative or persuasive essay , know the stance you want to take so ChatGPT can argue your point.
  • If you have notes on the topic that you want to include, you can also provide those to ChatGPT.
  • When you plan an essay, think of a thesis, a topic sentence, a body paragraph, and the examples you expect to present in each paragraph.
  • It can be like an outline and not an extensive sentence-by-sentence structure. It should be a good overview of how the points relate.

Step 3 Ask ChatGPT to write the essay.

  • "Write a 2000-word college essay that covers different approaches to gun violence prevention in the United States. Include facts about gun laws and give ideas on how to improve them."
  • This prompt not only tells ChatGPT the topic, length, and grade level, but also that the essay is personal. ChatGPT will write the essay in the first-person point of view.
  • "Write a 4-page college application essay about an obstacle I have overcome. I am applying to the Geography program and want to be a cartographer. The obstacle is that I have dyslexia. Explain that I have always loved maps, and that having dyslexia makes me better at making them."

Tyrone Showers

Tyrone Showers

Be specific when using ChatGPT. Clear and concise prompts outlining your exact needs help ChatGPT tailor its response. Specify the desired outcome (e.g., creative writing, informative summary, functional resume), any length constraints (word or character count), and the preferred emotional tone (formal, humorous, etc.)

Step 4 Add to or change the essay.

  • In our essay about gun control, ChatGPT did not mention school shootings. If we want to discuss this topic in the essay, we can use the prompt, "Discuss school shootings in the essay."
  • Let's say we review our college entrance essay and realize that we forgot to mention that we grew up without parents. Add to the essay by saying, "Mention that my parents died when I was young."
  • In the Israel-Palestine essay, ChatGPT explored two options for peace: A 2-state solution and a bi-state solution. If you'd rather the essay focus on a single option, ask ChatGPT to remove one. For example, "Change my essay so that it focuses on a bi-state solution."

Step 5 Ask for sources.

Pay close attention to the content ChatGPT generates. If you use ChatGPT often, you'll start noticing its patterns, like its tendency to begin articles with phrases like "in today's digital world." Once you spot patterns, you can refine your prompts to steer ChatGPT in a better direction and avoid repetitive content.

Step 1 Generate essay topics.

  • "Give me ideas for an essay about the Israel-Palestine conflict."
  • "Ideas for a persuasive essay about a current event."
  • "Give me a list of argumentative essay topics about COVID-19 for a Political Science 101 class."

Step 2 Create an outline.

  • "Create an outline for an argumentative essay called "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Economy."
  • "Write an outline for an essay about positive uses of AI chatbots in schools."
  • "Create an outline for a short 2-page essay on disinformation in the 2016 election."

Step 3 Find sources.

  • "Find peer-reviewed sources for advances in using MRNA vaccines for cancer."
  • "Give me a list of sources from academic journals about Black feminism in the movie Black Panther."
  • "Give me sources for an essay on current efforts to ban children's books in US libraries."

Step 4 Create a sample essay.

  • "Write a 4-page college paper about how global warming is changing the automotive industry in the United States."
  • "Write a 750-word personal college entrance essay about how my experience with homelessness as a child has made me more resilient."
  • You can even refer to the outline you created with ChatGPT, as the AI bot can reference up to 3000 words from the current conversation. For example: "Write a 1000 word argumentative essay called 'The Impact of COVID-19 on the United States Economy' using the outline you provided. Argue that the government should take more action to support businesses affected by the pandemic."

Step 5 Use ChatGPT to proofread and tighten grammar.

  • One way to do this is to paste a list of the sources you've used, including URLs, book titles, authors, pages, publishers, and other details, into ChatGPT along with the instruction "Create an MLA Works Cited page for these sources."
  • You can also ask ChatGPT to provide a list of sources, and then build a Works Cited or References page that includes those sources. You can then replace sources you didn't use with the sources you did use.

Expert Q&A

  • Because it's easy for teachers, hiring managers, and college admissions offices to spot AI-written essays, it's best to use your ChatGPT-written essay as a guide to write your own essay. Using the structure and ideas from ChatGPT, write an essay in the same format, but using your own words. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Always double-check the facts in your essay, and make sure facts are backed up with legitimate sources. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • If you see an error that says ChatGPT is at capacity , wait a few moments and try again. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

essay write chat gpt

  • Using ChatGPT to write or assist with your essay may be against your instructor's rules. Make sure you understand the consequences of using ChatGPT to write or assist with your essay. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
  • ChatGPT-written essays may include factual inaccuracies, outdated information, and inadequate detail. [3] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

How Do You Know Someone Blocked You on Discord

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about completing school assignments, check out our in-depth interview with Bryce Warwick, JD .

  • ↑ https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6783457-what-is-chatgpt
  • ↑ https://platform.openai.com/examples/default-essay-outline
  • ↑ https://www.ipl.org/div/chatgpt/

About This Article

Bryce Warwick, JD

  • Send fan mail to authors

Is this article up to date?

essay write chat gpt

Featured Articles

Enjoy Your Preteen Years

Trending Articles

DnD Name Generator

Watch Articles

Make Fluffy Pancakes

  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Info
  • Not Selling Info

wikiHow Tech Help Pro:

Level up your tech skills and stay ahead of the curve

essay write chat gpt

Here’s how to use ChatGPT to write an essay

Reviewed By: Steve Hook

Table of Contents

What is the easiest way to write an essay using chatgpt, using chatgpt to outline your essay’s framework, what’s the best ai to write an essay, can you use chatgpt to write essays, how to use ai to write an essay, how to use chatgpt to write an essay, launch chatgpt, customize your custom instructions, give chatgpt a prompt, limitations when using chatgpt to write an essay, what is the bot that writes essays, is there an ai that can write essays, final thoughts.

ChatGPT is a great tool for helping write an essay – whether that’s framing an essay, outlining key points, or giving insight on a subject matter you aren’t super confident with. Here are our quickest tips on how to use it in a meaningful, moral way for your next assignment.

Whether you need an essay writer or a speed boost for that last-minute assignment, you may be wondering how to use ChatGPT to write an essay. Since its public release in November 2022, OpenAI’s AI Chatbot has seen several updates to the quality of natural language processing (NLP) that guides it toward a high-quality, human writing style suitable for essays.

The AI bot, created by OpenAI, has been making headlines for its ability to communicate in a way that mimics human dialogue. But that’s not all! In fact, the AI model can also do some pretty wicked stuff such as essay writing, language translations, and quite recently passing university-level exams . However, it is also worth noting that colleges and universities can detect ChatGPT , and services like Turnitin will flag ChatGPT-generated content.

So while you can use ChatGPT to write an essay, we’d advise only doing so as a starting point for your own work – AI inspiration if you will. It’s fair and undetectable to use artificial intelligence for guidance, to help move past writing blocks and create your own essays.

To exemplify this, the following are excerpts from an essay that ChatGPT wrote based on the prompt “Write an essay about natural language processing”. NLP is the technology that allows the AI Chatbot to write in such a way, based on such a command.

“The genesis of NLP traces back to the 1950s, with the advent of machine translation. The Georgetown experiment in 1954 was a seminal moment, showcasing the potential of machines in translating languages. However, early optimism was curtailed by the enormity of linguistic nuances. The 1966 ALPAC report marked a period of reduced funding and interest in NLP, citing the high error rates and the lack of understanding of contextual meanings.” An excerpt from the essay generated by ChatGPT

Sometimes, framing your article so that it reads well and flows into each next segment can be a tricky thing to produce. Thankfully, ChatGPT is a great tool when it comes to outlining essays and can be used for all types of article frameworks.

To do this, simply take the subject that you’re writing your essay on and ask ChatGPT to create an outline for it. In just a few seconds, the chatbot will create a thorough, well-rounded page outline that segments some of the subject’s main focus points.

Remember, if you aren’t happy with the outline ChatGPT has provided, simply ask it to redo it (maybe adding some prompts on how to tweak the existing outline).

At this stage, you can also ask ChatGPT to add source links or relevant quotes that may help you inform your essay.

The use of ChatGPT is frowned upon by academia, and likely won’t reflect your writing style anyway. As a result, you’ll still need to rewrite it. The best AI chatbots can take an example of your writing, and use it to customize the tone of the generated text with greater understanding. Older models like GPT-2 were not reliable in this respect, although current models like GPT-3 (especially GPT-3.5 with fine-tuning ) are both serviceable and free to use for essay writing.

The most advanced models, such as GPT-4 accessible via the ChatGPT Plus or ChatGPT Enterprise plan from OpenAI, are the best options for writing your essays. While GPT-4 is not open-source , it is better than essentially all of the immediate competition.

This is true even of Microsoft’s Copilot (formerly Bing Chat), with which ChatGPT shares an LLM — namely GPT-4; Despite the shared language model, ChatGPT offers superior functionality, especially considering the “ All Tools ” update which enables Browse with Bing, Advanced Data Analysis, Plugins, and DALL·E 3 at the same time.

Many users have been putting ChatGPT to the test, by asking the large language model to write essays. Surprisingly, these essays came out well-written and completely coherent, although they lacked the originality you get from human writers. A Twitter user even asked it to write their (slightly tongue-in-cheek) Havard application essay.

Without a doubt, ChatGPT essay writing is starting to be all the more common, but as above we would advise caution when using it. It also has various limitations which we outline below. So, thanks to the increase in ChatGPT detectors, and teachers and professors starting to ‘get wise’ to essays written by artificial intelligence, there is a real risk you could get caught if you, say, actually submit a college essay written by ChatGPT. Our recommendation is don’t; use the powerful tool as a guide for your own writing process and work.

Chat GPT is not the only AI that can write essays. Google Bard and Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) can also write a high-quality essay. This tech, when paired with an AI checker like GPTZero allows students to circumvent AI detection tools used by their professors. Typically, these major language models will have no issues with grammar . However, a grammar checker like Grammarly would not go amiss.

The process of using these AI-text generation tools is pretty much identical, no matter which you choose. So, let’s take a look at that process!

To start things off, head to the ChatGPT website and sign in with your login details. Alternatively, you can access ChatGPT via the mobile app for Android or iOS.

At this point, it is pretty common to be faced with a capacity error from OpenAI. In most cases, if you wait a couple of minutes you will be let in. If this is not the case, you can read our article here which shows you how to fix it.

Custom instructions are a new feature that improves the user experience by giving you greater control over ChatGPT responses. Instead of controlling how the AI chatbot responds by including instructions within the prompt itself, custom instructions stay how you set them for each new chat interaction unless changed.

To use them via web browser, click on the ‘Settings’ option to open up ChatGPT settings. You will see an option called ‘Custom instructions’.

If you’re using the iOS or Android app, you can turn on custom instructions by going to ‘Settings’, clicking on ‘New features’, and turning on ‘Custom instructions’.

ChatGPT custom instructions are now available for all users (Except EU & UK which is coming soon). Announced via OpenAI blog post on August 9th, 2023, the release notes show that neither ChatGPT Plus nor ChatGPT Enterprise are required to access the feature.

Now that you are logged in, you should be presented with the ChatGPT opening page and search bar. To get ChatGPT to generate an essay you will need to type a prompt into the search bar and click the send button.

Note, that the more detail you give ChatGPT the more specific your essay will be. For example, you can tell ChatGPT the length of the essay, to include references and the number of paragraphs.

Here are a couple examples:

  • Write a 400-word essay about the impact of climate change including references
  • Write a 4-paragraph essay about the causes of World War One

After ChatGPT has generated your essay you can ask the model to edit its response by typing and submitting “make it longer” or “write it again”.

To ensure your essay is the best it could be, we recommend making some edits. You can copy and paste ChatGPT’s response into a word processor such as Word or Google Docs to make some changes.

Ideally, rewriting the essay in your own words would be best, although tweaking ChatGPT’s response also works. At this stage, it is definitely important to proofread the essay and double check any facts with other sources to mitigate against ChatGPT’s accuracy limitation.

It may also be useful to run the essay through a plagiarism checker, such as Turnitin, to ensure your essay is safe from plagiarism .

In odd cases that require a specific voice, or character, you could try a ChatGPT alternative like Beta Character AI . It’s helpful to have more than one option to choose from when ChatGPT is down, or you can’t connect to Character.ai. Here’s how to make your own AI chatbot Character, and why you might prefer it compared to ChatGPT .

Essential AI Tools

Content Guardian – AI Content Checker – One-click, Eight Checks

  • FREE 7 DAY TRIAL

Originality AI detector

  • Find out more

There are a few things you should be wary of when using ChatGPT to write an essay. The first issue surrounds ChatGPT’s accuracy. OpenAI warns its users that the model may produce some inaccuracies that could have an obvious negative impact on their essays. The company also states that the application has the potential to produce biased responses too. This is definitely something you should be aware of, as there is a possibility that your essay could be incorrect and will need revising.

These issues are not unique to ChatGPT and can be observed in other popular LLMs (Large Language Models) like Google Bard and Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat). Ultimately, it’s functionally impossible to remove bias from an LLM at the source because the training data was produced by humans who themselves are inherently biased. Instead, the company running the LLM and its public-facing interface (ChatGPT) can add censorship filters at the end of the generation process – an imperfect solution, but more practical (and philosophically possible) than the alternative.

Another major concern is plagiarism. Plagiarism is definitely something to be concerned about when using AI to write your assignments. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT does not necessarily copy specific pieces of text that can be found somewhere else. But, it does have the capability to word its response in a way that is closely similar. The best way to check this is by putting the essay through a high-quality plagiarism checker, such as Turnitin.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT isn’t the only AI software that could help you write an essay. Here are some other AI essay writers you could try out:

  • Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) – Since the free version of ChatGPT isn’t connected to the internet, you may want a tool that can provide an up-to-date outline based on relevant and recent data. Copilot can be that tool, as it is powered by ChatGPT but is also web-connected. It also uses GPT-4, OpenAI’s current most advanced machine learning model, for free – a privilege you must pay for when using ChatGPT.
  • Jasper AI – Can produce long-form AI content automatically and can continue building content based on past paragraphs you have written. The starting price is $29 per month.
  • ContentBot – Can create short-form ideas to long-form text such as blog posts and essays. An interactive tool that allows you to contribute to some of the essay writing. The starting price is free.

NOW READ The best  free AI essay writer  tools.

How to use ChatGPT to write an essay on mobile

OpenAI released the official ChatGPT iOS app on Thursday, May 18th, 2023. This was then followed by the ChatGPT Android app on Wednesday, July 26th, 2023.

These apps offer all of the same functionality (most of the time, as development cycles rarely sync up perfectly). You can download the ChatGPT mobile app to help write an essay on the go!

So that’s all you need to know about writing essays using ChatGPT. With the help of ChatGPT, you, and the right inputs and prompts, you can get a great start on essays around a wide range of topics. It also has the added bonus of being able to check for grammar, punctuation, and clarity.

There are some limitations, however, where the AI chatbot falls down, namely, its inaccuracies. We’d recommend that if you are going to use ChatGPT to help you write essays, you use it to assist with a rough draft or to give you essay ideas, rather than getting it to do the whole thing.

  • NOW READ Can universities detect ChatGPT?

Funmi Somoye

Funmi joined PC Guide in November 2022, and was a driving force for the site's ChatGPT coverage. She has a wide knowledge of AI apps, gaming and consumer technology.

What is ChatGPT? Everything you need to know about…

Does chatgpt plagiarize here’s what you need to know, 18 chatgpt alternatives in 2024 – our best free…, how to use chatgpt – our step-by-step guide and…, how to use snapchat dreams – step-by-step guide to…, how to slow down a video on snapchat –…, how to get a yellow heart on snapchat –…, how to hide and unhide chats on snapchat.

essay write chat gpt

  • Gradehacker
  • Meet the Team
  • Essay Writing
  • Degree Accelerator
  • Entire Class Bundle
  • Learning Center
  • Gradehacker TV
  • Fill a Request
  • Book a Call
  • Video Tutorials
  • YouTube Video Tutorials

How to use Chat GPT to Write an Essay

Florencia basavilbaso.

  • Best Apps And Tools , Writing Tips

essay write chat gpt

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

essay write chat gpt

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 your Essay

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

Study Habits Student Online Class

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.

essay write chat gpt

Transform your adult college journey

Book a 30-min coaching call for free and find the personalized support and mentorship you deserve!

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

What You Need For Your College Research Paper Outline

5 Common Essay Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

5 Common Essay Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Best-AI-to-Write-Essays- cover

Best AI to Write Essays

Best Apps for Writing

Best Apps For Writing 2024 | Boost Your Writing Skills

essay write chat gpt

How Much Does it Cost to Write My Essay?

Chat GPT Essay Writer

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 .

  • Best Apps and Tools
  • Writing Tips
  • Financial Tips and Scholarships
  • Career Planning
  • Non-Traditional Students
  • Student Wellness
  • Cost & Pricing

essay write chat gpt

  • 2525 Ponce de Leon Blvd Suite 300 Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA
  • Phone: (786) 991-9293
  • Gradehacker 2525 Ponce de Leon Blvd Suite 300 Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA

About Gradehacker

Business hours.

Mon - Fri: 10:00 am - 7 pm ET ​​Sat - Sun: 10 am - 3 pm ET ​

© 2024 Gradehacker LLC All Rights Reserved.

essay write chat gpt

How to Grade Essays with ChatGPT

Introduction.

The rise of large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT has opened exciting possibilities in essay grading. With its advanced natural language processing capabilities, ChatGPT offers a new dimension in assessing written work, potentially revolutionizing the grading process for educators and researchers. Let’s delve into how ChatGPT could potentially make essay grading easier, more efficient, and more accurate.

ChatGPT can analyze written content for various parameters, including content quality, argument structure, coherence, and adherence to guidelines. Whether you use a continuous scoring system (e.g., quality of writing) or a discrete one (e.g., essay positions), ChatGPT can be tailored to your specific needs, offering customized feedback for different writing styles and assignments. Literature also suggests that LLMs can significantly increase grading efficiency, alleviating some of the burden on educators (Abedi et al., 2023; Okonkwo & Ade-Ibijola, 2021; Richter et al., 2019). Imagine grading hundreds of essays and providing feedback on them – a time-consuming and tiring task. ChatGPT can automate the initial assessment, flagging essays that require further attention based on specific criteria. Additionally, ChatGPT can identify stylistic strengths and weaknesses, analyze the use of literary devices, and even point out potential inconsistencies in an argument’s logic. This could free up valuable educator time for student interaction and curriculum development.

However, caution against over-reliance on this new technology is adivsed in scenarios where biased or inaccurate models could unfairly impact individual students. It is essential to recognize both the potential advantages and limitations of LLMs. This blog post aims to delve into and reflect on ChatGPT’s capabilities for grading and classifying essays and to provide insights into the practical application of using ChatGPT in educational settings.

In this blog, we will explore:

  • Essay grading with ChatGPT and ChatGPT API
  • Steps for essay grading with ChatGPT API
  • Steps for essay classification with ChatGPT API
  • Cost & computation times

For steps 2 and 3, we will provide detailed instructions on how to access and set up the ChatGPT API, prepare and upload your text dataset, and efficiently grade or classify numerous essays. Additionally, we will compare the outcomes of human grading to those obtained through GPT grading.

## Essay Grading with ChatGPT and ChatGPT API

For a single essay, we can simply ask ChatGPT to grade as follows:

essay write chat gpt

For multiple essays, we could request ChatGPT to grade each one individually. However, when dealing with a large number of essays (e.g., 50, 100, 1000, etc.), manually grading them in this way becomes a laborious and time-consuming task. In such cases, we can leverage the ChatGPT API service to evaluate numerous essays at once, providing greater flexibility and efficiency. ChatGPT API is a versatile tool that enables developers to integrate ChatGPT into their own applications, services, or websites. When you use the API, you also gain more control over the interaction, such as the ability to adjust temperature, maximum tokens, and the presence of system messages.

