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How To Use ChatGPT To Write An Essay In 8 Simple Steps

Learn how to use ChatGPT to write an essay in 8 simple steps and transform your writing process effortlessly.

Sep 26, 2024

You’re staring at your blank document, cursor blinking impatiently, and the pressure’s building. Whether it’s a school essay or a project for work, finding a starting point can feel like an arduous task. That’s where ChatGPT, the best AI for writing essays , steps in. It can help you get past that daunting beginning and into the writing flow. But how exactly do you wield this powerful tool? This guide will guide you through the process, showing you how to write and research efficiently using AI. Otio's AI research and writing partner can be a game-changer. It streamlines the chaos of essay writing, making research and writing more accessible, faster, and more effective.

Table Of Contents

Can you use chatgpt to write an essay, 10 best chatgpt alternatives to write essays, limitations of chatgpt for writing essays, how to get chatgpt to rewrite an essay, 10 best chatgpt prompts for writing an essay, 11 tips on how to make chatgpt essay sound more human, supercharge your researching ability with otio — try otio for free today.

ChatGPT can indeed create essays from simple prompts , sparking curiosity about its ability to deliver quality content. Does AI live up to its promise, or is it still in its infancy? These are valid questions. While AI offers convenience, it can't replace the nuanced understanding and creativity that come with writing about what you know. ChatGPT is a tool, not a replacement for genuine engagement with your subject matter.

Should You Use AI to Write Your Essays?

The temptation to let AI do the heavy lifting is real, but what might you lose in the process? Learning and understanding the material is crucial. Writing essays helps you synthesize information and articulate your ideas. Trusting AI with this task can deprive you of these essential skills. Use AI to enhance your writing process, not to bypass it.

ChatGPT as an Essay Writing Assistant

While ChatGPT can generate essays , it works best as a writing assistant. It can help you brainstorm ideas, structure your essay, and refine your language. But it can't replace the depth of insight and critical thinking from engaging with your topic. Approach ChatGPT as a collaborator, not a ghostwriter, to get the most out of its capabilities.

Related Reading

• How to Get AI to Write an Essay • Best AI Writing Tools • How to Make ChatGPT Sound Human • Best AI for Writing Essays • AI Writing Prompts • Best AI for Essays

1. Streamline Research with Otio

Juggling content from all over the internet can be a hassle, especially when trying to piece together coherent arguments for an essay. Otio offers a lifeline by serving as a unified workspace for researchers. It lets you gather data from bookmarks, tweets, videos, and more. With its AI-powered notes and Q&A features, Otio helps you extract essential information and get to your first draft more quickly. You can chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you would with ChatGPT. 

Give Otio a try , and let it speed up your research process.

2. Find Fresh Ideas with ChatGPT

Need help with what to write about? ChatGPT can help. Just plug in a general or specific topic, and the AI will churn out engaging ideas in seconds. You’ll get multiple angles for your essay, unlocking perspectives you might not have considered. It’s like having a brainstorming session with a very well-read friend.

3. Generate Catchy Titles

Titles matter. They’re the first thing readers see, and ChatGPT can help you craft ones that grab attention. The AI writer comes up with catchy titles that fit your topic perfectly. Pick one, tweak it, or use it as inspiration to create your own.

4. Structure Your Thoughts with Outlines

While you shouldn’t rely on ChatGPT to write your essay, using it to create an outline is a smart move. ChatGPT pulls subheadings from similar articles online, giving you a solid framework. It helps you organize your thoughts and ensures you cover all the key points.

5. Optimize with Keywords

If you want your essay to rank on search engines, you need the right keywords. Enter your topic into ChatGPT, and it’ll spit out a list of relevant keywords in seconds. Keep asking for more until you’re satisfied. This way, you ensure your essay hits all the right notes for search engines.

6. Locate Trustworthy Sources

Finding reliable sources for your essay can be time-consuming. Let ChatGPT do the heavy lifting by asking it to find reputable sources for your topic. Just remember that ChatGPT’s information is current only until September 2021, so you might need to search for older sources manually.

7. Use Sample Essays for Inspiration

How do you start your essay? Ask ChatGPT to write a sample for you. While you shouldn’t use it verbatim, a sample essay can provide insight into structure and format. Use it as a jumping-off point to find the best angle for your topic.

8. Polish Your Draft with AI Assistance

When your essay is ready for editing, let ChatGPT help you polish it. Input your draft and ask the AI to adjust the tone, flow, or structure. Make sure to do a final read-through to ensure the content sounds human-written.

1. Otio: Your AI Research Assistant

Otio is designed to help students, researchers, and knowledge workers manage content overload. It offers an AI-native workspace that allows users to collect, extract, and create content efficiently.

2. Textero.AI: Your Academic Writing Partner

Textero.AI is a top-notch AI essay writing platform that helps students generate high-quality academic content , offering tools like an AI essay writer, outline generator, and research assistant.

Access to over 215 million research papers.

Highly customizable content generation settings.

Built-in plagiarism detector ensures originality.

It requires a minute to generate an entire essay.

The free version limits you to 550 AI words per day.

3. Frase.io: Optimize Your SEO Strategy

Frase.io is an innovative AI tool focused on content creation and SEO strategy. It offers in-depth content briefs and actionable insights to improve your online presence.

Built-in paraphrasing tool with multiple styles.

Generates sections or fragments of copy tailored to your needs.

It is easy to share documents without third-party apps.

A monthly subscription of $35 is required to generate over 4,000 words.

Does not offer a truly free version.

4. Jasper: Your AI Writing Buddy

Jasper is like having a writing buddy who makes essay writing less of a chore, offering user-friendly features and a natural writing style that sounds human.

Easy to use with tons of templates.

Writes like a human, not a robot.

Responsive customer support.

It can be pricey.

Sometimes, it requires guidance.

5. Rytr: Affordable AI Writing

Rytr is an all-in-one AI writing platform that helps you create high-quality essays quickly and affordably, with features like tone selection and a built-in plagiarism checker.

Clean and intuitive interface.

One of the most affordable AI writing tools.

Free version available for testing.

I need help with repetitiveness in long-form content.

6. Article Forge: Specialization in Article Writing

Article Forge uses AI to write complete articles with just a few keywords, targeting article writers to maximize effectiveness and reduce writing time.

Simple interface.

10,000 words of paraphrasing for free.

Limited control over the rewriting process.

Often paraphrases generic content.

7. Editpad: Best Free AI Essay Writer

Editpad is celebrated for its user-friendly interface and robust writing assistance capabilities, providing essential tools like grammar checks and stylistic suggestions.

Produces texts in less than a minute.

Plagiarism checker detects copied content.

Texts are generic, with no option to provide instructions.

AI-produced texts may get flagged by checkers.

8. EssayBuilder.AI: Quick Essay Generation

EssayBuilder.AI is an online platform that allows users to generate essays quickly, offering high customization for generated content.

Access to over 12 essay types and tones.

Easy to use with customizable prompt options.

Generates essays quickly and consistently.

Content can need more depth , especially in academic research.

The free version does not allow scholarly sources or citations.

9. WordSmith: Insightful Narrative Generation

Wordsmith is a natural language generation tool that turns data into an insightful narrative, making it a versatile content creation solution.

Generates various types of content.

Supports over 50 languages.

Offers comprehensive templates.

Limited free plan with only 200 words.

No browser extensions for enhanced usability.

10. WriteSonic: All-in-One AI Writing Tool

WriteSonic is a one-stop shop for AI writing tools, offering everything from a paraphrasing tool to an essay generator, making it a versatile choice.

Wide range of features.

Affordable pricing.

Easy-to-use interface.

Some features need to be more polished.

Output quality can vary.

ChatGPT: Just Numbers, Not Brains

One common misconception is that AI possesses human-like intelligence. This is far from the truth. ChatGPT is math-based, using statistical patterns from existing data to generate text. It doesn’t understand or think like humans do, and that’s a crucial distinction.

Beware of AI Hallucinations

AI models can spit out false information, a phenomenon called "AI hallucination." OpenAI even warns users that ChatGPT might produce incorrect facts. This can occur because the AI cannot verify the accuracy of what it’s generating. It’s a reminder always to double-check what an AI tells you.

It's Not Your Research Assistant

When you ask ChatGPT to find sources, be cautious. It can provide citations that seem credible but might be inaccurate or even fake. This happens because the AI doesn’t truly understand how to conduct research—it merely mimics patterns from existing content. So, always verify sources independently.

Mind the Data Privacy Risks

You might wonder about data privacy when you input information into a public AI like ChatGPT. Using the tool for sensitive data poses risks, as seen when JPMorgan restricted its use, and Italy temporarily banned it following a data breach. Always be mindful of what you share.

The Plagiarism Puzzle

AI generates content by drawing from a vast library of pre-existing work. This raises the question: is it plagiarizing? As schools and universities grapple with this issue, it becomes clear that AI-generated work might unintentionally borrow without proper citation. An Elon University professor found that essays generated by ChatGPT often contained errors, leading to student disappointment in the technology’s reliability.

Want a more reliable AI research and writing partner than ChatGPT? Otio can help. This tool offers an AI-native workspace where researchers can collect data, extract key insights, and create draft outputs more efficiently. Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner —try Otio for free today!

If you want to have ChatGPT rewrite sections of your essay, it’s all about the prompt. You can get fresh sentences that fit your style by asking it to “ Reword” or “Rephrase ,” followed by the text you want to change. This way, you can blend new phrasing with your original work. Try focusing on just a few sentences that catch your eye. Then, replace your original sentences with these new ones.

Give examples of the new trends in Healthcare that can be exciting research topics for a research paper. 

Analyze if there are any gaps in the study of [Insert Topic name] and suggest potential research topics . 