It is important to understand the distinctions between ChatGPT’s web interface and the pretrained models accessible through the OpenAI API .

ChatGPT’s web version provides a user-friendly chat interface, requiring no coding knowledge and offering features like integrated system tools. However, it is less customizable and is not designed for managing high volumes of requests. Additionally, due to its internal short-term memory span, previous conversations can influence later responses. In contrast, the OpenAI API offers pretrained models without a built-in interface, necessitating coding experience for integration. These models excel at managing large request volumes, but lack ChatGPT’s conversational memory; they process each input independently. This fundamental difference can lead to variations in the outputs generated by ChatGPT’s web interface and the OpenAI API.

Here’s an example of grading a single essay using the ChatAPI with Python:

Interestingly, this example produces a single score rather than the sentence generated above via the ChatGPT web interface. This difference could be attributed to the ChatGPT API interpreting the prompt more directly than the ChatGPT online service, even though they both use the same pretrained model. Alternatively, the variability in ChatGPT’s results might be due to inherent randomness in its responses.

By implementing a loop with multiple texts, we can acquire scores for an entire set of essays. Let’s see how to do that.

Steps for Essay Grading with ChatGPT API

Get and set up a chatgpt api key.

We assume that you have already installed the Python OpenAI library on your system and have an active OpenAI account. Setting up and obtaining access to the ChatGPT API involves the following steps:

Obtain an OpenAI key: Vist the OpenAI API website at https://platform.openai.com/api-keys and click +Create a new secret key button. Save your key securely, as you cannot regenerate the same code due to OpenAI’s security policies.

Set ip API key: In your Python script or notebook, set up the API key using the following code, replacing “YOUR-API-KEY” with your actual API key:

Load the text dataset

In this post, we will grade a series of essays about the iPad usage in schools

Text Stance_iPad Scores
0 Some people allow Ipads because some people ne… AMB 1
1 I have a tablet. But it is a lot of money. But… AMB 1
2 Do you think we should get rid of the Ipad wh… AMB 1
3 I said yes because the teacher will not be tal… AMB 2
4 Well I would like the idea . But then for it … AMB 4

Score the multiple essays

Grading 50 essays takes only 25 seconds.

Text Stance_iPad Scores Scores_GPT
0 Some people allow Ipads because some people ne… AMB 1 2.0
1 I have a tablet. But it is a lot of money. But… AMB 1 2.0
2 Do you think we should get rid of the Ipad wh… AMB 1 2.0
3 I said yes because the teacher will not be tal… AMB 2 2.0
4 Well I would like the idea . But then for it … AMB 4 4.0

Compare human grading scores with GPT grading scores

For these data, we happend to have scores given by human raters as well, allowing us how similar the human scores are to the scores generated by ChatGPT.

Using the code provided in the accompanying script, we get the following:

essay write chat gpt

A contigency table (confusion matrix) of the scores is:

Scores_GPT 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Scores
0 1 7 0 0 0
1 0 9 0 0 0
2 0 4 1 0 0
3 0 8 2 0 0
4 0 8 3 2 0
5 0 0 2 2 0
6 0 0 0 0 1

The averages and standard deviations of human grading and GPT grading scores are 2.54 ( SD = 1.68) and 2.34 ( SD = 0.74), respectively. The correlation between them is 0.62, indicating a fairly strong positive linear relationship. Additionally, the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) is 1.36, providing a measure of the GPT’s prediction accuracy compared to the actual human grading scores.

Steps for Essay Classification with ChatGPT API

ChatGPT can be utilized not only for scoring essays but also for classifying essays based on some categorical variable such as writers’ opinions regarding iPad usage in schools. Here are the steps to guide you through the process, assuming you already have access to the ChatGPT API and have loaded your text dataset:

Classify multiple essays

Classifying 50 essays takes only 27 seconds.

We create a new column re_Stance_iPad based on the mapping of values from the existing Stance_iPad column. Except for AFF and NEG opinions, opinions on AMB, BAL, and NAR are unclear. Therefore, AMB, BAL, and NAR are combined as OTHER.

Text Stance_iPad Scores Scores_GPT re_Stance_iPad Stance_iPad_GPT
0 Some people allow Ipads because some people ne… AMB 1 2.0 OTHER OTHER
1 I have a tablet. But it is a lot of money. But… AMB 1 2.0 OTHER OTHER
2 Do you think we should get rid of the Ipad wh… AMB 1 2.0 OTHER OTHER
3 I said yes because the teacher will not be tal… AMB 2 2.0 OTHER OTHER
4 Well I would like the idea . But then for it … AMB 4 4.0 OTHER OTHER

Compare human classification with GPT classification

Stance_iPad_GPT AFF NEG OTHER
re_Stance_iPad
AFF 7 0 3
NEG 0 9 1
OTHER 3 1 26

ChatGPT achieves an accuracy of approximately 84%, demonstrating its correctness in classification. An F1 score of 0.84, reflecting the harmonic mean of precision and recall, signifies a well-balanced performance in terms of both precision and recall. Additionally, the Cohen’s Kappa value of 0.71, which measures the agreement between predicted and actual classifications while accounting for chance, indicates substantial agreement beyond what would be expected by chance alone.

Cost & Computation times

How long does it take to assess all essays.

Grading and classifying 50 essays each took 25 and 27 seconds , resulting in a rate of about 2 essays per second.

What is the cost of assessing all essays?

In this blog, we utilized GPT-3.5-turbo-0125. According to OpenAI’s pricing page , the cost for input processing is $0.0005 per 1,000 tokens, and for output, it is $0.0015 per 1,000 tokens, indicating that the ChatGPT API charges for both tokens sent out and tokens received.

The total expenditure for grading all essays —50 assessing essay quality and 50 for essay classification—was approximately $0.01 .

What are tokens and how to count them?

Tokens can be viewed as fragments of words. When the API receives prompts, it breaks down the input into tokens. These divisions do not always align with the beginning or end of words; tokens may include spaces and even parts of words. To grasp the concept of tokens and their length equivalencies better, here are some helpful rules of thumb:

  • 1 token ≈ 4 characters in English.
  • 1 token ≈ ¾ of a word.
  • 100 tokens ≈ 75 words.
  • 1 to 2 sentences ≈ 30 tokens.
  • 1 paragraph ≈ 100 tokens.
  • 1,500 words ≈ 2,048 tokens.

To get additional context on how tokens are counted, consider this:

The prompt at the beginning of this blog, requesting that OpenAI grade an essay, contains 129 tokens, and the output contains 12 tokens.

The input cost is $0.0000645, and the output cost is $0.000018.

ChatGPT provides an alternative approach to essay grading. This post has delved into the practical application of ChatGPT’s natural language processing capabilities, demonstrating how it can be used for efficient and accurate essay grading, with a comparison to human grading. The flexibility of ChatGPT is particularly evident when handling large volumes of essays, making it a viable alternative tool for educators and researchers. By employing the ChatGPT API key service, the grading process becomes not only streamlined but also adaptable to varying scales, from individual essays to hundreds or even thousands.

This technology has the potential to significantly enhance the efficiency of the grading process. By automating the assessment of written work, teachers and researchers can devote more time to other critical aspects of education. However, it’s important to acknowledge the limitations of current LLMs in this context. While they can assist in grading, relying solely on LLMs for final grades could be problematic, especially if LLMs are biased or inaccurate. Such scenarios could lead to unfair outcomes for individual students, highlighting the need for human oversight in the grading process. For large scale research, where we look at always across many essays, this is less of a concern (see e.g., Mozer et al., 2023)

The guide in this blog has provided a step-by-step walkthrough of setting up and accessing the ChatGPT API essay grading.

We also explored the reliability of ChatGPT’s grading, as compared to human grading. The moderate positive correlation of 0.62 attests to same consistency between human grading and ChatGPT’s evaluations. The classification results reveal that the model achieves an accuracy of approximately 84%, and the Cohen’s Kappa value of 0.71 indicates substantial agreement beyond what would be expected by chance alone. See the related study (Kim et al., 2024) for more on this.

In essence, this comprehensive guide underscores the transformative potential of ChatGPT in essay grading, presenting it as a valuable approach in the ever-evolving educational fields. This post gives an overview; we next dig in a bit more, thinking about prompt engineering + providing examples to improve accuracy.

Writer’s Comments

The api experience: a blend of ease and challenge.

Starting your journey with the ChatGPT API will be surprisingly smooth, especially if you have some Python experience. Copying and pasting code from this blog, followed by acquiring your own ChatGPT API and tweaking prompts and datasets, might seem like a breeze. However, this simplicity masks the underlying complexity. Bumps along the road are inevitable, reminding us that “mostly” easy does not mean entirely challenge-free.

The biggest hurdle you will likely face is mastering the art of crafting effective prompts. While ChatGPT’s responses are impressive, they can also be unpredictably variable. Conducting multiple pilot runs with 5-10 essays is crucial. Experimenting with diverse prompts on the same essays can act as a stepping stone, refining your approach and building confidence for wider application.

When things click, the benefits are undeniable. Automating the grading process with ChatGPT can save considerable time. Human graders, myself included, can struggle with maintaining consistent standards across a mountain of essays. ChatGPT, on the other hand, might be more stable when grading large batches in a row.

It is crucial to acknowledge that this method is not a magic bullet. Continuous scoring is not quite there yet, and limitations still exist. But the good news is that LLMs like ChatGPT are constantly improving, and new options are emerging.

Overall Reflections: A Journey of Discovery

The exploration of the ChatGPT API can be a blend of innovation, learning, and the occasional frustration. While AI grading systems like ChatGPT are not perfect, their ability to save time and provide consistent grading scheme makes them an intriguing addition to the educational toolkit. As we explore and refine these tools, the horizon for their application in educational settings seems ever-expanding, offering a glimpse into a future where AI and human educators work together to enhance the learning experience. Who knows, maybe AI will become a valuable partner in the grading process in the future!

Call to Action

Have you experimented with using ChatGPT for grading? Share your experiences and questions in the comments below! We can all learn from each other as we explore the potential of AI in education.

  • Abedi, M., Alshybani, I., Shahadat, M. R. B., & Murillo, M. (2023). Beyond Traditional Teaching: The Potential of Large Language Models and Chatbots in Graduate Engineering Education. Qeios. https://doi.org/10.32388/MD04B0
  • Kim, Y., Mozer, R., Miratrix, L., & Al-Ademi, S. (2024). ChatGPT vs. Machine Learning: Assessing the Efficacy and Accuracy of Large Language Models for Automated Essay Scoring (in preparation).
  • Okonkwo, C. W., & Ade-Ibijola, A. (2021). Chatbots applications in education: A systematic review. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 2, 100033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2021.100033
  • Pricing . (n.d.). OpenAI. Retrieved March 2, 2024, from https://openai.com/pricing#language-models
  • Mozer, R., Miratrix, L., Relyea, J. E., & Kim, J. S. (2023). Combining Human and Automated Scoring Methods in Experimental Assessments of Writing: A Case Study Tutorial. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 10769986231207886. https://doi.org/10.3102/10769986231207886
  • Zawacki-Richter, O., Marín, V. I., Bond, M., & Gouverneur, F. (2019). Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education–where are the educators?. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 16(1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0171-0

PrepScholar

Choose Your Test

  • Search Blogs By Category
  • College Admissions
  • AP and IB Exams
  • GPA and Coursework

Can You Use ChatGPT for Your College Essay?

author image

College Admissions , College Essays

feaeture-robot-writing-studying-AI-cc0

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!

body-robot-teacher-cc0-1

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. 

body-technical-problem-oops-cc0

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. 

body-magnifying-glass-icon-cc0

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! 

body-children-celebrating-computer-cc0

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. 

body-man-sad-cc0

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.

body-bootcamp-cc0

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. 

body-next-future-cc0

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. 

Want to write the perfect college application essay?   We can help.   Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will help you craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay to proudly submit to colleges.   Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now:

Trending Now

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

ACT vs. SAT: Which Test Should You Take?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Get Your Free

PrepScholar

Find Your Target SAT Score

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect SAT Score, by an Expert Full Scorer

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading and Writing

How to Improve Your Low SAT Score

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading and Writing

Find Your Target ACT Score

Complete Official Free ACT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect ACT Score, by a 36 Full Scorer

Get a 36 on ACT English

Get a 36 on ACT Math

Get a 36 on ACT Reading

Get a 36 on ACT Science

How to Improve Your Low ACT Score

Get a 24 on ACT English

Get a 24 on ACT Math

Get a 24 on ACT Reading

Get a 24 on ACT Science

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Follow us on Facebook (icon)

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

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Can Chat GPT Edit Essays: AI Revision Tips & Prompts

essay write chat gpt

Sometimes, you don’t have the time to carefully review and edit essays or articles. Your deadlines are getting closer, and you don’t have anyone to assist you in this task. Don’t worry – in this guide, we will give you an efficient solution to your challenges.

To save time on the editing process, you can simply use ChatGPT. Our team has explained how to build prompts so that the chatbot will check your university assignments like a pro. Trust our experience, and you will be able to edit your essay using AI no worse than a human editor.

Let’s get into it!

🤖 How Does ChatGPT Work?

🤔 can chat gpt edit essays.

  • 🕹️ How to Use ChatGPT for Editing
  • 🌟 Best ChatGPT Prompts
  • 🪄 AI Revision Tips

🔗 References

ChatGPT is an AI-based chatbot that answers user requests by accessing vast knowledge databases on different subjects such as history, marketing, biology, the arts, and more. You ask the chatbot questions like “How many sonnets did Shakespeare write?” and it responds to the best of its ability.

The versatility of applications makes ChatGPT a particularly remarkable tool. Thanks to its promptness and convenience, many students use the chatbot for research . In addition to providing AI-generated content, the platform can adjust to individual formats and styles. These features are made possible thanks to deep learning training that allows ChatGPT to understand and process text input, providing human-like, natural responses. Using the tool is like talking to an expert on different subjects.

This image explains how ChatGPT works.

While many educators consider ChatGPT a form of cheating , this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Of course, word-for-word copy-pasting of produced text can be regarded as such, but in this article, we offer a safe method of using this chatbot for your academic integrity.

The short answer is yes , but there are a few nuances. This platform only supports surface editing and for certain types of documents. AI algorithms allow the chatbot to autocorrect mistakes and perform spell checks. ChatGPT can find missing punctuation marks, misspellings, and typos in relatively short texts intended for the general audience.

You can always use other AI editing tools if you haven’t found a solution with ChatGPT.

Here are the best use cases for the chatbot:

  • Simple social media posts that are easy to review.
  • Emails to professors or colleagues with a broad context and short length.
  • Technical writing for things like instruction manuals.
  • Drafts of resumes, admission essays, and other works that are revised later.
  • Short essays and articles that are less prone to redundancy.
  • Less important informal documents.

Pros & Cons of Editing with ChatGPT

Below, you will find out more about what you can expect from ChatGPT capabilities. We’ve described the main benefits and drawbacks of this tool .

✅ Pros❌ Cons
Works faster than humans.Doesn’t capture the nuances and style.
Is more accurate than traditional editing tools.Lacks the human touch.
Performs different editing tasks.May show bias in its suggestions.

🕹️ Can ChatGPT Proofread & Edit: How It Works

Unlike some other editing assistants, ChatGPT will relatively easily improve your writing skills .

This image names three steps to use ChatGPT for editing.

You must complete a few steps to proofread and edit your essay or article:

  • Write a text and set proofreading goals . First, finish the text that requires proofreading, whether a college-level essay, an article, a research paper, or a blog post. At this point, it’s crucial to establish the editing goal: grammar use, punctuation, or finding the right tone and voice. If you need assistance with those, we have a great research paper outline generator and an essay maker .
  • Select an appropriate ChatGPT prompt . Next, choose the right prompt and provide it to the AI chatbot. Prompts are instructions the chatbot uses to produce a response. ChatGPT can improve sentence structure, clear up punctuation errors, or make the style and formatting consistent using these instructions.
  • Evaluate and apply ChatGPT suggestions . After you’ve submitted the prompt, this tool will take some time to provide a text edit. Analyze suggested changes and check the document for factual mistakes and inconsistencies. Finally, assess how well the chatbot comprehends the text context before using any changes. Additionally, you can use our efficient plagiarism checker and an AI essay checker to polish your work.

🌟 Best Prompts for Chat GPT Editor

Here, we’ve gathered tasks that ChatGPT handles effortlessly and accurately. The following efficient ChatGPT prompts can significantly improve the structure and content of college essays, research papers, and other academic works. Carefully studying this approach saves time and optimizes the process of making high-quality texts. Select the most relevant task and find out for yourself!

This image tells statistics on the use of ChatGPT among students.

ChatGPT Prompts to Check Text for Spelling Mistakes and Typos

The AI chatbot easily handles typos and spelling mistakes, just like Grammarly and tools embedded in Microsoft Word and Google Drive Documents. This approach lets writers correct their texts with minimum manual edits.

Here are several prompts you can use for this purpose:

  • Proofread this [sentence/paragraph] for spelling mistakes: [text].
  • Check this [document type] for spelling errors and typos: [text].
  • Could you review this [article/essay] for spelling errors and correct them?: [text].
  • Verify the spelling in this [document] and suggest improvements: [text].
  • Check for typos in the [article/assignment] and provide corrections: [text].
  • Please review this [essay/article] for grammatical and punctuation errors: [text].
  • Ensure there are no spelling mistakes in the [article/document]: [text].

AI Editing Example: Spelling Mistakes

As you can see from our example, the chatbot recognized all grammatical errors and typos. You can confidently use such edited text in your paper.

ChatGPT Prompts to Check Sentence Clarity

The chatbot can change the structure of a sentence to make it clearer and more consistent with the style of the piece. This includes length adjustment, hook and content addition, and adaptation of the text for different styles. It’s beneficial when ironing out the introductions and conclusions of essays. If you need assistance with writing a hook, you can always try our handy hook generator .

Check out these effective prompts:

  • Simplify and enhance the clarity of this [work]: [file/link].
  • Rewrite the [text] for better sentence clarity.
  • Clarify the meaning of this [sentence/paragraph].
  • Help me rephrase this [sentence/phrase] for more clarity.
  • Please review this [document] and suggest improving the sentence clarity: [content].
  • Make the language in this [essay/article] more concise and clear: [text].
  • Review this [work] and ensure all sentences have clarity and brevity: [file/link].

AI Editing Example: Sentence Clarity

In the rephrased version, ChatGPT broke down the main points into separate sentences and used more straightforward language. The new version emphasizes the urgency and consequence of action or inaction. Also, the chatbot removed some colloquial language to enhance text formality.

ChatGPT Prompts to Change Word Choice

ChatGPT helps find suitable alternative phrases and synonyms. These adjustments often make homework assignments more vibrant and engaging. You can also use the following prompts for your subsequent assignments. However, our platform has a good paraphrasing tool you can also utilize.

Here are some prompt ideas:

  • Review this [document] for repetitive words and offer alternatives: [file/link].
  • Provide better word choices for the following [sentence/paragraph]: [text].
  • Help me find better words for this [paragraph] to make it more precise: [file/link].
  • I need help replacing technical jargon with common vocabulary in this [research paper/article]: [text].
  • Suggest language improvements for this [article/assignment] to make it more professional: [file/link].
  • Analyze this [article/research paper] and propose adequate words for its target audience: [file/link].
  • Review this [article/essay] and recommend more impactful words: [text].

AI Editing Example: Word Choice

In the new version, the chatbot suggested a few edits to make the paragraph more catchy. It added such emphases as “yielded remarkably profound outcomes” and “harnessing” to convey a stronger impression of the benefits of nuclear energy.

ChatGPT Prompts to Change Citation Style

When working on texts, students may use the wrong quotation style. ChatGPT can quickly edit and reformat texts into APA, MLA, and other formats. We also have a great citation maker that provides Harvard, Chicago and other styles.

The following prompts will help speed up this process:

  • Assess if [article/essay] follows the MLA format and make appropriate adjustments: [text].
  • Change the format of this [work] from [style] to [style]: [file/link].
  • Evaluate and edit the bibliography of this [assignment] in accordance with [style]: [text].
  • Please reformat this [work] using the [style] guidelines: [file/link].
  • Check the correct use of [style] in this [article/paper]: [text].
  • Create a bibliography for this [paper type] following the [style]: [file/link].
  • Review the correctness of [style] use in this [work]: [file/link].

AI Editing Example: Citation Style

As you can see:

ChatGPT got the task and successfully changed the citation style from APA to Chicago. So you probably won’t have any problems with such a prompt. To be more certain, you can always provide a chatbot with guidelines from your institution. Besides, note that the chatbot has trouble citing the content it generates.

ChatGPT Prompts to Check and Remove Redundancy

This chatbot platform can be used to clear filler and redundant words. They don’t add any weight to the work and only increase the word count.

Here are several prompts students can use to improve their academic work:

  • Remove or replace words that are used too much in this [work type]: [text]
  • Remove repetitive words in this [document]: [work].
  • Could you review this [paper/essay] and remove any reparative words and phrases?: [text].
  • Review this [text] and make suggestions for the following [words]: [file/link].
  • Please create an alternative for the [word] used in this [sentence/paragraph].
  • Find and remove redundant information from [work]: [text].
  • Use synonyms for the [word] in this [essay/paper]: [file/link].

AI Editing Example: Removing Redundancies

As we expected, the chatbot succeeded in finding both redundancy words and less obvious redundant wording problems.

ChatGPT Prompts to Improve Text Readability

OpenAI’s platform quickly edits information structures in essays and articles. For example, you can replace paragraphs in chronological order for better narrative flow and comprehension.

We’ve listed several effective prompts to improve text readability below.

  • Identify [overused words/technical jargon] in the [essay/paper] and offer advice on making the work more readable.
  • Examine the [assignment] for coherence and readability. Offer guidance on how to improve its narrative flow and readability.
  • Evaluate the [academic paper] or readability concerning [paragraph length/sentence structure]. Make suggestions for better academic engagement.
  • Assess the [work] for readability and offer ways of making it more accessible for [target audience].
  • Utilize [method] to establish the clarity of the [work]. Explain how it can be made easier to follow.
  • Review the [paper/essay] regarding flow and readability. Offer practical insights into improving its coherence.
  • Assess the [work] using [ Coleman-Liau index ]. Make the text concise and clear by offering revisions.

AI Editing Example: Readability

After AI revision, the paragraph maintains the vivid imagery of the sunny day while seamlessly integrating the moment of realization about the iron. The ChatGPT used transitional phrases like “suddenly remembered” and “panic surged through me” to make the flow more cohesive.

ChatGPT Prompts to Check Punctuation

Students don’t always get the nuances of punctuation right, leading to mistakes that alter the meaning of sentences. ChatGPT helps you edit assignments quickly due to its in-depth knowledge of English.

To speed up this process, you may use the following prompts next time:

  • Evaluate the use of colons in the following section: [section], ensuring that they effectively introduce explanations and lists.
  • Assess the use of punctuation in the following [sentence/paragraph] to ensure that it’s easy to follow and properly structured.
  • Add hyphens where necessary in this [sentence] to maintain proper use of adjectives and consistency.
  • Check the proper use of the apostrophe in this [phrase] for an accurate indication of contraction or possession.
  • Review ellipses in the following [paragraph] to ensure their appropriate use for omissions and emphasis.
  • Change the placement of quotation marks in this [document] for proper direct speech attribution and quotation.
  • Assess the end punctuation and capitalization in this [paragraph] and if they follow the standard writing practices.

AI Editing Example: Punctuation

ChatGPT added a comma after “friends” to clarify that the speaker addresses two people. Also, it removed the unnecessary commas before “or.” Now, the sentences are written correctly.

ChatGPT Prompts to Change Passive Voice Into Active Voice

Works using the active voice are more direct and more accessible to follow. However, student writing doesn’t always have the correct form of verbs, leading to confusion and poorly structured papers. OpenAI’s platform can transform sentences from passive voice to active in mere seconds.

Check out the prompts:

  • Rewrite the following [paragraph/sentence] in active voice.
  • Transform this [sentence] to improve reader engagement and readability.
  • Modify the [sentence] through active voice to give a sense of accountability.
  • Restructure the [sentence/segment] in an active voice to make it more energetic and concise.
  • Change the passive voice in [sentence] to active, giving action to a specific subject.
  • Convert this [paragraph] in the active voice to make it more straightforward.
  • Edit the [sentence] using active voice for better directness and clarity.

AI Editing Example: Eliminating Passive Voice

Here, we wanted to show how the chatbot copes with changing the text written in the passive to the active one. In this case, ChatGPT also showed itself favorably.

ChatGPT Prompts to Change Text Tone

You may accidentally switch from one voice to another when working on several academic tasks. An AI chatbot can add more formal-sounding phrases into conversational texts and vice versa.

Use the following ChatGPT prompts to keep the text tone consistent.

  • Assess the [work]’s tone and establish if it follows an academic writing style.
  • Evaluate this [article/paper] and see if it has a consistent tone: [text].
  • Please establish if this [paragraph/segment] follows the overall tone of this [work].
  • Edit the [document] and ensure that its tone is formal: [file/link].
  • Establish if the tone of this [paper/essay] is appropriate for the [target audience].
  • Could you help me edit this [work] to follow an informal tone?
  • Evaluate if this [assignment] has a formal tone and structure: [file/link].

AI Editing Example: Text Tone

You can see that the second edited version looks ready to be used in a study. The paragraph looks more professional, with a formal tone and a better language choice.

ChatGPT Prompts to Check Tense Usage

OpenAI’s platform streamlines changing tenses and ensures the text follows the same one. For example, research papers are primarily written in the past tense , while the present tense is used in discussing current events.

The following ChatGPT prompts will make this process more approachable for you.

  • Cross-reference the [introduction/conclusion] with the main body of this [thesis/research paper] for [consistent tense]: [introduction/conclusion]
  • Ensure the [verbs/verb phrases] in the [document] are in [past/present/future] tense for consistency: [verbs/verb phrases and tense]
  • Please check if this work has a [consistent tense] when writing about [actions/events] in this [essay/paper]: [insert consistent tense and events/actions].
  • Review this [essay/paper] and ensure there’s a [consistent tense]: [paper/essay and tense].
  • Assess this [document] for any sudden shifts in tense and edit to maintain a [consistent] writing style: [file/document].
  • Examine the [events/timeline] in this [document] to ensure its narration has a [consistent tense]: [document and tense].
  • Evaluate this [research paper] and ensure that all verbs are used in [consistent tense]: [paper/tense].

AI Editing Example: Using Tenses

Our example proves that AI can handle such a challenge. ChatGPT changed “we’ve analyzed” to “we analyzed” to match the past tense used in the subsequent sentences.

ChatGPT Prompts to Check Grammar

Grammar check is a strictly technical procedure that should be left until you’ve corrected the work’s format, tone, and style. We also have a handy AI tool that will help you check the grammar in your essay .

Below, we’ve listed several prompts you can use when working with ChatGPT.

  • Did I use the right grammar in this [sentence/phrase]?: [text].
  • Proofread the [document] and correct grammatical mistakes: [text].
  • Please check the correct use of grammar in this paragraph: [file/link].
  • Evaluate this [paper/essay], find and correct grammatical mistakes: [text].
  • Review the use of grammar in this [document] and correct any mistakes: [document]
  • Assess the grammar in [essay/paper] and make necessary connections: [file/link].
  • Could you check grammar in this [assignment]?: [text].

AI Editing Example: Checking Grammar

The initial version of the text was far from perfect, but the chatbot improved the situation. It helped us with tenses, punctuation, and choosing the proper phrasing.

🪄 AI Revision Tips for Editing & Proofreading with Chat GPT

Finally, we’ve prepared some helpful tips to make your chatbot experience more successful and enjoyable. Check them out and try them the next time you need ChatGPT for document editing.

This image provides seven tips on how to use ChatGPT for proofreading and editing.

Here are the tips:

  • Use the “act as” method . Address ChatGPT like someone you’d ask for help. An AI conversation can start like this: “Act as a professional proofreader. How would you improve the grammar in this text?”. Such an approach will make the chatbot produce more accurate results.
  • Offer in-depth context . Provide enough contextual information for ChatGPT to understand your requests’ requirements better. You can combine your questions with well-tailored prompts to ensure better outcomes. Remember that if you are researching with ChatGPT, you should check the credibility of the data .
  • Be direct with questions . After you get an answer, don’t forget to ask follow-up questions. For example, ask ChatGPT why it decided to make specific changes to the text in terms of sentence structure or passive voice use.
  • Set response length . When requesting the chatbot to write edits, limit the number of paragraphs, sentences, and words you want to see in the responses. It’s also possible to ask the chat for sentence-by-sentence comparisons of original and edited works. If you have a long essay, you can learn about it in the article on how to work with such content using ChatGPT .
  • Experiment with the chatbot . Don’t be afraid to write a request in different ways. This will let you see which prompts provide the best results.
  • Remember about hallucinations . While ChatGPT is highly versatile and accurate, it doesn’t always provide relevant and sensible results. For example, it can offer grammatical corrections when none are needed or give nonsensical suggestions.
  • Don’t be overly dependent on the chatbot . Finally, it’s important to remember that ChatGPT doesn’t replace the human experience when it comes to evaluating written works. After you’ve finished adding the chatbot-generated content, review the document several times until everything feels right and aligns with your writing style. This way, you’ll also avoid AI detection from review tools that recognize ChatGPT’s work.

ChatGPT has the power to improve academic work in different ways. But, it’s vital to remember its limitations and check the writing yourself. We hope our prompt examples will make the chatbot an excellent aid and ease the editing process. Our team also invites you to check out our beneficial article on how to use ChatGPT for essay writing.

  • ChatGPT: Everything You Really Need To Know (In Simple Terms). – Bernard Marr, Forbes
  • ChatGPT Is my Writing Coach and Editor: Here’s How. – Nathan Laundry, Medium
  • How You Should—and Shouldn’t—use ChatGPT as a Student. – Open Universities Australia
  • Generative AI in Academic Writing. – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • 8 ChatGPT Prompts for Perfect Proofreading. – Prompt Advance
  • Editing ChatGPT Outputs: 4 Essential Tips and Prompt Approaches. – Liam Berry, Industry Dive
  • How to (Productively) Edit Your Writing with ChatGPT. – Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole, Write With AI
  • 11 Unique ChatGPT Prompts for Proofreading in 2024. – GeeksforGeeks, Sanchhaya Education
  • How to Get ChatGPT to Edit Its Own Work. – Ralph Grayden, Linkedin
  • Using ChatGPT and Other Text-Generating Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). – University of Waterloo
  • Share via Facebook
  • Share via X
  • Share via LinkedIn
  • Share via email

By clicking "Post Comment" you agree to IvyPanda’s Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions . Your posts, along with your name, can be seen by all users.

ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot

ChatGPT welcome screen

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies .

That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into becoming one of the most-hyped companies in recent memory. And its latest partnership with Apple for its upcoming generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, has given the company another significant bump in the AI race.

2024 also saw the release of GPT-4o, OpenAI’s new flagship omni model for ChatGPT. GPT-4o is now the default free model, complete with voice and vision capabilities. But after demoing GPT-4o, OpenAI paused one of its voices , Sky, after allegations that it was mimicking Scarlett Johansson’s voice in “Her.”

OpenAI is facing internal drama, including the sizable exit of co-founder and longtime chief scientist Ilya Sutskever as the company dissolved its Superalignment team. OpenAI is also facing a lawsuit from Alden Global Capital-owned newspapers , including the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune, for alleged copyright infringement, following a similar suit filed by The New York Times last year.

Here’s a timeline of ChatGPT product updates and releases, starting with the latest, which we’ve been updating throughout the year. And if you have any other questions, check out our ChatGPT FAQ here.

Timeline of the most recent ChatGPT updates

September 2024, august 2024, february 2024, january 2024.

  • ChatGPT FAQs

OpenAI reaches 1 million paid users of its corporate offerings

OpenAI announced it has surpassed 1 million paid users for its versions of ChatGPT intended for businesses, including ChatGPT Team, ChatGPT Enterprise and its educational offering, ChatGPT Edu. The company said that nearly half of OpenAI’s corporate users are based in the US.

Volkswagen rolls out its ChatGPT assistant to the US

Volkswagen is taking its ChatGPT voice assistant experiment to vehicles in the United States. Its ChatGPT-integrated Plus Speech voice assistant is an AI chatbot based on Cerence’s Chat Pro product and a LLM from OpenAI and will begin rolling out on September 6 with the 2025 Jetta and Jetta GLI models.

OpenAI inks content deal with Condé Nast

As part of the new deal, OpenAI will surface stories from Condé Nast properties like The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit and Wired in ChatGPT and SearchGPT. Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch implied that the “multi-year” deal will involve payment from OpenAI in some form and a Condé Nast spokesperson told TechCrunch that OpenAI will have permission to train on Condé Nast content.

We’re partnering with Condé Nast to deepen the integration of quality journalism into ChatGPT and our SearchGPT prototype. https://t.co/tiXqSOTNAl — OpenAI (@OpenAI) August 20, 2024

Our first impressions of ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode

TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff has been playing around with OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode, in what he describes as “the most convincing taste I’ve had of an AI-powered future yet.” Compared to Siri or Alexa, Advanced Voice Mode stands out with faster response times, unique answers and the ability to answer complex questions. But the feature falls short as an effective replacement for virtual assistants.

OpenAI shuts down election influence operation that used ChatGPT

OpenAI has banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation that was generating content about the U.S. presidential election. OpenAI identified five website fronts presenting as both progressive and conservative news outlets that used ChatGPT to draft several long-form articles, though it doesn’t seem that it reached much of an audience.

OpenAI finds that GPT-4o does some weird stuff sometimes

OpenAI has found that GPT-4o, which powers the recently launched alpha of Advanced Voice Mode in ChatGPT, can behave in strange ways. In a new “red teaming” report, OpenAI reveals some of GPT-4o’s weirder quirks, like mimicking the voice of the person speaking to it or randomly shouting in the middle of a conversation.

ChatGPT’s mobile app reports its biggest month yet

After a big jump following the release of OpenAI’s new GPT-4o “omni” model, the mobile version of ChatGPT has now seen its biggest month of revenue yet. The app pulled in $28 million in net revenue from the App Store and Google Play in July, according to data provided by app intelligence firm Appfigures.

OpenAI could potentially catch students who cheat with ChatGPT

OpenAI has built a watermarking tool that could potentially catch students who cheat by using ChatGPT — but The Wall Street Journal reports that the company is debating whether to actually release it. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is researching tools that can detect writing from ChatGPT, but said it’s taking a “deliberate approach” to releasing it.

ChatGPT’s advanced Voice Mode starts rolling out to some users

OpenAI is giving users their first access to GPT-4o’s updated realistic audio responses. The alpha version is now available to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users, and the company says the feature will gradually roll out to all Plus users in the fall of 2024. The release follows controversy surrounding the voice’s similarity to Scarlett Johansson, leading OpenAI to delay its release.

We’re starting to roll out advanced Voice Mode to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users. Advanced Voice Mode offers more natural, real-time conversations, allows you to interrupt anytime, and senses and responds to your emotions. pic.twitter.com/64O94EhhXK — OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 30, 2024

OpenAI announces new search prototype, SearchGPT

OpenAI is testing SearchGPT, a new AI search experience to compete with Google. SearchGPT aims to elevate search queries with “timely answers” from across the internet, as well as the ability to ask follow-up questions. The temporary prototype is currently only available to a small group of users and its publisher partners, like The Atlantic, for testing and feedback.

We’re testing SearchGPT, a temporary prototype of new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources. We’re launching with a small group of users for feedback and plan to integrate the experience into ChatGPT. https://t.co/dRRnxXVlGh pic.twitter.com/iQpADXmllH — OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 25, 2024

OpenAI could lose $5 billion this year, report claims

A new report from The Information , based on undisclosed financial information, claims OpenAI could lose up to $5 billion due to how costly the business is to operate. The report also says the company could spend as much as $7 billion in 2024 to train and operate ChatGPT.

OpenAI unveils GPT-4o mini

OpenAI released its latest small AI model, GPT-4o mini . The company says GPT-4o mini, which is cheaper and faster than OpenAI’s current AI models, outperforms industry leading small AI models on reasoning tasks involving text and vision. GPT-4o mini will replace GPT-3.5 Turbo as the smallest model OpenAI offers. 

OpenAI partners with Los Alamos National Laboratory for bioscience research

OpenAI announced a partnership with the Los Alamos National Laboratory to study how AI can be employed by scientists in order to advance research in healthcare and bioscience. This follows other health-related research collaborations at OpenAI, including Moderna and Color Health.

OpenAI and Los Alamos National Laboratory announce partnership to study AI for bioscience research https://t.co/WV4XMZsHBA — OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 10, 2024

OpenAI makes CriticGPT to find mistakes in GPT-4

OpenAI announced it has trained a model off of GPT-4, dubbed CriticGPT , which aims to find errors in ChatGPT’s code output so they can make improvements and better help so-called human “AI trainers” rate the quality and accuracy of ChatGPT responses.

We’ve trained a model, CriticGPT, to catch bugs in GPT-4’s code. We’re starting to integrate such models into our RLHF alignment pipeline to help humans supervise AI on difficult tasks: https://t.co/5oQYfrpVBu — OpenAI (@OpenAI) June 27, 2024

OpenAI inks content deal with TIME

OpenAI and TIME announced a multi-year strategic partnership that brings the magazine’s content, both modern and archival, to ChatGPT. As part of the deal, TIME will also gain access to OpenAI’s technology in order to develop new audience-based products.

We’re partnering with TIME and its 101 years of archival content to enhance responses and provide links to stories on https://t.co/LgvmZUae9M : https://t.co/xHAYkYLxA9 — OpenAI (@OpenAI) June 27, 2024

OpenAI delays ChatGPT’s new Voice Mode

OpenAI planned to start rolling out its advanced Voice Mode feature to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users in late June, but it says lingering issues forced it to postpone the launch to July. OpenAI says Advanced Voice Mode might not launch for all ChatGPT Plus customers until the fall, depending on whether it meets certain internal safety and reliability checks.

ChatGPT releases app for Mac

ChatGPT for macOS is now available for all users . With the app, users can quickly call up ChatGPT by using the keyboard combination of Option + Space. The app allows users to upload files and other photos, as well as speak to ChatGPT from their desktop and search through their past conversations.

The ChatGPT desktop app for macOS is now available for all users. Get faster access to ChatGPT to chat about email, screenshots, and anything on your screen with the Option + Space shortcut: https://t.co/2rEx3PmMqg pic.twitter.com/x9sT8AnjDm — OpenAI (@OpenAI) June 25, 2024

Apple brings ChatGPT to its apps, including Siri

Apple announced at WWDC 2024 that it is bringing ChatGPT to Siri and other first-party apps and capabilities across its operating systems. The ChatGPT integrations, powered by GPT-4o, will arrive on iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia later this year, and will be free without the need to create a ChatGPT or OpenAI account. Features exclusive to paying ChatGPT users will also be available through Apple devices .

Apple is bringing ChatGPT to Siri and other first-party apps and capabilities across its operating systems #WWDC24 Read more: https://t.co/0NJipSNJoS pic.twitter.com/EjQdPBuyy4 — TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) June 10, 2024

House Oversight subcommittee invites Scarlett Johansson to testify about ‘Sky’ controversy

Scarlett Johansson has been invited to testify about the controversy surrounding OpenAI’s Sky voice at a hearing for the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation. In a letter, Rep. Nancy Mace said Johansson’s testimony could “provide a platform” for concerns around deepfakes.

ChatGPT experiences two outages in a single day

ChatGPT was down twice in one day: one multi-hour outage in the early hours of the morning Tuesday and another outage later in the day that is still ongoing. Anthropic’s Claude and Perplexity also experienced some issues.

You're not alone, ChatGPT is down once again. pic.twitter.com/Ydk2vNOOK6 — TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) June 4, 2024

The Atlantic and Vox Media ink content deals with OpenAI

The Atlantic and Vox Media have announced licensing and product partnerships with OpenAI . Both agreements allow OpenAI to use the publishers’ current content to generate responses in ChatGPT, which will feature citations to relevant articles. Vox Media says it will use OpenAI’s technology to build “audience-facing and internal applications,” while The Atlantic will build a new experimental product called Atlantic Labs .

I am delighted that @theatlantic now has a strategic content & product partnership with @openai . Our stories will be discoverable in their new products and we'll be working with them to figure out new ways that AI can help serious, independent media : https://t.co/nfSVXW9KpB — nxthompson (@nxthompson) May 29, 2024

OpenAI signs 100K PwC workers to ChatGPT’s enterprise tier

OpenAI announced a new deal with management consulting giant PwC . The company will become OpenAI’s biggest customer to date, covering 100,000 users, and will become OpenAI’s first partner for selling its enterprise offerings to other businesses.

OpenAI says it is training its GPT-4 successor

OpenAI announced in a blog post that it has recently begun training its next flagship model to succeed GPT-4. The news came in an announcement of its new safety and security committee, which is responsible for informing safety and security decisions across OpenAI’s products.

Former OpenAI director claims the board found out about ChatGPT on Twitter

On the The TED AI Show podcast, former OpenAI board member Helen Toner revealed that the board did not know about ChatGPT until its launch in November 2022. Toner also said that Sam Altman gave the board inaccurate information about the safety processes the company had in place and that he didn’t disclose his involvement in the OpenAI Startup Fund.

Sharing this, recorded a few weeks ago. Most of the episode is about AI policy more broadly, but this was my first longform interview since the OpenAI investigation closed, so we also talked a bit about November. Thanks to @bilawalsidhu for a fun conversation! https://t.co/h0PtK06T0K — Helen Toner (@hlntnr) May 28, 2024

ChatGPT’s mobile app revenue saw biggest spike yet following GPT-4o launch

The launch of GPT-4o has driven the company’s biggest-ever spike in revenue on mobile , despite the model being freely available on the web. Mobile users are being pushed to upgrade to its $19.99 monthly subscription, ChatGPT Plus, if they want to experiment with OpenAI’s most recent launch.

OpenAI to remove ChatGPT’s Scarlett Johansson-like voice

After demoing its new GPT-4o model last week, OpenAI announced it is pausing one of its voices , Sky, after users found that it sounded similar to Scarlett Johansson in “Her.”

OpenAI explained in a blog post that Sky’s voice is “not an imitation” of the actress and that AI voices should not intentionally mimic the voice of a celebrity. The blog post went on to explain how the company chose its voices: Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper and Sky.

We’ve heard questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT, especially Sky. We are working to pause the use of Sky while we address them. Read more about how we chose these voices: https://t.co/R8wwZjU36L — OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 20, 2024

ChatGPT lets you add files from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive

OpenAI announced new updates for easier data analysis within ChatGPT . Users can now upload files directly from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, interact with tables and charts, and export customized charts for presentations. The company says these improvements will be added to GPT-4o in the coming weeks.

We're rolling out interactive tables and charts along with the ability to add files directly from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive into ChatGPT. Available to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise users over the coming weeks. https://t.co/Fu2bgMChXt pic.twitter.com/M9AHLx5BKr — OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 16, 2024

OpenAI inks deal to train AI on Reddit data

OpenAI announced a partnership with Reddit that will give the company access to “real-time, structured and unique content” from the social network. Content from Reddit will be incorporated into ChatGPT, and the companies will work together to bring new AI-powered features to Reddit users and moderators.

We’re partnering with Reddit to bring its content to ChatGPT and new products: https://t.co/xHgBZ8ptOE — OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 16, 2024

OpenAI debuts GPT-4o “omni” model now powering ChatGPT

OpenAI’s spring update event saw the reveal of its new omni model, GPT-4o, which has a black hole-like interface , as well as voice and vision capabilities that feel eerily like something out of “Her.” GPT-4o is set to roll out “iteratively” across its developer and consumer-facing products over the next few weeks.

OpenAI demos real-time language translation with its latest GPT-4o model. pic.twitter.com/pXtHQ9mKGc — TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) May 13, 2024

OpenAI to build a tool that lets content creators opt out of AI training

The company announced it’s building a tool, Media Manager, that will allow creators to better control how their content is being used to train generative AI models — and give them an option to opt out. The goal is to have the new tool in place and ready to use by 2025.

OpenAI explores allowing AI porn

In a new peek behind the curtain of its AI’s secret instructions , OpenAI also released a new NSFW policy . Though it’s intended to start a conversation about how it might allow explicit images and text in its AI products, it raises questions about whether OpenAI — or any generative AI vendor — can be trusted to handle sensitive content ethically.

OpenAI and Stack Overflow announce partnership

In a new partnership, OpenAI will get access to developer platform Stack Overflow’s API and will get feedback from developers to improve the performance of their AI models. In return, OpenAI will include attributions to Stack Overflow in ChatGPT. However, the deal was not favorable to some Stack Overflow users — leading to some sabotaging their answer in protest .

U.S. newspapers file copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft

Alden Global Capital-owned newspapers, including the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Denver Post, are suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. The lawsuit alleges that the companies stole millions of copyrighted articles “without permission and without payment” to bolster ChatGPT and Copilot.

OpenAI inks content licensing deal with Financial Times

OpenAI has partnered with another news publisher in Europe, London’s Financial Times , that the company will be paying for content access. “Through the partnership, ChatGPT users will be able to see select attributed summaries, quotes and rich links to FT journalism in response to relevant queries,” the FT wrote in a press release.

OpenAI opens Tokyo hub, adds GPT-4 model optimized for Japanese

OpenAI is opening a new office in Tokyo and has plans for a GPT-4 model optimized specifically for the Japanese language. The move underscores how OpenAI will likely need to localize its technology to different languages as it expands.

Sam Altman pitches ChatGPT Enterprise to Fortune 500 companies

According to Reuters, OpenAI’s Sam Altman hosted hundreds of executives from Fortune 500 companies across several cities in April, pitching versions of its AI services intended for corporate use.

OpenAI releases “more direct, less verbose” version of GPT-4 Turbo

Premium ChatGPT users — customers paying for ChatGPT Plus, Team or Enterprise — can now use an updated and enhanced version of GPT-4 Turbo . The new model brings with it improvements in writing, math, logical reasoning and coding, OpenAI claims, as well as a more up-to-date knowledge base.

Our new GPT-4 Turbo is now available to paid ChatGPT users. We’ve improved capabilities in writing, math, logical reasoning, and coding. Source: https://t.co/fjoXDCOnPr pic.twitter.com/I4fg4aDq1T — OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 12, 2024

ChatGPT no longer requires an account — but there’s a catch

You can now use ChatGPT without signing up for an account , but it won’t be quite the same experience. You won’t be able to save or share chats, use custom instructions, or other features associated with a persistent account. This version of ChatGPT will have “slightly more restrictive content policies,” according to OpenAI. When TechCrunch asked for more details, however, the response was unclear:

“The signed out experience will benefit from the existing safety mitigations that are already built into the model, such as refusing to generate harmful content. In addition to these existing mitigations, we are also implementing additional safeguards specifically designed to address other forms of content that may be inappropriate for a signed out experience,” a spokesperson said.

OpenAI’s chatbot store is filling up with spam

TechCrunch found that the OpenAI’s GPT Store is flooded with bizarre, potentially copyright-infringing GPTs . A cursory search pulls up GPTs that claim to generate art in the style of Disney and Marvel properties, but serve as little more than funnels to third-party paid services and advertise themselves as being able to bypass AI content detection tools.

The New York Times responds to OpenAI’s claims that it “hacked” ChatGPT for its copyright lawsuit

In a court filing opposing OpenAI’s motion to dismiss The New York Times’ lawsuit alleging copyright infringement, the newspaper asserted that “OpenAI’s attention-grabbing claim that The Times ‘hacked’ its products is as irrelevant as it is false.” The New York Times also claimed that some users of ChatGPT used the tool to bypass its paywalls.

OpenAI VP doesn’t say whether artists should be paid for training data

At a SXSW 2024 panel, Peter Deng, OpenAI’s VP of consumer product dodged a question on whether artists whose work was used to train generative AI models should be compensated . While OpenAI lets artists “opt out” of and remove their work from the datasets that the company uses to train its image-generating models, some artists have described the tool as onerous.

A new report estimates that ChatGPT uses more than half a million kilowatt-hours of electricity per day

ChatGPT’s environmental impact appears to be massive. According to a report from The New Yorker , ChatGPT uses an estimated 17,000 times the amount of electricity than the average U.S. household to respond to roughly 200 million requests each day.

ChatGPT can now read its answers aloud

OpenAI released a new Read Aloud feature for the web version of ChatGPT as well as the iOS and Android apps. The feature allows ChatGPT to read its responses to queries in one of five voice options and can speak 37 languages, according to the company. Read aloud is available on both GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 models.

ChatGPT can now read responses to you. On iOS or Android, tap and hold the message and then tap “Read Aloud”. We’ve also started rolling on web – click the "Read Aloud" button below the message. pic.twitter.com/KevIkgAFbG — OpenAI (@OpenAI) March 4, 2024

OpenAI partners with Dublin City Council to use GPT-4 for tourism

As part of a new partnership with OpenAI, the Dublin City Council will use GPT-4 to craft personalized itineraries for travelers, including recommendations of unique and cultural destinations, in an effort to support tourism across Europe.

A law firm used ChatGPT to justify a six-figure bill for legal services

New York-based law firm Cuddy Law was criticized by a judge for using ChatGPT to calculate their hourly billing rate . The firm submitted a $113,500 bill to the court, which was then halved by District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who called the figure “well above” reasonable demands.

ChatGPT experienced a bizarre bug for several hours

ChatGPT users found that ChatGPT was giving nonsensical answers for several hours , prompting OpenAI to investigate the issue. Incidents varied from repetitive phrases to confusing and incorrect answers to queries. The issue was resolved by OpenAI the following morning.

Match Group announced deal with OpenAI with a press release co-written by ChatGPT

The dating app giant home to Tinder, Match and OkCupid announced an enterprise agreement with OpenAI in an enthusiastic press release written with the help of ChatGPT . The AI tech will be used to help employees with work-related tasks and come as part of Match’s $20 million-plus bet on AI in 2024.

ChatGPT will now remember — and forget — things you tell it to

As part of a test, OpenAI began rolling out new “memory” controls for a small portion of ChatGPT free and paid users, with a broader rollout to follow. The controls let you tell ChatGPT explicitly to remember something, see what it remembers or turn off its memory altogether. Note that deleting a chat from chat history won’t erase ChatGPT’s or a custom GPT’s memories — you must delete the memory itself.

We’re testing ChatGPT's ability to remember things you discuss to make future chats more helpful. This feature is being rolled out to a small portion of Free and Plus users, and it's easy to turn on or off. https://t.co/1Tv355oa7V pic.twitter.com/BsFinBSTbs — OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 13, 2024

OpenAI begins rolling out “Temporary Chat” feature

Initially limited to a small subset of free and subscription users, Temporary Chat lets you have a dialogue with a blank slate. With Temporary Chat, ChatGPT won’t be aware of previous conversations or access memories but will follow custom instructions if they’re enabled.

But, OpenAI says it may keep a copy of Temporary Chat conversations for up to 30 days for “safety reasons.”

Use temporary chat for conversations in which you don’t want to use memory or appear in history. pic.twitter.com/H1U82zoXyC — OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 13, 2024

ChatGPT users can now invoke GPTs directly in chats

Paid users of ChatGPT can now bring GPTs into a conversation by typing “@” and selecting a GPT from the list. The chosen GPT will have an understanding of the full conversation, and different GPTs can be “tagged in” for different use cases and needs.

You can now bring GPTs into any conversation in ChatGPT – simply type @ and select the GPT. This allows you to add relevant GPTs with the full context of the conversation. pic.twitter.com/Pjn5uIy9NF — OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 30, 2024

ChatGPT is reportedly leaking usernames and passwords from users’ private conversations

Screenshots provided to Ars Technica found that ChatGPT is potentially leaking unpublished research papers, login credentials and private information from its users. An OpenAI representative told Ars Technica that the company was investigating the report.

ChatGPT is violating Europe’s privacy laws, Italian DPA tells OpenAI

OpenAI has been told it’s suspected of violating European Union privacy , following a multi-month investigation of ChatGPT by Italy’s data protection authority. Details of the draft findings haven’t been disclosed, but in a response, OpenAI said: “We want our AI to learn about the world, not about private individuals.”

OpenAI partners with Common Sense Media to collaborate on AI guidelines

In an effort to win the trust of parents and policymakers, OpenAI announced it’s partnering with Common Sense Media to collaborate on AI guidelines and education materials for parents, educators and young adults. The organization works to identify and minimize tech harms to young people and previously flagged ChatGPT as lacking in transparency and privacy .

OpenAI responds to Congressional Black Caucus about lack of diversity on its board

After a letter from the Congressional Black Caucus questioned the lack of diversity in OpenAI’s board, the company responded . The response, signed by CEO Sam Altman and Chairman of the Board Bret Taylor, said building a complete and diverse board was one of the company’s top priorities and that it was working with an executive search firm to assist it in finding talent. 

OpenAI drops prices and fixes ‘lazy’ GPT-4 that refused to work

In a blog post , OpenAI announced price drops for GPT-3.5’s API, with input prices dropping to 50% and output by 25%, to $0.0005 per thousand tokens in, and $0.0015 per thousand tokens out. GPT-4 Turbo also got a new preview model for API use, which includes an interesting fix that aims to reduce “laziness” that users have experienced.

Expanding the platform for @OpenAIDevs : new generation of embedding models, updated GPT-4 Turbo, and lower pricing on GPT-3.5 Turbo. https://t.co/7wzCLwB1ax — OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 25, 2024

OpenAI bans developer of a bot impersonating a presidential candidate

OpenAI has suspended AI startup Delphi, which developed a bot impersonating Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) to help bolster his presidential campaign. The ban comes just weeks after OpenAI published a plan to combat election misinformation, which listed “chatbots impersonating candidates” as against its policy.

OpenAI announces partnership with Arizona State University

Beginning in February, Arizona State University will have full access to ChatGPT’s Enterprise tier , which the university plans to use to build a personalized AI tutor, develop AI avatars, bolster their prompt engineering course and more. It marks OpenAI’s first partnership with a higher education institution.

Winner of a literary prize reveals around 5% her novel was written by ChatGPT

After receiving the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for her novel The Tokyo Tower of Sympathy, author Rie Kudan admitted that around 5% of the book quoted ChatGPT-generated sentences “verbatim.” Interestingly enough, the novel revolves around a futuristic world with a pervasive presence of AI.

Sam Altman teases video capabilities for ChatGPT and the release of GPT-5

In a conversation with Bill Gates on the Unconfuse Me podcast, Sam Altman confirmed an upcoming release of GPT-5 that will be “fully multimodal with speech, image, code, and video support.” Altman said users can expect to see GPT-5 drop sometime in 2024.

OpenAI announces team to build ‘crowdsourced’ governance ideas into its models

OpenAI is forming a Collective Alignment team of researchers and engineers to create a system for collecting and “encoding” public input on its models’ behaviors into OpenAI products and services. This comes as a part of OpenAI’s public program to award grants to fund experiments in setting up a “democratic process” for determining the rules AI systems follow.

OpenAI unveils plan to combat election misinformation

In a blog post, OpenAI announced users will not be allowed to build applications for political campaigning and lobbying until the company works out how effective their tools are for “personalized persuasion.”

Users will also be banned from creating chatbots that impersonate candidates or government institutions, and from using OpenAI tools to misrepresent the voting process or otherwise discourage voting.

The company is also testing out a tool that detects DALL-E generated images and will incorporate access to real-time news, with attribution, in ChatGPT.

Snapshot of how we’re preparing for 2024’s worldwide elections: • Working to prevent abuse, including misleading deepfakes • Providing transparency on AI-generated content • Improving access to authoritative voting information https://t.co/qsysYy5l0L — OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 15, 2024

OpenAI changes policy to allow military applications

In an unannounced update to its usage policy , OpenAI removed language previously prohibiting the use of its products for the purposes of “military and warfare.” In an additional statement, OpenAI confirmed that the language was changed in order to accommodate military customers and projects that do not violate their ban on efforts to use their tools to “harm people, develop weapons, for communications surveillance, or to injure others or destroy property.”

ChatGPT subscription aimed at small teams debuts

Aptly called ChatGPT Team , the new plan provides a dedicated workspace for teams of up to 149 people using ChatGPT as well as admin tools for team management. In addition to gaining access to GPT-4, GPT-4 with Vision and DALL-E3, ChatGPT Team lets teams build and share GPTs for their business needs.

OpenAI’s GPT store officially launches

After some back and forth over the last few months, OpenAI’s GPT Store is finally here . The feature lives in a new tab in the ChatGPT web client, and includes a range of GPTs developed both by OpenAI’s partners and the wider dev community.

To access the GPT Store, users must be subscribed to one of OpenAI’s premium ChatGPT plans — ChatGPT Plus, ChatGPT Enterprise or the newly launched ChatGPT Team.

the GPT store is live! https://t.co/AKg1mjlvo2 fun speculation last night about which GPTs will be doing the best by the end of today. — Sam Altman (@sama) January 10, 2024

Developing AI models would be “impossible” without copyrighted materials, OpenAI claims

Following a proposed ban on using news publications and books to train AI chatbots in the U.K., OpenAI submitted a plea to the House of Lords communications and digital committee. OpenAI argued that it would be “impossible” to train AI models without using copyrighted materials, and that they believe copyright law “does not forbid training.”

OpenAI claims The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit is without merit

OpenAI published a public response to The New York Times’s lawsuit against them and Microsoft for allegedly violating copyright law, claiming that the case is without merit.

In the response , OpenAI reiterates its view that training AI models using publicly available data from the web is fair use. It also makes the case that regurgitation is less likely to occur with training data from a single source and places the onus on users to “act responsibly.”

We build AI to empower people, including journalists. Our position on the @nytimes lawsuit: • Training is fair use, but we provide an opt-out • "Regurgitation" is a rare bug we're driving to zero • The New York Times is not telling the full story https://t.co/S6fSaDsfKb — OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 8, 2024

OpenAI’s app store for GPTs planned to launch next week

After being delayed in December , OpenAI plans to launch its GPT Store sometime in the coming week, according to an email viewed by TechCrunch. OpenAI says developers building GPTs will have to review the company’s updated usage policies and GPT brand guidelines to ensure their GPTs are compliant before they’re eligible for listing in the GPT Store. OpenAI’s update notably didn’t include any information on the expected monetization opportunities for developers listing their apps on the storefront.

GPT Store launching next week – OpenAI pic.twitter.com/I6mkZKtgZG — Manish Singh (@refsrc) January 4, 2024

OpenAI moves to shrink regulatory risk in EU around data privacy

In an email, OpenAI detailed an incoming update to its terms, including changing the OpenAI entity providing services to EEA and Swiss residents to OpenAI Ireland Limited. The move appears to be intended to shrink its regulatory risk in the European Union, where the company has been under scrutiny over ChatGPT’s impact on people’s privacy.

What is ChatGPT? How does it work?

ChatGPT is a general-purpose chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to generate text after a user enters a prompt, developed by tech startup OpenAI . The chatbot uses GPT-4, a large language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text.

When did ChatGPT get released?

November 30, 2022 is when ChatGPT was released for public use.

What is the latest version of ChatGPT?

Both the free version of ChatGPT and the paid ChatGPT Plus are regularly updated with new GPT models. The most recent model is GPT-4o .

Can I use ChatGPT for free?

There is a free version of ChatGPT that only requires a sign-in in addition to the paid version, ChatGPT Plus .

Who uses ChatGPT?

Anyone can use ChatGPT! More and more tech companies and search engines are utilizing the chatbot to automate text or quickly answer user questions/concerns.

What companies use ChatGPT?

Multiple enterprises utilize ChatGPT, although others may limit the use of the AI-powered tool .

Most recently, Microsoft announced at it’s 2023 Build conference that it is integrating it ChatGPT-based Bing experience into Windows 11. A Brooklyn-based 3D display startup Looking Glass utilizes ChatGPT to produce holograms you can communicate with by using ChatGPT.  And nonprofit organization Solana officially integrated the chatbot into its network with a ChatGPT plug-in geared toward end users to help onboard into the web3 space.

What does GPT mean in ChatGPT?

GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer.

What is the difference between ChatGPT and a chatbot?

A chatbot can be any software/system that holds dialogue with you/a person but doesn’t necessarily have to be AI-powered. For example, there are chatbots that are rules-based in the sense that they’ll give canned responses to questions.

ChatGPT is AI-powered and utilizes LLM technology to generate text after a prompt.

Can ChatGPT write essays?

Can chatgpt commit libel.

Due to the nature of how these models work , they don’t know or care whether something is true, only that it looks true. That’s a problem when you’re using it to do your homework, sure, but when it accuses you of a crime you didn’t commit, that may well at this point be libel.

We will see how handling troubling statements produced by ChatGPT will play out over the next few months as tech and legal experts attempt to tackle the fastest moving target in the industry.

Does ChatGPT have an app?

Yes, there is a free ChatGPT mobile app for iOS and Android users.

What is the ChatGPT character limit?

It’s not documented anywhere that ChatGPT has a character limit. However, users have noted that there are some character limitations after around 500 words.

Does ChatGPT have an API?

Yes, it was released March 1, 2023.

What are some sample everyday uses for ChatGPT?

Everyday examples include programing, scripts, email replies, listicles, blog ideas, summarization, etc.

What are some advanced uses for ChatGPT?

Advanced use examples include debugging code, programming languages, scientific concepts, complex problem solving, etc.

How good is ChatGPT at writing code?

It depends on the nature of the program. While ChatGPT can write workable Python code, it can’t necessarily program an entire app’s worth of code. That’s because ChatGPT lacks context awareness — in other words, the generated code isn’t always appropriate for the specific context in which it’s being used.

Can you save a ChatGPT chat?

Yes. OpenAI allows users to save chats in the ChatGPT interface, stored in the sidebar of the screen. There are no built-in sharing features yet.

Are there alternatives to ChatGPT?

Yes. There are multiple AI-powered chatbot competitors such as Together , Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude , and developers are creating open source alternatives .

How does ChatGPT handle data privacy?

OpenAI has said that individuals in “certain jurisdictions” (such as the EU) can object to the processing of their personal information by its AI models by filling out  this form . This includes the ability to make requests for deletion of AI-generated references about you. Although OpenAI notes it may not grant every request since it must balance privacy requests against freedom of expression “in accordance with applicable laws”.

The web form for making a deletion of data about you request is entitled “ OpenAI Personal Data Removal Request ”.

In its privacy policy, the ChatGPT maker makes a passing acknowledgement of the objection requirements attached to relying on “legitimate interest” (LI), pointing users towards more information about requesting an opt out — when it writes: “See here  for instructions on how you can opt out of our use of your information to train our models.”

What controversies have surrounded ChatGPT?

Recently, Discord announced that it had integrated OpenAI’s technology into its bot named Clyde where two users tricked Clyde into providing them with instructions for making the illegal drug methamphetamine (meth) and the incendiary mixture napalm.

An Australian mayor has publicly announced he may sue OpenAI for defamation due to ChatGPT’s false claims that he had served time in prison for bribery. This would be the first defamation lawsuit against the text-generating service.

CNET found itself in the midst of controversy after Futurism reported the publication was publishing articles under a mysterious byline completely generated by AI. The private equity company that owns CNET, Red Ventures, was accused of using ChatGPT for SEO farming, even if the information was incorrect.

Several major school systems and colleges, including New York City Public Schools , have banned ChatGPT from their networks and devices. They claim that the AI impedes the learning process by promoting plagiarism and misinformation, a claim that not every educator agrees with .

There have also been cases of ChatGPT accusing individuals of false crimes .

Where can I find examples of ChatGPT prompts?

Several marketplaces host and provide ChatGPT prompts, either for free or for a nominal fee. One is PromptBase . Another is ChatX . More launch every day.

Can ChatGPT be detected?

Poorly. Several tools claim to detect ChatGPT-generated text, but in our tests , they’re inconsistent at best.

Are ChatGPT chats public?

No. But OpenAI recently disclosed a bug, since fixed, that exposed the titles of some users’ conversations to other people on the service.

What lawsuits are there surrounding ChatGPT?

None specifically targeting ChatGPT. But OpenAI is involved in at least one lawsuit that has implications for AI systems trained on publicly available data, which would touch on ChatGPT.

Are there issues regarding plagiarism with ChatGPT?

Yes. Text-generating AI models like ChatGPT have a tendency to regurgitate content from their training data.

More TechCrunch

Get the industry’s biggest tech news, techcrunch daily news.

Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch’s coverage.

Startups Weekly

Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly.

TechCrunch Fintech

The latest Fintech news and analysis, delivered every Tuesday.

TechCrunch Mobility

TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight.

Bitcoin and NFTs may get greater legal protections as ‘personal property’ under proposed UK law

The U.K. government has introduced a new bill to Parliament which proposes new legal protections for digital assets such as Bitcoin.

Bitcoin and NFTs may get greater legal protections as ‘personal property’ under proposed UK law

X is working on a new way for people to block DMs

Elon Musk’s social network X is exploring a new feature that would allow users to block others from direct messaging them, but a way that’s separate from the account blocking…

X is working on a new way for people to block DMs

Face to face with Figure’s new humanoid robot

Figure is testing Figure 02’s efficacy for helping out in the kitchen and picking up around the house.

Face to face with Figure’s new humanoid robot

After using a business coach to shift careers, AceUp founder wants to drive coaching based on data

Is a business coach really worth the investment? Execs often seek coaches to bolster aspects of their work, like communication skills and their productivity. At least anecdotally, these skills do…

After using a business coach to shift careers, AceUp founder wants to drive coaching based on data

Humanz brings its influencer marketing platform to the U.S.

Humanz, a marketing platform for content creators and brands, has entered the U.S. market, the company announced on Thursday.  Having launched in Israel in 2017, Humanz has gained strong traction…

Humanz brings its influencer marketing platform to the U.S.

iFixit marks iPhone 16 arrival with battery-powered soldering iron launch

iFixit, everyone’s favorite gadget repair gadfly, is launching a portable soldering iron. The gadget is designed to make component repair more accessible for home users. The timing of the announcement…

iFixit marks iPhone 16 arrival with battery-powered soldering iron launch

Irish Big Tech watchdog digs into platforms’ content reporting mechanisms after DSA complaints

Ireland’s media regulator said it is reviewing how major platforms let users report illegal content, following a high number of complaints. 

Irish Big Tech watchdog digs into platforms’ content reporting mechanisms after DSA complaints

Novatus nabs $40M to help financial institutions quell their regtech nightmares

Novatus helps financial companies manage their data for risk and compliance data, and it has now raised $40M to expand into new markets.

Novatus nabs $40M to help financial institutions quell their regtech nightmares

OffDeal wants to help small businesses find big exits with AI agents

Small businesses are the unsung heroes of the American economy, employing nearly half of America’s workforce and making up 44% of the country’s GDP. But when it’s time for small…

OffDeal wants to help small businesses find big exits with AI agents

Google’s GenAI facing privacy risk assessment scrutiny in Europe

Google’s lead privacy regulator in the European Union has opened an investigation into whether or not it has complied with the bloc’s data protection laws in relation to use of…

Google’s GenAI facing privacy risk assessment scrutiny in Europe

Consumer group sues to ban purchases inside games like Fortnite and Minecraft in Europe

Video games are some of the most lucrative apps in the world, in part because of how they lure people into spending money on credits to buy digital goodies, to…

Consumer group sues to ban purchases inside games like Fortnite and Minecraft in Europe

WhatsApp brings Meta Verified, customized messages to small businesses in India

WhatsApp is now letting small businesses in India sign up for a Meta Verified badge and giving them the ability to send customized messages to customers.

WhatsApp brings Meta Verified, customized messages to small businesses in India

Drama at OpenWeb, as a new CEO is announced – and the founding CEO says he’s staying

OpenWeb, a New York startup whose tools help publishers engage users, has a unique problem. Its co-founding CEO reportedly won’t leave, even though it announced a new CEO. According to…

Drama at OpenWeb, as a new CEO is announced – and the founding CEO says he’s staying

Adam Neumann’s crypto comeback company is reportedly refunding investors

In a development that will surprise few, former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann’s climate/crypto/carbon-credit startup Flowcarbon appears to be in the process of curling up to die, Forbes reported today. Buyers…

Adam Neumann’s crypto comeback company is reportedly refunding investors

Amazon starts testing ads in its Rufus chatbot

Rufus, Amazon’s recently launched, shopping-focused chatbot, is getting ads soon. That’s according to a changelog published by Amazon this week (first spotted by AdWeek), which states that sponsored ads could…

Amazon starts testing ads in its Rufus chatbot

LineLeap lets users pay to skip the line at bars

No one likes standing in line. I was reminded of just how awful the experience can be last Saturday, while being herded like cattle through a two-hour queue for a…

LineLeap lets users pay to skip the line at bars

Featured Article

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024.

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

OpenAI reportedly in talks to raise at $150B valuation

OpenAI is reportedly in talks with investors to raise $6.5 billion at a $150 billion pre-money valuation, according to Bloomberg. The new valuation is significantly higher than OpenAI’s previously reported…

OpenAI reportedly in talks to raise at $150B valuation

These sub-1mm robots morph and crawl with an electric zap

Along with biological organisms, the robots were inspired kirigami, a variation of origami wherein objects are cut in addition to folded.

These sub-1mm robots morph and crawl with an electric zap

YouTube Shorts’ collaborative Add Yours sticker is now available to all users

YouTube confirmed on Wednesday that its collaborative “Add Yours” sticker for YouTube Shorts is now fully rolled out. The Google-owned company first announced the feature back in July. The sticker…

YouTube Shorts’ collaborative Add Yours sticker is now available to all users

Bluesky catches up to X with native support for video

With native video support, Bluesky will be able to better compete with other X rivals, including Instagram Threads and the decentralized service Mastodon, among others.

Bluesky catches up to X with native support for video

Taylor Swift cites ‘fears around AI’ as she endorses the Democratic ticket

After a historic presidential debate replete with discourse about eating pets, Taylor Swift ended the evening with a bang. Arguably the most powerful figure in American pop culture, the singer-songwriter…

Taylor Swift cites ‘fears around AI’ as she endorses the Democratic ticket

Mark Zuckerberg says he’s done apologizing

The home of the Golden State Warriors was packed on Tuesday evening this week, but it wasn’t to watch Steph Curry. Thousands of fans gathered at the Chase Center in…

Mark Zuckerberg says he’s done apologizing

This Week in AI: OpenAI’s new Strawberry model may be smart, yet sluggish

Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week in AI, OpenAI’s next major product announcement is imminent,…

This Week in AI: OpenAI’s new Strawberry model may be smart, yet sluggish

Media talent app HUSSLUP shuts down as workers in Hollywood continue to face job slowdown

HUSSLUP, the job search and networking app for the entertainment industry, goes on an indefinite hiatus starting Friday.

Media talent app HUSSLUP shuts down as workers in Hollywood continue to face job slowdown

Google’s AI note-taking app NotebookLM can now explain complex topics to you out loud

Google announced on Wednesday that its AI note-taking and research app, NotebookLM, is adding an “Audio Overview” feature. Audio Overview will give users another way to digest and comprehend the…

Google’s AI note-taking app NotebookLM can now explain complex topics to you out loud

Apple’s newly available ‘win-back’ offers let developers reach lapsed subscribers

Apple explains that these offers are designed to reach an app or game’s previous subscribers and encourage them to return.

Apple’s newly available ‘win-back’ offers let developers reach lapsed subscribers

Oura has acquired metabolic health startup Veri

Blood sugar levels are foundational to the Veri platform.

Oura has acquired metabolic health startup Veri

Fearless Fund is shutting down its contested Strivers Grant program

Fearless Fund has settled its case with the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), agreeing to shut down its Strivers Grant program.

Fearless Fund is shutting down its contested Strivers Grant program

Nuro pivots to license self-driving tech to carmakers, mobility companies

After multiple rounds of layoffs in 2022 and 2023, Nuro is pivoting its business strategy to focus more on the startup’s core autonomous driving technology instead of owning and operating a fleet of low-speed, on-road delivery bots. The company said on Wednesday it would start licensing its autonomous vehicle technology…

Nuro pivots to license self-driving tech to carmakers, mobility companies

  • Book a Coaching Appointment
  • Create a Resume, Cover Letter, or CV
  • Choose a Career Field
  • Search for a Job/Internship
  • Build a Professional Brand
  • Pursue Funding Opportunities
  • Negotiate an Offer
  • Network with Professionals/Find a Mentor
  • Prepare for an Interview
  • Prepare for Graduate School
  • Collaborate with CPD
  • Earn Academic Credit for an Internship
  • Undergraduate Students
  • Graduate Students
  • Faculty and Staff
  • Parents and Families
  • Transfer Students
  • Prospective Students
  • Affinity and Identity Resources
  • Accounting, Business Management, Consulting, and Finance
  • Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  • Entertainment, TV and Film
  • Engineering
  • Fine Arts and Performing Arts
  • Marketing, Communications, PR and Media
  • Education, Counseling, and Human Services
  • Health Professions and Research
  • Energy, Environment, and Sustainability
  • Computer Science, Data, Gaming, and Technology
  • Non-Profit and Social Impact
  • Legal Professions, Government, and Public Policy
  • Career Fairs and CPD Career Weeks
  • Career Treks
  • Casual Career Conversations
  • Meet the Team

Why You Shouldn’t Use ChatGPT to Write Your College and Grad School Admissions Essays

  • Share This: Share Why You Shouldn’t Use ChatGPT to Write Your College and Grad School Admissions Essays on Facebook Share Why You Shouldn’t Use ChatGPT to Write Your College and Grad School Admissions Essays on LinkedIn Share Why You Shouldn’t Use ChatGPT to Write Your College and Grad School Admissions Essays on X

A young woman writing in a notebook, with a laptop on the table, in an outdoor setting with green foliage in the background.

Why You Shouldn’t Use ChatGPT to Write Your College and Grad School Admissions Essays was originally published on Vault .

We’ve been covering the unfolding story of the use of artificial intelligence in education, as well as in various industries, so if you want to catch up you should check out our two-part   entry on its effects on education. Today, we’re going to be talking about the use of AI programs such as ChatGPT in college and grad school admissions essays, and why you should seriously consider holding off on jumping on that bandwagon. Let’s begin.

You’re Missing Out on the Experience

The old adage goes “Anything worth doing is difficult,” which is not only true, but writing a college admissions essay is a great example of something that is worth doing. When you enroll in college, you’re taking your first major steps toward your personal development, your career, and your life—it should be challenging. One of the many ways in which we grow as people is when we walk directly into challenges and face them head on.

If you use an AI program like ChatGPT to write your college or grad school admissions essay, you’re robbing yourself of the opportunity to examine yourself and your experience, and to harness these things in an effective way in order to advance your life as an adult. The satisfaction of succeeding and being accepted into a great college is one of life’s first great achievements, so don’t let it be squandered by a lazy shortcut.

You’re Not Being Authentic

You could sit and feed an AI program all kinds of information about your life, your education, and other experiences, but it will only be able to generate a wooden, generic version of what a flesh and blood human with even meager writing skills could manage. In other words, an effective essay is one that comes straight from the heart, and AI programs like ChatGPT lack that all-important component.

Colleges aren’t necessarily looking for golden perfection in an admissions essay. They’re looking for honesty, and an eagerness to learn and grow. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t obsessively check your essay for spelling and grammar mistakes, because you should, but the way you describe your story is what makes it unique. AI can’t tell your story effectively for you, regardless of how many details you give it.

AI Can’t Recognize Important Details

Along with the previous entry in our list, it’s worth mentioning that there are often seemingly small details about our lives that have had a tremendous impact on who we are, what we believe in, and what our goals are. For example, you might be going to school to become a doctor or a nurse because you’re interested in the medical field, but where did that interest come from? Did a family member’s illness spark a drive in you to help others?

The bottom line is, we all have our motivations, and they can sometimes be deep-seated and heartfelt. AI programs can’t feel those experiences and motivations, and thus cannot speak to them effectively or with human emotion. The chances are that the person who reviews your admissions essay will catch on to this lack of emotional depth very quickly, which will inevitably lead to your application being terminated (see what I did there?).

You’re Going to Get Caught

If the other reasons on this list still haven’t dissuaded you from using ChatGPT or similar programs to write your college admissions essay, consider this—there are tools colleges can use to detect AI-generated work. In fact, one such tool was created by OpenAI, the company that famously unleashed ChatGPT onto the world. If you dedicate even an hour a day to your admissions essay, it won’t take very long to write. Is the shortcut worth it to you?

You could make the argument that programs such as ChatGPT are a good starting point for a first draft; however, the amount of editing that will need to be done in order to make the essay sound like you would take about the same effort as simply drafting it yourself. Additionally, any initial work generated by an AI program might stick in your brain, causing you to mimic its robotic, unfeeling voice. If you need help, it’s far better to ask a trusted friend or family member with strong writing skills, or get a coach to guide you through the process.

The possibility exists that you could still squeak by with a ChatGPT-generated admissions essay, but where will that leave you? Getting accepted under false pretenses is not a good way to start your journey, and consistently taking the dishonest route can and will lead to moral bankruptcy. We spend a lot of time here speaking about developing our skills, taking on challenges, and walking our authentic paths toward success, and those practices are what make great leaders and great people—put the time and effort in, and you’ll get there.

Have a language expert improve your writing

Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes, generate your apa citations for free.

  • Knowledge Base
  • Using AI tools
  • How to Write an Introduction Using ChatGPT | Tips & Examples

How to Write an Introduction Using ChatGPT | Tips & Examples

Published on July 17, 2023 by Koen Driessen . Revised on September 11, 2023.

A good introduction is essential to any essay or dissertation. It sets up your argument and clearly indicates the scope and content of your writing.

Your introduction should be an authentic representation of your own ideas and research. However, AI tools like ChatGPT can be effectively used during the writing process to:

  • Develop an introduction outline
  • Summarize text
  • Paraphrase text
  • Provide feedback

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

upload-your-document-ai-proofreader

Table of contents

Developing an introduction outline, summarizing your arguments, paraphrasing text, generating feedback, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

While the introduction naturally comes at the beginning of your paper, it’s often one of the last parts you write. Writing your introduction last allows you to clearly indicate the most important aspects of your research to your reader in a logical order.

You can use ChatGPT to brainstorm potential outlines for your introduction. To do this, include a brief overview of all relevant aspects of your paper, including your research question , methodology , central arguments, and essay type (e.g., argumentative , expository ). For a longer essay or dissertation , you might also mention section or chapter titles.

Rearrange or edit the output so that it accurately reflects the body of your essay .

Example: Using ChatGPT to develop an outline

  • Develop an outline for an essay introduction. The essay is a 2,000 word argumentative essay on the impact of children’s cartoons on consumer behavior. The research uses both qualitative and quantitative data.
  • Start with a thought-provoking statement, anecdote, or statistic related to the influence of children’s cartoons on consumer behavior.
  • Introduce the topic of children’s cartoons and their popularity among young audiences.
  • Highlight the prevalence of media consumption among children and the significant role that cartoons play in their lives.
  • Discuss the growing influence of marketing and advertising targeted at children.
  • Clearly state your main argument about the impact of children’s cartoons on consumer behavior.
  • Example: “This essay argues that children’s cartoons have a substantial influence on consumer behavior, shaping children’s preferences, purchase decisions, and brand loyalty. This assertion is supported by a combination of qualitative and quantitative data.”
  • Briefly describe the research conducted and the use of both qualitative and quantitative data.
  • Explain the purpose of the research in examining the relationship between children’s cartoons and consumer behavior.
  • Mention the sample size, research methods employed, and the sources of data (e.g., surveys, interviews, content analysis).
  • Discuss the significance of understanding the impact of children’s cartoons on consumer behavior.
  • Highlight the potential implications for marketers, parents, and society as a whole.
  • Emphasize the need for critical examination of the messages conveyed through children’s cartoons.
  • Provide a brief overview of the main points or sections that will be covered in the essay.
  • Examination of the persuasive techniques employed in children’s cartoons.
  • Analysis of qualitative data to understand the effects of cartoons on children’s preferences and behaviors.
  • Presentation of quantitative data on the relationship between exposure to cartoons and consumer behavior.
  • Discussion of the ethical considerations surrounding marketing to children.
  • Conclusion on the overall impact of children’s cartoons on consumer behavior.
  • Summarize how the upcoming sections will provide evidence and analysis to support your argument.
  • Example: “Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, this essay will delve into the persuasive techniques used in children’s cartoons, examine the effects of cartoons on children’s preferences and behaviors, present quantitative evidence of the relationship between exposure to cartoons and consumer behavior, discuss the ethical concerns, and ultimately draw conclusions about the influence of children’s cartoons on consumer behavior.”

Check for common mistakes

Use the best grammar checker available to check for common mistakes in your text.

Fix mistakes for free

At the end of your introduction, you may give a brief overview of specific sections of your paper.

You can use ChatGPT to summarize text and condense your writing to its most important ideas. To do this, copy and paste sections of your essay into ChatGPT and prompt it to summarize the text.

However, we don’t recommend passing off AI-generated outputs as your own work. This is considered academically dishonest and may be detected using AI detectors . Instead, use ChatGPT outputs as a source of inspiration to help you clearly indicate your key objectives and findings in your own words.

Alternatively, you can use a specialized tool like Scribbr’s free text summarizer , which offers a smoother user experience.

Example: Using ChatGPT to summarize text

  • Provide a one-line summary of the following paragraph: “Exposure to cartoons exerts a discernible impact on a child’s preferences, primarily through the establishment of robust associations between animated characters, branded products, and positive emotional experiences. Through repeated exposure, children develop an attachment to specific brands that influences their future buying choices. Furthermore, recent studies have established a correlation between the amount of time spent watching cartoons and children’s consumer behavior, including their demands for advertised products and their influence on family purchasing decisions.”
  • Repeated exposure to cartoons influences children’s preferences, brand attachments, consumer behavior, and purchasing decisions.

When writing your introduction, you may have difficulty finding fresh ways to describe the content of your essay. You can use ChatGPT as a paraphrasing tool to rephrase text in clear language. This can help you to communicate your ideas more effectively, avoid repetition, and maintain a consistent tone.

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

Example: Using ChatGPT to paraphrase text

  • Paraphrase the following sentence: “This raises ethical concerns regarding the potential exploitation of young minds for commercial gain, highlighting the need for responsible content creation and parental guidance to mitigate the impact of children’s cartoons on consumer behavior.”
  • The potential exploitation of young minds for commercial gain gives rise to ethical concerns, emphasizing the importance of responsible content creation and parental guidance to reduce the influence of children’s cartoons on consumer behavior.

Once you’ve finished writing your introduction, you can use ChatGPT to generate feedback. Paste your introduction into the tool and prompt it to provide feedback on specific aspects of your writing, such as tone, clarity, or structure.

You can also use ChatGPT to check grammar and punctuation mistakes. However, it’s not specifically designed for this purpose and may fail to detect some errors. We recommend using a more specialized tool like Scribbr’s free grammar checker . Or, for more comprehensive feedback, try Scribbr’s proofreading and editing service .

Example: Using ChatGPT to get feedback

  • Provide feedback on the above text with regard to tone of voice and clarity of structure.

Furthermore, the last paragraph could be revised to provide a more concise summary of the main points that will be addressed in the essay. This would help to give the reader a clearer roadmap of what to expect in the subsequent sections.

Don't submit your assignments before you do this

The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students. Free citation check included.

essay write chat gpt

Try for free

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , fallacies , and research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

  • ChatGPT vs human editor
  • ChatGPT citations
  • Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
  • Using ChatGPT for your studies
  • Sunk cost fallacy
  • Straw man fallacy
  • Slippery slope fallacy
  • Red herring fallacy
  • Ecological fallacy
  • Logical fallacy

Research bias

  • Implicit bias
  • Framing bias
  • Cognitive bias
  • Optimism bias
  • Hawthorne effect
  • Unconscious bias

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.

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.

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, September 11). How to Write an Introduction Using ChatGPT | Tips & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved September 9, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/ai-tools/chatgpt-essay-introduction/

Is this article helpful?

Koen Driessen

Koen Driessen

Other students also liked, using chatgpt for assignments | tips & examples, what can chatgpt do | suggestions & examples, how to write good chatgpt prompts, "i thought ai proofreading was useless but..".

I've been using Scribbr for years now and I know it's a service that won't disappoint. It does a good job spotting mistakes”

  • Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Was It Written by ChatGPT, or by a Novelist?

More from our inbox:.

  • Solidarity With Afghan Women
  • Shh! Athletes at Play!
  • Workers Support Unions

essay write chat gpt

To the Editor:

Re “ An Experiment in Lust, Regret and Kissing ,” by Curtis Sittenfeld (Opinion guest essay, Sept. 1):

As Ms. Sittenfeld noted, ChatGPT is fast but soulless; it writes toneless prose. As my college writing professor told us, unending descriptions are dull. Ms. Sittenfeld’s writing deftly blends description with lots of conversation, something that ChatGPT cannot do well easily.

One more reason that ChatGPT is soulless is that it has no idea what it is writing about. It’s really just an algorithm for stringing together linguistic patterns that it has indexed over the whole internet. Being a good pattern matcher is an accomplishment, but it’s a long way from matching human creativity.

ChatGPT does not know whether anything it writes actually corresponds to the real world because it has no knowledge of the real world beyond the patterns it picks up from the internet. It doesn’t know that the sentence “my cat is green” could not be true (unless I painted my cat green).

And, alas, that huge internet database includes work that is copyrighted. So I share Ms. Sittenfeld’s disgust in the way her work was used without compensation.

Candy Sidner Newton, Mass. The writer is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of A.I. and of the Association for Computational Linguistics.

I enjoyed your piece pitting Curtis Sittenfeld against ChatGPT in a beach-read showdown. However, while entertaining, it was like asking a chef to make her favorite dish while telling a novice cook to “do something with tofu” — then acting surprised when the meal was bland. The prompt given to ChatGPT was flavorless. By neglecting to optimize prompting techniques, you inadvertently asked the A.I. to generate generic, inoffensive content based on minimal input.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

  • Publications
  • Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

  • Advanced Search
  • Journal List
  • BMC Med Educ
  • PMC11373238

Logo of bmcmedu

Reliability of ChatGPT in automated essay scoring for dental undergraduate examinations

Bernadette quah.

1 Faculty of Dentistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

2 Discipline of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, National University Centre for Oral Health, 9 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore, Singapore

Timothy Jie Han Sng

Chee weng yong, intekhab islam, associated data.

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

This study aimed to answer the research question: How reliable is ChatGPT in automated essay scoring (AES) for oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) examinations for dental undergraduate students compared to human assessors?

Sixty-nine undergraduate dental students participated in a closed-book examination comprising two essays at the National University of Singapore. Using pre-created assessment rubrics, three assessors independently performed manual essay scoring, while one separate assessor performed AES using ChatGPT (GPT-4). Data analyses were performed using the intraclass correlation coefficient and Cronbach's α to evaluate the reliability and inter-rater agreement of the test scores among all assessors. The mean scores of manual versus automated scoring were evaluated for similarity and correlations.

A strong correlation was observed for Question 1 ( r  = 0.752–0.848, p  < 0.001) and a moderate correlation was observed between AES and all manual scorers for Question 2 ( r  = 0.527–0.571, p  < 0.001). Intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.794–0.858 indicated excellent inter-rater agreement, and Cronbach’s α of 0.881–0.932 indicated high reliability. For Question 1, the mean AES scores were similar to those for manual scoring ( p  > 0.05), and there was a strong correlation between AES and manual scores ( r  = 0.829, p  < 0.001). For Question 2, AES scores were significantly lower than manual scores ( p  < 0.001), and there was a moderate correlation between AES and manual scores ( r  = 0.599, p  < 0.001).

This study shows the potential of ChatGPT for essay marking. However, an appropriate rubric design is essential for optimal reliability. With further validation, the ChatGPT has the potential to aid students in self-assessment or large-scale marking automated processes.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-024-05881-6.

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, LLaMA by META, and Google’s LaMDA (Language Models for Dialogue Applications), have demonstrated tremendous potential in generating outputs based on user-specified instructions or prompts. These models are trained using large amounts of data and are capable of natural language processing tasks. Owing to their ability to comprehend, interpret, and generate natural language text, LLMs allow human-like conversations with coherent contextual responses to prompts. The capability of LLMs to summarize and generate texts that resemble human language allows the creation of task-focused systems that can ease the demands of human labor and improve efficiency.

OpenAI uses a closed application programming interface (API) to process data. Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (OpenAI Inc., California, USA, https://chat.openai.com/ ) was introduced globally in 2020 as ChatGPT3, a generative language model with 175 billion parameters [ 1 ]. It is based on a generative AI model that can generate new content based on the data on which they have been trained. The latest version, ChatGPT-4, was introduced in 2023 and has demonstrated improved creativity, reasoning, and the ability to process even more complicated tasks [ 2 ].

Since its release in the public domain, ChatGPT has been actively explored by both healthcare professionals and educators in an effort to attain human-like performance in the form of clinical reasoning, image recognition, diagnosis, and learning from medical databases. ChatGPT has proven to be a powerful tool with immense potential to provide students with an interactive platform to deepen their understanding of any given topic [ 3 ]. In addition, it is also capable of aiding in both lesson planning and student assessments [ 4 , 5 ].

The potential of ChatGPT for assessments

Automated Essay Scoring (AES) is not a new concept, and interest in AES has been increasing since the advent of AI. Three main categories of AES programs have been described, utilizing regression, classification, or neural network models [ 6 ]. A known problem of current AES systems is their unreliability in evaluating the content relevance and coherence of essays [ 6 ]. Newer language models such as ChatGPT, however, are potential game changers; they are simpler to learn than current deep learning programs and can therefore improve the accessibility of AES to educators. Mizumoto and Eguchi recently pioneered the potential use of ChatGPT (GPT-3.5 and 4) for AES in the field of linguistics and reported an accuracy level sufficient for use as a supportive tool even when fine-tuning of the model was not performed [ 7 ].

The use of these AI-powered tools may potentially ease the burden on educators in marking large numbers of essay scripts, while providing personalized feedback to students [ 8 , 9 ]. This is especially crucial with larger class sizes and increasing student-to-teacher ratios, where it can be more difficult for educators to actively engage individual students. Additionally, manual scoring by humans can be subjective and susceptible to fatigue, which may put the scoring at risk of being unreliable [ 7 , 10 ]. The use of AI for essay scoring may thus help reduce intra- and inter-rater variability associated with manual scoring by providing a more standardized and reliable scoring process that eases the time- and labor-intensive scoring workload of human assessors [ 10 , 11 ].

The current role of AI in healthcare education

Generative AI has permeated the healthcare industry and provided a diverse range of health enhancements. An example is how AI facilitates radiographic evaluation and clinical diagnosis to improve the quality of patient care [ 12 , 13 ]. In medical and dental education, virtual or augmented reality and haptic simulations are some of the exciting technological tools already implemented to improve student competence and confidence in patient assessment and execution of procedures [ 14 – 16 ]. The incorporation of ChatGPT into the dental curriculum would thus be the next step in enhancing student learning. The performance of ChatGPT in the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) was recently validated, with ChatGPT achieving a score equivalent to that of a third-year medical student [ 17 ]. However, no data are available on the performance of ChatGPT in the field of dentistry or oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS). Furthermore, the reliability of AI-powered language models for the grading of essays in the medical field has not yet been evaluated; in addition to essay structure and language, the evaluation of essay scripts in the field of OMS would require a level of understanding of dentistry, medicine and surgery.

Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the reliability of ChatGPT for AES in OMS examinations for final-year dental undergraduate students compared to human assessors. Our null hypothesis was that there would be no difference in the scores between the ChatGPT and human assessors. The research question for the study was as follows: How reliable is ChatGPT when used for AES in OMS examinations compared to human assessors?

Materials and methods

This study was conducted in the Faculty of Dentistry, National University of Singapore, under the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The study received ethical approval from the university’s Institutional Review Board (REF: IRB-2023–1051) and was conducted and drafted with guidance from the education interventions critical appraisal worksheet introduced by BestBETs [ 18 ].

Sample size calculation for this study was based on the formula provided by Viechtbauer et al.: n  = ln (1-γ) / ln(1-π), where n, γ and π represent the sample size, significance level and level of confidence respectively [ 19 ]. Based on a 5% margin of error, a 95% confidence level and a 50% outcome response, it was calculated that a minimum sample size of 59 subjects was required. Ultimately, the study recruited 69 participants, all of whom were final-year undergraduate dental students. A closed-book OMS examination was conducted on the Examplify platform (ExamSoft Worldwide Inc., Texas, USA) as a part of the end-of-module assessment. The examination comprised two open-ended essay questions based on the topics taught in the module (Table  1 ).

Essay examination questions

#Question
1A male adult presents with a buccal extraoral swelling. He reports pain over a decayed lower molar with foul taste in his mouth. On examination you notice an extraoral swelling and pus discharge intraorally. How will you manage this case?
2A young male construction worker fell from a height of 10 m. He was conscious when brought to the Accident and Emergency Department. You are called to assess his orofacial trauma. Discuss your management of the patient

Creation of standardized assessment

An assessment rubric was created for each question through discussion and collaboration of a workgroup comprising four assessors involved in the study. All members of the work group were academic staff from the faculty (I.I., B.Q., L.Z., T.J.H.S.) (Supplementary Tables S1 and S2) [ 20 ]. An analytic rubric was generated using the strategy outlined by Popham [ 21 ]. The process involved a discussion within the workgroup to agree on the learning outcomes of the essay questions. Two authors (I. I. and B. Q) independently generated the rubric criteria and descriptions for Question 1 (Infection). Similarly, for Question 2 (Trauma), the rubric criteria and descriptions were generated independently by two authors (I.I. and T.J.H.S.). The rubrics were revised until a consensus was reached between each pair. In the event of any disagreement, a third author (L.Z.) provided their opinion to aid in decision making.

Marking categories of Poor (0 marks), Satisfactory (2 marks), Good (3 marks), and Outstanding (4 marks) were allocated to each criterion, with a maximum of 4 marks attainable from each criterion. A criterion for overall essay structure and language was also included, with a maximum attainable 5 marks from this criterion. The highest score for each question was 40.

Model answers to the essays were prepared by another author (C.W.Y.), who did not participate in the creation of the rubrics. Using the rubrics as a reference, the author modified the model answer to create 5 variants of the answers such that each variant fell within different score ranges of 0–10, 11–20, 21–30, 31–40, 41–50. Subsequently, three authors (B. Q., L. Z., and T.J.H.S) graded the essays using the prepared rubrics. Revisions to the rubrics were made with consensus by all three authors, a process that also helped calibrate these three authors for manual essay scoring.

AES with ChatGPT

Essay scoring was performed using ChatGPT (GPT-4, released March 14, 2023) by one assessor who did not participate in the manual essay scoring exercise (I.I.). Prompts were generated based on a guideline by Giray, and the components of Instruction, Context, Input Data and Output Indication as discussed in the guideline were included in each prompt (Supplementary Tables 3 and 4) [ 22 ]. A prompt template was generated for each question by one assessor (I.I.) with advice from two experts in prompt engineering, based on the marking rubric. The criterion and point allocation were clearly written in prose and point forms. For the fine-tuning process, the prompts were input into ChatGPT using variants of the model answers provided by C.W.Y. Minor adjustments were made to the wording of certain parts of the prompts as necessary to correct any potential misinterpretations of the prompts by the ChatGPT. Each time, the prompt was entered into a new chat in the ChatGPT in a browser where the browser history and cookies were cleared. Subsequently, finalized prompts (Supplementary Tables 3 and 4) were used to score the student essays. AES scores were not used to calculate students’ actual essay scores.

Manual essay scoring

Manual essay scoring was completed independently by three assessors (B.Q., L.Z., and T.J.H.S.) using the assessment rubrics (Supplementary Tables S1 and S2). Calibration was performed during the rubric creation stage. The essays were anonymized to prevent bias during the marking process. The assessors recorded the marks allocated to each criterion, as well as the overall score of each essay, on a pre-prepared Excel spreadsheet. Scoring was performed separately and independently by all assessors before the final collation by a research team member (I.I.) for statistical analyses. The student was considered ‘able to briefly mention’ a criterion if they did not mention any of the keywords of the points within the criterion. The student was considered ‘able to elaborate on’ a point within the criterion if they were able to mention the keywords of that point as stated in the rubric, and were thus awarded higher marks in accordance with the rubric (e.g. the student was given a higher mark if they were able to mention the need to check for dyspnea and dysphagia, instead of simply mentioning a need to check the patient’s airway). Grading was performed with only whole marks as specified in the rubrics, and assessors were not allowed to give half marks or subscores.

Data synthesis

The scores given out of 40 per essay by each assessor were compiled. Data analyses were subsequently performed using SPSS® version 29.0.1.0(171) (IBM Corporation, New York, United States). For each essay question, correlations between the essay scores given by each assessor were analyzed and displayed using the inter-item correlation matrix. A correlation coefficient value ( r ) of 0.90–1.00 was indicative of a very strong, 0.70–0.89 indicative of strong, 0.40–0.69 moderate, 0.10–0.39 weak and < 0.10 negligible positive correlation between the scorers [ 23 ]. The cutoff p -value for the significance level was set at p  < 0.05. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach's α were then calculated between all assessors to assess the inter-rater agreement and reliability, respectively [ 24 ]. The ICC was interpreted on a scale of 0 to 1.00, with a higher value indicating a higher level of agreement in scores given by the scorers to each student. A value less than 0.40 was indicative of poor, 0.40–0.59 fair, 0.60–0.74 good, and 0.75–1.00 excellent agreement [ 25 ]. Using Cronbach’s α, reliability was expressed on a range from 0 to 1.00, with a higher number indicating a higher level of consistency between the scorers in their scores given across the students. The reliability was considered ‘Less Reliable’ if the score was less 0.20, ‘Rather Reliable’ if the score was 0.20–0.40, ‘Quite Reliable’ if 0.40–0.60, ‘Reliable’ if 0.60–0.80 and ‘Very Reliable’ if 0.80–1.00 [ 26 ].

Similarly, the mean scores of the three manual scorers were calculated for each question. The mean manual scores were then analyzed for correlations with AES scores by using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Student’s t-test was also used to analyze any significant differences in mean scores between manual scoring and AES. A p -value of < 0.05 was required to conclude the presence of a statistically different score between the groups.

All final-year dental undergraduate students (69/69, 100%) had their essays graded by all manual scorers and AES as part of the study. Table ​ Table2 2 shows the mean scores for each individual assessor as well as the mean scores for the three manual scorers (Scorers 1, 2, and 3).

Mean scores and standard deviations (S.D.) for each assessor. Manual scoring was performed by Scorers 1, 2, and 3, while AES was performed by a separate team member (I.I.). The mean scores of Scorers 1, 2, and 3 were calculated to obtain the Combined Manual Scores. AES showed a significantly lower mean score than manual scoring for Question 2, but not for Question 1

MeanS.D MeanS.D
Scorer 118.726.01023.234.446
Scorer 211.714.28821.514.928
Scorer 314.125.73124.584.587
Combined Manual Scores14.854.9880.72623.114.241 < 0.001*
AES14.545.49018.624.044

Analysis of correlation and agreement between all scorers

The inter-item correlation matrices and their respective p -values are listed in Table  3 . For Question 1, there was a strong positive correlation between the scores provided by each assessor (Scorers 1, 2, 3, and AES), with r -values ranging from 0.752–0.848. All p -values were < 0.001, indicating a significant positive correlation between all assessors. For Question 2, there was a strong positive correlation between Scorers 1 and 2 ( r  = 0.829) and Scorers 1 and 3 ( r  = 0.756). There was a moderate positive correlation between Scorers 2 and 3 ( r  = 0.655), as well as between AES and all manual scores ( r -values ranging from 0.527 to 0.571). Similarly, all p -values were < 0.001, indicative of a significant positive correlation between all scorers.

Inter-item correlation matrix and significance

Question 1
Scorer 1Scorer 2Scorer 3AES
Scorer 1 1.000
Scorer 2 0.8481.000
 < 0.001*
Scorer 3 0.7970.7731.000
 < 0.001* < 0.001*
AES 0.8100.7530.7521.000
 < 0.001* < 0.001* < 0.001*
Scorer 1Scorer 1Scorer 2Scorer 3AES
1.000
Scorer 2 0.8291.000
 < 0.001*
Scorer 3 0.7560.6551.000
 < 0.001* < 0.001*
AES 0.5710.5270.5421.000
 < 0.001* < 0.001* < 0.001*

A strong correlation was found between all groups for Question 1, and a strong to moderate correlation was found between the groups for Question 2

AES Automated essay scoring

*signifies significant difference

For the analysis of inter-rater agreement, ICC values of 0.858 (95% CI 0.628 – 0.933) and 0.794 (95% CI 0.563 – 0.892) were obtained for Questions 1 and 2, respectively, both of which were indicative of excellent inter-rater agreement. Cronbach’s α was 0.932 for Question 1 and 0.881 for Question 2, both of which were ‘Very Reliable’.

Analysis of correlation between manual scoring versus AES

The results of the Student’s t-test comparing the test score values from manual scoring and AES are shown in Table  2 . For Question 1, the mean manual scores (14.85 ± 4.988) were slightly higher than those of the AES (14.54 ± 5.490). However, these differences were not statistically significant ( p  > 0.05). For Question 2, the mean manual scores (23.11 ± 4.241) were also higher than those of the AES (18.62 ± 4.044); this difference was statistically significant ( p  < 0.001).

The results of the Pearson’s correlation coefficient calculations are shown in Table  4 . For Question 1, there was a strong and significant positive correlation between manual scoring and AES ( r  = 0.829, p  < 0.001). For Question 2, there was a moderate and statistically significant positive correlation between the two groups ( r  = 0.599, p  < 0.001).

Correlation between mean essay scores by manual scorers and AES. A strong and moderate correlation was found between the two groups for Questions 1 and 2 respectively

Question 10.829 < 0.001
Question 20.599 < 0.001

Qualitative feedback from AES

Figures ​ Figures1, 1 , ​ ,2 2 and ​ and3 3 show three examples of essay feedback and scoring provided by ChatGPT. ChatGPT provided feedback in a concise and systematic manner. Scores were clearly provided for each of the criteria listed in the assessment rubric. This was followed by in-depth feedback on the points within the criterion that the student had discussed and failed to mention. ChatGPT was able to differentiate between a student who briefly mentioned a key point and a student who provided better elaboration on the same point by allocating them two or three marks, respectively.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is 12909_2024_5881_Fig1_HTML.jpg

Example #1 of a marked essay with feedback from ChatGPT for Question 1

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is 12909_2024_5881_Fig2_HTML.jpg

Example #2 of a marked essay with feedback from ChatGPT for Question 1

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is 12909_2024_5881_Fig3_HTML.jpg

Example #3 of a marked essay with feedback from ChatGPT for Question 1

One limitation of ChatGPT that was identified during the scoring process was its inability to identify content that was not relevant to the essay or that was factually incorrect. This was despite the assessment rubric specifying that incorrect statements should be given 0 marks for that criterion. For example, a student who included points about incision and drainage also incorrectly stated that bone scraping to induce bleeding and packing of local hemostatic agents should be performed. Although these statements were factually incorrect, ChatGPT was unable to identify this and still awarded student marks for the point. Manual assessors were able to spot this and subsequently penalized the student for the mistake.

Since its recent rise in popularity, many people have been eager to tap into the potential of large language models, such as ChatGPT. In their review, Khan et al. discussed the growing role of ChatGPT in medical education, with promising uses for the creation of case studies and content such as quizzes and flashcards for self-directed practice [ 9 ]. As an LLM, the ability of ChatGPT to thoroughly evaluate sentence structure and clarity may allow it to confront the task of automated essay marking.

Advantages of ChatGPT in AES

This study found significant correlations and excellent inter-rater agreement between ChatGPT and manual scorers, and the mean scores between both groups showed strong to moderate correlations for both essay questions. This suggests that AES has the potential to provide a level of essay marking similar to that of the educators in our faculty. Similar positive findings were reflected in previous studies that compared manual and automated essay scoring ( r  = 0.532–0.766) [ 6 ]. However, there is still a need to further fine-tune the scoring system such that the score provided by AES deviates as little as possible from human scoring. For instance, the mean AES score was lower than that of manual scoring by 5 marks for Question 2. Although the difference may not seem large, it may potentially increase or decrease the final performance grade of students.

Apart from a decent level of reliability in manual essay scoring, there are many other benefits to using ChatGPT for AES. Compared to humans, the response time to prompts is much faster and can thus increase productivity and reduce the burden of a large workload on educational assessors [ 27 ]. In addition, ChatGPT can provide individualized feedback for each essay (Figs. ​ (Figs.1, 1 , ​ ,2 2 and ​ and3). 3 ). This helps provide students with comments specific to their essays, a feat that is difficult to achieve for a single educator teaching a large class size.

Similar to previous systems designed for AES, machine scoring is beneficial for removing human inconsistencies that can result from fatigue, mood swings, or bias [ 10 ]. ChatGPT is no exception. Furthermore, ChatGPT is more widely accessible than the conventional AES systems. Its software runs online instead of requiring downloads on a computer, and its user interface is simple to use. With GPT-3.5 being free to use and GPT-4 being 20 USD per month, it is also relatively inexpensive.

Marking the essay is only part of the equation, and the next step is to allow the students to know what went wrong and why. Nicol and Macfarlane described seven principles for good feedback. ChatGPT can fulfil most of these principles, namely, facilitating self-assessment, encouraging teacher and peer dialogue, clarifying what good performance is, providing opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance, and delivering high-quality information to students [ 28 ]. In this study, the feedback given by ChatGPT was categorized based on the rubric, and elaboration was provided for each criterion on the points the student mentioned and did not mention. By highlighting the ideal answer and where the student can improve, ChatGPT can clarify performance goals and provide opportunities to close the gap between the student’s current and desired performance. This creates opportunities for selfdirected learning and the utilization of blended learning environments. Students can use ChatGPT to review their preparation on topics, self-grade their essays, and receive instant feedback. Furthermore, the simple and interactive nature of the software encourages dialogue, as it can readily respond to any clarification the student wants to make. The importance of effective feedback has been demonstrated to be an essential component in medical education, in terms of enhancing the knowledge of the student without developing negative emotions [ 29 , 30 ].

These potential advantages of engaging ChatGPT for student assessments play well into the humanistic learning theory of medical education [ 31 , 32 ]. Self-directed learning allows students the freedom to learn at their own pace, with educators simply providing a conducive environment and the goals that the student should achieve. ChatGPT has the potential to supplement the role of the educator in self-directed learning, as it can be readily available to provide constructive and tailored feedback for assignments whenever the student is ready for it. This removes the burden that assignment deadlines place on students, which can allow them a greater sense of independence and control over their learning, and lead to greater self-motivation and self-fulfillment.

Potential pitfalls of ChatGPT

Potential pitfalls associated with the use of ChatGPT were identified. First, the ability to achieve reliable scores relies heavily on a well-created marking rubric with clearly defined terms. In this study, the correlations between scorers were stronger for Question 1 compared to Question 2, and the mean scores between the AES and manual scorers were also significantly different for Question 2, but not for Question 1. The lower reliability of the AES for Question 2 may be attributed to its broader nature, use of more complex medical terms, and lengthier scoring rubrics. The broad nature of the question left more room for individual interpretation and variation between humans and AES. The ability of ChatGPT to provide accurate answers may be reduced with lengthier prompts and conversations [ 27 ]. Furthermore, with less specific instructions or complex medical jargon, both automated systems and human scorers may interpret rubrics differently, resulting in varied scores across the board [ 10 , 33 , 34 ]. The authors thus recommend that to circumvent this, the use of ChatGPT for essay scoring should be restricted to questions that are less broad (e.g. shorter essays), or by breaking the task into multiple prompts for each individual criterion to reduce variations in interpretation [ 27 , 35 ]. Furthermore, the rubrics should contain concise and explicit instructions with appropriate grammar and vocabulary to avoid misinterpretation by both ChatGPT and human scorers, and provide a brief explanation to specify what certain medical terms mean (e.g. writing ‘pulse oximetry (SpO2) monitoring’ instead of only ‘SpO2’) for better contextualization [ 35 , 36 ].

Second, prompt engineering is a critical step in producing the desired outcome from ChatGPT [ 27 ]. A prompt that is too ambiguous or lacks context can lead to a response that is incomplete, generic, or irrelevant, and a prompt that exhibits bias runs the risk of bias reinforcement in the given reply [ 22 , 34 ]. Phrasing the prompt must also be carefully checked for spelling, grammatical mistakes, or inconsistencies, since ChatGPT uses the prompt’s phrasing literally. For example, a prompt that reads ‘give 3 marks if the student covers one or more coverage points’ will result in ChatGPT only giving the marks if multiple points are covered, because of the plural nature of the word ‘points’.

Third, irrelevant content may not be penalized during the essay-marking process. Students may ‘trick’ the AES by producing a lengthier essay to hit more relevant points and increase their score. This may result in essays of lower quality with multiple incorrect or nonsensical statements still rewarded with higher scores [ 10 ]. Our assessment rubric attempts to penalize the student with 0 marks if incorrect statements on the criterion are made; however, none of the students were penalized. This issue may be resolved as ChatGPT rapidly and continuously gains more medical and dental knowledge. Although data to support the competence of AI in medical education are sparse, the quality of the medical knowledge that ChatGPT already has is sufficient to achieve a passing mark at the USMLE [ 5 , 37 ]. In dentistry, when used to disseminate information on endodontics to patients, ChatGPT was found to provide detailed answers with an overall validity of 95% [ 38 ]. Over time, LLMs such as ChatGPT may be able to identify when students are not factually correct.

Other comments

The lack of human emotion in machine scoring can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. AES can provide feedback that is entirely factual and less biased than humans, and grades are objective and final [ 39 ]. However, human empathy is an essential quality that ChatGPT does not possess. One principle of good feedback is to encourage and motivate students to provide positive learning experiences and build self-esteem [ 28 ]. While ChatGPT can provide constructive feedback, it will not be able to replace the compassion, empathy, or emotional intelligence possessed by a quality educator possesses [ 40 ]. In our study, ChatGPT awarded lower mean scores of 14.54/40 (36.4%) and 18.62/40 (46.5%) compared to manual scoring for both questions. Although objective, some may view automated scoring as harsh because it provided failing grades to an average student.

This study demonstrates the ability of GPT-4 to evaluate essays without any specialized training or prompting. One long prompt was used to score each essay. Although more technical prompting methods, such as chain of thought, could be deployed, our single prompt method makes the method scalable and easier to adopt. As discussed earlier, ChatGPT is the most reliable when prompts are short and specific [ 34 ]. Hence, each prompt should ideally task ChatGPT to score only one or two criteria, rather than the entire rubric of the 10 criteria. However, in a class of 70, the assessors are required to run 700 prompts per question, which is impractical and unnecessary. With only one prompt, a good correlation was still found between the AES and manual scoring. It is likely that further exploration and experimentation with prompting techniques can improve the output.

While LLMs have the potential to revolutionize education in healthcare, some precautions must be taken. Artificial Hallucination is a widely described phenomenon; ChatGPT may generate seemingly genuine but inaccurate information [ 41 – 43 ]. Hallucinations have been attributed to biases and limitations of training data as well as algorithmic limitations [ 2 ]. Similarly, randomness of the generated responses has been observed; while it is useful for generating creative content, this may be an issue when ChatGPT is employed for topics requiring scientific or factual content [ 44 ]. Thus, LLMs are not infallible and still require human subject matter experts to validate the generated content. Finally, it is essential that educators play an active role in driving the development of dedicated training models to ensure consistency, continuity, and accountability, as overreliance on a corporate-controlled model may place educators at the mercy of algorithm changes.

The ethical implications of using ChatGPT in medical and dental education also need to be explored. As much as LLMs can provide convenience to both students and educators, privacy and data security remain a concern [ 45 ]. Robust university privacy policies and informed consent procedures should be in place for the protection of student data prior to the use of ChatGPT as part of student assessment. Furthermore, if LLMs like ChatGPT were to be used for grading examinations in the future, issues revolving around fairness and transparency of the grading process need to be resolved [ 46 ]. GPT-4 may have provided harsh scores in this study, possibly due to some shortfall in understanding certain phrases the students have written; models used in assessments will thus require sufficient training in the field of healthcare to properly acquire the relevant medical knowledge and hence understand and grade essays fairly.

As AI continues to develop, ChatGPT may eventually replace human assessors in essay scoring for dental undergraduate examinations. However, given its current limitations and dependence on a well-formed assessment rubric, relying solely on ChatGPT for exam grading may be inappropriate when the scores can affect the student’s overall module scores, career success, and mental health [ 47 ]. While this study primarily demonstrates the use of ChatGPT to grade essays, it also points to great potential in using it as an interactive learning tool. A good start for its use is essay assignments on pre-set topics, where students can direct their learning on their own and receive objective feedback on essay structure and content that does not count towards their final scores. Students can use rubrics to practice and gain effective feedback from LLMs in an engaging and stress-free environment. This reduces the burden on educators by easing the time-consuming task of grading essay assignments and allows students the flexibility to complete and grade their assignments whenever they are ready. Furthermore, assignments repeated with new class cohorts can enable more robust feedback from ChatGPT through machine learning.

Study limitations

The limitations of this study lie in part of its methodology. The study recruited 69 dental undergraduate students; while this is above the minimum calculated sample size of 59, a larger sample size would help to increase the generalizability of the study findings to larger populations of students and a wide scope of topics. The unique field of OMS also requires knowledge of both medical and dental subjects, and hence the results obtained from the use of ChatGPT for essay marking in other medical or dental specialties may differ slightly.

The use of rubrics for manual scoring could also be a potential source of bias. While the rubrics provide a framework for objective assessment, they cannot eliminate the subjectiveness of manual scoring. Variations in the interpretation of the students’ answers, leniency errors (whereby one scorer marks more leniently than another) or rater drift (fatigue from assessing many essays may affect leniency of marking and judgment) may still occur. To minimize bias resulting from these errors, multiple assessors were recruited for the manual scoring process and the average scores were used for comparison with AES.

This study investigated the reliability of ChatGPT in essay scoring for OMS examinations, and found positive correlations between ChatGPT and manual essay scoring. However, ChatGPT tended towards stricter scoring and was not capable of penalizing irrelevant or incorrect content. In its present state, GPT-4 should not be used as a standalone tool for teaching or assessment in the field of medical and dental education but can serve as an adjunct to aid students in self-assessment. The importance of proper rubric design to achieve optimal reliability when employing ChatGPT in student assessment cannot be overemphasized.

Acknowledgements

We would like to extend our gratitude to Mr Paul Timothy Tan Bee Xian and Mr Jonathan Sim for their invaluable advice on the process of prompt engineering for the effective execution of this study.

Authors’ contributions

B.Q. contributed in the stages of conceptualization, methodology, study execution, validation, formal analysis and manuscript writing (original draft and review and editing). L.Z., T.J.H.S. and C.W.Y. contributed in the stages of methodology, study execution, and manuscript writing (review and editing). I.I. contributed in the stages of conceptualization, methodology, study execution, validation, formal analysis, manuscript writing (review and editing) and supervision. All authors provided substantial contributions to this manuscript in the following form:

Availability of data and materials

Declarations.

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the university (REF: IRB-2023–1051). The waiver of consent from students was approved by the University’s Institutional Review Board, as the scores by ChatGPT were not used as the students’ actual grades, and all essay manuscripts were anonymized.

All the authors reviewed the content of this manuscript and provided consent for publication.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Lei Zheng, Timothy Jie Han Sng and Chee Weng Yong contributed equally to this work.

To resist it or to embrace it? Examining ChatGPT’s potential to support teacher feedback in EFL writing

New citation alert added.

This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:

You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.

To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.

New Citation Alert!

Please log in to your account

Information & Contributors

Bibliometrics & citations, view options, recommendations, recipe: how to integrate chatgpt into efl writing education.

The integration of generative AI in the field of education is actively being explored. In particular, ChatGPT has garnered significant interest, offering an opportunity to examine its effectiveness in English as a foreign language (EFL) education. To ...

Exploring Learner Engagement with the AWE-Peer-Teacher Feedback Mode in L2 Writing

Despite the increasing amount of research on learner engagement with written corrective feedback (WCF) on Second Language (L2) writing in the past decades, learner engagement with feedback from multiple sources has remained under-explored. Drawing ...

The Combination of Recognition Technology and Artificial Intelligence for Questioning and Clarification Mechanisms to Facilitate Meaningful EFL Writing in Authentic Contexts

Most studies of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing usually used grammar checking to help EFL learners to check writing errors. However, it is not enough since EFL learners have to learn how to create more meaningful content, particularly ...

Information

Published in.

Kluwer Academic Publishers

United States

Publication History

Author tags.

  • EFL writing
  • Automated writing evaluation
  • Teacher feedback
  • Human–machine collaboration
  • Research-article

Contributors

Other metrics, bibliometrics, article metrics.

  • 0 Total Citations
  • 0 Total Downloads
  • Downloads (Last 12 months) 0
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks) 0

View options

Login options.

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Share this publication link.

Copying failed.

Share on social media

Affiliations, export citations.

  • Please download or close your previous search result export first before starting a new bulk export. Preview is not available. By clicking download, a status dialog will open to start the export process. The process may take a few minutes but once it finishes a file will be downloadable from your browser. You may continue to browse the DL while the export process is in progress. Download
  • Download citation
  • Copy citation

We are preparing your search results for download ...

We will inform you here when the file is ready.

Your file of search results citations is now ready.

Your search export query has expired. Please try again.

More From Forbes

Train chatgpt to write your linkedin posts in 5 easy steps.

  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Linkedin

Train ChatGPT to write your LinkedIn posts in 5 easy steps

LinkedIn has over 1 billion users from 200 countries. 16.2% use it daily. 49 million people look for jobs there every week. LinkedIn is where the money's at. But when you’re a busy founder, you don’t have time to mess around. Writing posts takes ages and you have other things to do.

ChatGPT can help. Here's how to make it write LinkedIn posts just like you in five simple steps. Copy, paste and edit the square brackets in ChatGPT, and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through. Be proud to publish every time.

Make AI work for your LinkedIn game: ChatGPT prompts for awesome posts

Make it sound like you.

Your posts should sound like you wrote them. Not a robot. ChatGPT needs to get your style. How you talk. What words you use. Head to LinkedIn, look at your analytics and find your top performing posts of all time, then give ChatGPT those as examples so it can copy your vibe.

"Your task will be to write my LinkedIn posts. First read these posts I wrote. Tell me how I write and create a style guide to use in the new posts. Make the style guide include what kind of words I use, my sentence length, my tone and style and structure. Include what makes my writing unique. [Include example posts]"

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.

Read what it says. If it's right, move on. If not, give it more posts or explain what it got wrong.

Pick your topics

Your goal is to reserve a space in someone’s head for the thing that you do. Especially on LinkedIn. If a connection thinks of someone else first, you’ve lost the game. To achieve this, stick to what you know, and do it consistently. Keep going until people see you as the expert, and then don’t stop. Pick three or four main things you'll post about, which become your pillars. Your followers will know what to expect from you and this matters for showing up online.

"Now, give me 10 ideas for LinkedIn posts about these topics: [list your content pillars, based on the topic you want to own and be known for]. Present the ideas using one sentence for each one and make them punchy."

Look at the ideas and choose the best ones. Take them forward using the next few prompts.

Get the post

Good instructions make good posts. Bad ones make rubbish. Get your instructions right and ChatGPT will pump out killer content. Spend time on this bit because it pays off.

"Let’s go forward with idea [select the idea you want to go forward with first]. Use my writing style that we just described. Start the post with a hook, which should be a short, sharp, punchy line that grabs attention with my target audience but should not be a question. Then add a rehook, a short line that comes after the hook, that sets up the post and signposts the rest of the post. The main part of the post should fill a knowledge gap in my target audience, so I should help them do something in distinct steps, adding value with each one. Write new sentences on new lines, with line breaks. The penultimate line should be a compelling statement that strongly states one of my audience’s strong beliefs back to them. The final line should invite engagement on my post, inviting people to comment. Make sure the answer to this question is something they would be proud to share. Before you write this post, ask me questions about my target audience. Then ask for a personal story to incorporate in the post."

Make it better

First drafts are never perfect. That's fine. Read what ChatGPT writes. Then make it better. This is where okay posts become great ones. The ones people remember and share.

"Change this post to make it more [specify what you’d like changing, for example chatty, professional, simple, punchy]. Do not use these words [include the words used in the post that you wouldn’t use in real life]. Also don’t [anything else you’ve spotted that you don’t like]. Now give me the post without the section titles."

Keep re-prompting until you love it. The more you tell ChatGPT, the better it gets at writing like you.

Double check

ChatGPT forgets things. Chances are, with this journey of prompting you’ve just undertaken, it’s gone away from your original style guide. So here’s where you double check. Get ChatGPT to mark its own homework by comparing the draft post with its original instructions.

"Now review this draft and refine it to better match my style. Shorten any sentences that are longer than [specify, for example ten words], and simplify any complex language, including [specify sentences that are too complex]. Replace any words that don’t sound like me with ones I would use. The part that I think doesn’t flow well is [specify that here if applicable], so rewrite it to sound more natural. Add any final touches to make the post engaging and authentic. Once refined, give me the final version ready to post."

Now ask it to repeat this process for the other ideas you liked. Give ChatGPT the rest of the numbers, one by one, until you have a month’s worth of content ready to go.

“Now let’s learn from this process and repeat it to create post idea [number]. Ask me questions before creating the post in the same style.”

Level up your LinkedIn with AI power: ChatGPT prompts to grow

Getting ChatGPT to write your LinkedIn posts saves time. But it's more than that. It helps you post quality stuff that people want to read. Stuff that grows your brand. Make ChatGPT analyze your style, select your topics, then write the perfect prompt. Make it better and double check.

Tonnes of LinkedIn content could be five prompts away. Try these today and watch your likes and comments go through the roof.

Jodie Cook

  • Editorial Standards
  • Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

  • False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
  • Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
  • Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
  • Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

  • Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
  • Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
  • Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
  • Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

  • Stay on topic and share your insights
  • Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
  • ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
  • Protect your community.
  • Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.

AI Chat Bot Smart Assistant 4+

Ask me anything - text or draw, niaz muhammad, designed for ipad, screenshots, description.

AI Chat Bot Smart Assistant is a groundbreaking AI chatbot and personal assistant, powered by the advanced technologies of ChatGPT, GPT-4, and GPT-4o. It uses cutting-edge AI to understand your questions and generate human-like responses, making you feel like you're chatting with a knowledgeable friend. AI ChatBot Smart Assistant can even suggest books to read or movies to watch. Just ask! This chatbot is cross-compatible, bringing the latest AI chat technology from OpenAI to you in the most user-friendly way. It's the only cross-platform ChatGPT & Gemini-powered app with unique features. AI Chat Bot Smart Assistant Features: - Latest ChatGPT Technology: Powered by GPT-4 from OpenAI. - Internet Access: Get answers using GPT-4. - AI Assistant: Ready to help with your needs. - Unlimited Q&A: Ask anything, and get endless responses. - Memory: The chatbot remembers your chat history. What Can AI ChatBot Smart Assistant Do? Your AI Writing Assistant Need help with writing? The AI chatbot is your go-to assistant for all writing projects, from social media posts and essays to poems and songs. This smart and creative helper can craft unique pickup lines or even write an original song for you. There are other functionalities of AI chatbots also like: - AI Business Planner: Strategize effectively for business success. - AI Story: Spark creativity with captivating narratives. - AI Interviewing: Prepare interviews with expert preparation tips. - Ai Health & Nutrition: Optimize wellness through personalized advice. - Ai Fitness: Achieve fitness goals with tailored routines. - AI Problem Solver: Find solutions swiftly and efficiently. - Ai Email Writer: Craft professional emails effortlessly. - Ai Math Solver: Solve tricky math equations on the go. - AI Joke Generator: Lighten the mood with humor. - Ai Song Writer: Create melodies with AI lyrics. - AI Essay Writer: Produce polished essays with ease. - AI Poetry: Express emotions through beautiful verse. - AI Recipe: Provide recipes for your favorite food. - AI Summarizer: Summerize information for quick comprehension. Just give your prompt and get a solution to your problem from AI Chat Bot Smart Assistant powered by ChatGPT & GPT-4 Download Now Get the AI app now and have your ChatGPT & GPT-4 powered virtual assistant ready at all times. Important Notes - Powered by GPT-4: Uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 API, but not associated with OpenAI. - Not Affiliated with Any Government: The information provided is for informational purposes only.

Version 1.7

- minor bugs resolved - remove ads

App Privacy

The developer, Niaz Muhammad , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

  • Identifiers

Privacy practices may vary based on, for example, the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

  • Developer Website
  • App Support
  • Privacy Policy

More By This Developer

CV Engineer & Resume Builder

Easy Language Translator Tool

You Might Also Like

AI Chat: Ask Assistant Chatbot

Gemini powered chat bot:AI Hub

Octovoice | AI Chatbot

Chat AI-Intelligent AI Chatbot

AI Translate-AI&Voice Dubbing

Copyright © 2024 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

Have a thesis expert improve your writing

Check your thesis for plagiarism in 10 minutes, generate your apa citations for free.

  • Knowledge Base

Using AI tools

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

How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples

Published on 26 June 2023 by Koen Driessen .

Passing off AI-generated text as your own work is widely considered plagiarism. However, when used correctly, generative 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
  • Summarise or paraphrase text
  • Get feedback

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Be assured that you'll submit flawless writing. Upload your document to correct all your mistakes.

upload-your-document-ai-proofreader

Table of contents

Writing a research question, developing an outline, finding source recommendations, summarising/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?

The only proofreading tool specialized in correcting academic writing

The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts and by native English editors. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students.

essay write chat gpt

Correct my document today

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 specialised 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 summarising 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 summarise or paraphrase it. Alternatively, you can use Scribbr’s free text summariser and Scribbr’s free paraphrasing tool , which are specifically designed for these purposes.

Example: Using ChatGPT to summarise/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 . AI detectors may be used to detect this offence.

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 summarise text . This can help you understand complex information more easily, summarise the central argument of your own paper, or clarify your research question.

You can also use Scribbr’s free text summariser , 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 specialised tool like Scribbr’s free paraphrasing tool , which will provide a smoother user experience.

Using AI writing tools (like ChatGPT ) to write your essay is usually considered plagiarism and may result in penalisation, unless it is allowed by your university. Text generated by AI tools is based on existing texts and therefore cannot provide unique insights. Furthermore, these outputs sometimes contain factual inaccuracies or grammar mistakes.

However, AI writing tools can be used effectively as a source of feedback and inspiration for your writing (e.g., to generate research questions ). Other AI tools, like grammar checkers, can help identify and eliminate grammar and punctuation mistakes to enhance your writing.

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 Reference Generator.

Driessen, K. (2023, June 26). How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 9 September 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/using-ai-tools/chatgpt-essays/

Is this article helpful?

Koen Driessen

Koen Driessen

Other students also liked, how to write good chatgpt prompts, how to use chatgpt in your studies, how to use chatgpt | basics & tips.

COMMENTS

  1. Essay generator

    Essay generator. Revolutionize essay writing with our AI-driven tool: Generate unique, plagiarism-free essays in minutes, catering to all formats and topics effortlessly.

  2. ChatGPT

    Improve my essay writing ask me to outline my thoughts (opens in a new window) Tell me a fun fact about the Roman Empire (opens in a new window) ... Access to GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini. Up to 5x more messages for GPT-4o. Access to advanced data analysis, file uploads, vision, and web browsing.

  3. How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT

    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.

  4. 5 ways ChatGPT can help you write an essay

    1. Use ChatGPT to generate essay ideas. Before you start writing an essay, you need to flesh out the idea. When professors assign essays, they generally give students a prompt that gives them ...

  5. Should I Use ChatGPT to Write My Essays?

    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. ... Resources to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills. While there are many rewards to writing your essays yourself, the act ...

  6. Using ChatGPT to Write a College Essay

    Examples: Using ChatGPT to generate an essay outline. Provide a very short outline for a college admission essay. The essay will be about my experience working at an animal shelter. The essay will be 500 words long. Introduction. Hook: Share a brief and engaging anecdote about your experience at the animal shelter.

  7. 75+ Powerful ChatGPT Prompts for Academic Writing [UPDATED]

    Mastering ChatGPT: The Ultimate Prompts Guide for Academic Writing Excellence. ChatGPT, with its advanced AI capabilities, has emerged as a game-changer for many. Yet, its true potential is unlocked when approached with the right queries. The prompts listed in this article have been crafted to optimize your interaction with this powerful tool.

  8. Using ChatGPT for Assignments

    Using ChatGPT for Assignments | Tips & Examples. Published on February 13, 2023 by Jack Caulfield and Tobias Solis. Revised on November 16, 2023. People are still figuring out the best use cases for ChatGPT, the popular chatbot based on a powerful AI language model.This article provides some ideas for how to use ChatGPT and other AI tools to assist with your academic writing.

  9. EssayGPT: Your Best AI Essay Writing Copilot

    Try EssayGPT for Free Today! With EssayGPT , you can transform your academic writing process and produce top-notch essays in record time. EssayGPT, an all-in-one AI essay writing copilot by HIX.AI, can help you generate plagiarism-free essays online. Try our free essay writer to research, cite, and brainstorm better.

  10. How to Use OpenAI to Write Essays: ChatGPT Tips for Students

    3. Ask ChatGPT to write the essay. To get the best essay from ChatGPT, create a prompt that contains the topic, type of essay, and the other details you've gathered. In these examples, we'll show you prompts to get ChatGPT to write an essay based on your topic, length requirements, and a few specific requests:

  11. Writing an Essay with ChatGPT

    Write an essay in support of the following statement: ... Chat GPT's response is randomly generated from all the information it has access to. It does not plagiarise anyone's work. It basically does what you would do: search for sources in order to gain an understanding, and using those sources and new understanding, produce relevant text. ...

  12. Essay Writer

    Essay Writer 👌. AI Essay Writer & Generator: Effortlessly craft flawless, original essays. Overcome writer's block and boost creativity with our top-rated essay writing service.

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

    To write an essay with Chat GPT, you need to: Understand your prompt. Choose a topic. Write the entire prompt in Chat GPT. Break down the arguments you got. Write one prompt at a time. Check the sources. Create your first draft. Edit your draft.

  14. Here's how to use ChatGPT to write an essay

    Give ChatGPT a prompt. Now that you are logged in, you should be presented with the ChatGPT opening page and search bar. To get ChatGPT to generate an essay you will need to type a prompt into the search bar and click the send button. Note, that the more detail you give ChatGPT the more specific your essay will be.

  15. How to use Chat GPT to Write an Essay

    In short, to write an essay with Chat GPT, you need to follow this process: 1) Log in. 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".

  16. How to Grade Essays with ChatGPT

    For a single essay, we can simply ask ChatGPT to grade as follows: For multiple essays, we could request ChatGPT to grade each one individually. However, when dealing with a large number of essays (e.g., 50, 100, 1000, etc.), manually grading them in this way becomes a laborious and time-consuming task.

  17. Can You Use ChatGPT for Your College Essay?

    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.

  18. Can Chat GPT Edit Essays: AI Revision Tips & Prompts

    When requesting the chatbot to write edits, limit the number of paragraphs, sentences, and words you want to see in the responses. It's also possible to ask the chat for sentence-by-sentence comparisons of original and edited works. If you have a long essay, you can learn about it in the article on how to work with such content using ChatGPT.

  19. ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI chatbot

    ChatGPT, OpenAI's text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code ...

  20. ChatGPT in education

    ChatGPT is a virtual assistant developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. It uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models called generative pre-trained transformers (GPT), such as GPT-4o, to generate text.GPT models are large language models that are pre-trained to predict the next token in large amounts of text (a token usually corresponds to a word, subword or punctuation).

  21. Why You Shouldn't Use ChatGPT to Write Your College and Grad School

    Why You Shouldn't Use ChatGPT to Write Your College and Grad School Admissions Essays was originally published on Vault.. We've been covering the unfolding story of the use of artificial intelligence in education, as well as in various industries, so if you want to catch up you should check out our two-part entry on its effects on education. Today, we're going to be talking about the use ...

  22. Nix AI Response

    AI HELPER POWERED BY ChatGPT & GPT-4o. Intuitive AI chat to ask anything. Features prompt library, AI chat history, and upload image to ask. ... Whether you want a friend to chat with or a virtual assistant to help with translations, email writing, essay writing, script writing, article summarization, homework, and more, Nix AI is here for you ...

  23. How to Write an Introduction Using ChatGPT

    You can use ChatGPT to brainstorm potential outlines for your introduction. To do this, include a brief overview of all relevant aspects of your paper, including your research question, methodology, central arguments, and essay type (e.g., argumentative, expository). For a longer essay or dissertation, you might also mention section or chapter ...

  24. Opinion

    Creativity in the digital age is not about what A.I. can do but what we can do with A.I. (I used A.I. to help write this letter.) Hank Weiss Madison, Wis.. To the Editor:

  25. Reliability of ChatGPT in automated essay scoring for dental

    Essay scoring was performed using ChatGPT (GPT-4, released March 14, 2023) by one assessor who did not participate in the manual essay scoring exercise (I.I.). Prompts were generated based on a guideline by Giray, and the components of Instruction, Context, Input Data and Output Indication as discussed in the guideline were included in each ...

  26. To resist it or to embrace it? Examining ChatGPT's potential to support

    We examined ChatGPT's potential to support EFL teachers' feedback on students' writing. To reach this goal, we first investigated ChatGPT's performance in generating feedback on EFL students' argumentative writing. Fifty English argumentative essays composed by Chinese undergraduate students were collected and used as feedback targets.

  27. Train ChatGPT To Write Your LinkedIn Posts In 5 Easy Steps

    Train ChatGPT to write your LinkedIn posts in 5 easy steps. getty. LinkedIn has over 1 billion users from 200 countries. 16.2% use it daily. 49 million people look for jobs there every week.

  28. AI Chat Bot Smart Assistant 4+

    ‎AI Chat Bot Smart Assistant is a groundbreaking AI chatbot and personal assistant, powered by the advanced technologies of ChatGPT, GPT-4, and GPT-4o. ... from social media posts and essays to poems and songs. This smart and creative helper can craft unique pickup lines or even write an original song for you.

  29. AI Chat & AI Chatbot

    Whether you want GPT to help you write essays, articles, reports, poems, stories, emails, etc., or transform the writing style to be professional, casual, humorous, friendly, unfriendly, etc., the AI assistant generates responses patiently without complaining. The GPT is a large language model trained by OpenAI to interact in a conversational way.

  30. How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT

    Writing a research question. 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".