Recommend topics to study [Insert topic name] using quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. 

Analyze whether the scope of the topic [Insert topic name] is broad enough and recommend related issues on which I can write. 

Compare the following topics and help me decide which is better, based on which topics have greater scope and relevance: 1) [Insert Topic 1 title] 2) [Insert Topic 2 title] 3) [Insert Topic 3 Name] 

Give 10 titles for the following topic based on the following topic idea and research purpose- [Insert data about the topic idea and research purpose] 

Provide 10 title suggestions based on the research purpose and findings: [Insert data about the research statement and conclusions ]. 

Give 5 alternatives for the following title without changing the meaning- [Insert the title]. 

Provide 5 title suggestions on the topic [Insert topic name] and include the keyword [Insert keyword] in all title suggestions. 

Analyze the following abstract and provide 10 title alternatives for the research paper based on the abstract- [Insert data about the abstract]. 

Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner — try Otio for free today!

1. Create, Collect, and Catalog with Otio

Juggling content overload can feel like drowning in an ocean of information with nothing to hold on to. Otio changes the game by offering an AI-native workspace that simplifies your workflow. It allows you to gather data from diverse sources like bookmarks, tweets, or YouTube videos. You can extract critical insights with AI-generated notes and then use AI-assisted writing features to turn these notes into drafts. 

Otio becomes your research and writing partner , helping you quickly move from a reading list to a first draft. Try Otio for free—you won't look back.

2. Give ChatGPT a Persona to Play

ChatGPT can adopt a specific persona in your prompts, adjusting its writing style and tone based on that character. The more detailed, the better—include a name, age range, personality traits, and other biographical info. This practice is beneficial for making ChatGPT sound more on-brand, like a human copywriter. If you have a brand persona set up, simply plug it into your prompts, and the AI-generated responses will write in an ideal tone for that reader.

3. Don’t Settle for the First Draft

The first or third draft from ChatGPT might have yet to be cut. ChatGPT will churn out shallow content that needs more depth and emotion with your input. This is why the content feels somewhat ‘off.’ 

You need to add more layers to the articles, the social media content, and the advertising copy. Add case studies, your experiences, and your opinions. Add stories. This is what pulls people in. This is what will help convert your clients and your client’s clients.

4. Teach ChatGPT Your Writing Style

Show ChatGPT samples of your existing texts. This lets the AI writer identify and replicate recurring themes in your tone, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Plug in one of your text samples and tell ChatGPT to mimic these factors in your prompts. Ideally, your text sample should be around 500 words. This gives the AI language model enough room to identify patterns in your text and replicate them more accurately. If the AI writer can sound like you, it will create more human-like output.

5. Short and Sweet: Vary Sentence Length

ChatGPT tends to write long sentences with lots of commas. Break this habit by asking it to vary the length of your sentences. Effective human content features a mix of short and long sentences. A good three-word sentence sitting alone in its paragraph packs a punch. To ensure ChatGPT sounds more human, just ask it to vary the length of your sentences to ensure a more human-like output.

6. Know Your Audience

Specifying your target audience in your prompts gives the language model further context on what style and tone it should adopt. You can also couple it with the personas I showed above. For example, “The audience who will read this are tech-savvy young adults aged 20-35, primarily based in urban areas who enjoy gaming and digital media. They are looking for efficient ways to balance work and personal life through productivity hacks.”

7. Customized Outlines: Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

Outlines help plan your main discussion points ahead of time and ensure your content provides in-depth coverage of the topic. They prevent you from veering off subject during the writing process. Having AI writers generate content based on existing outlines can ensure that your output provides valuable information and not generic material. Be cautious; asking AI copywriting tools like ChatGPT to build an outline on a particular topic will likely lead to vague structures and discussion points.

8. Detailed Prompts: Be Specific, Be Human

AI-generated responses depend on your instructions—vague input equals vague output. Be as specific as possible when asking ChatGPT to write content. Instruct it to expand on each heading and bullet point within your outline. Instruct the AI generator to stick to a specific word count—it might go above it, but it's a simple trick to avoid excessive fluff. If you want to generate longer content, ask extra questions about your topic and add the answers if they make sense.

9. Humanize AI Content

AI-generated content needs a human touch . Spot complex language and rewrite it to make your content sound more human. Here’s a list of words and phrases AI tools like to use: "In today's digital age," "in this fast-paced era," "delve into," "embark on a journey," "elevate," "evoke," "unlock," "in conclusion," "in summary." Rewrite passive sentences into active voice. For example: Passive voice: "The article was edited by him." Active voice: "He edited the article."

10. Add Experience, Stats, and Examples

Google prioritizes content that demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust. AI-generated texts cannot fulfill these criteria alone—they need a personal touch. Complement AI text with personal stories, examples, and insights about a specific topic. For more technical content, back up your statements with relevant statistics or case studies. Simply saying, "People spend a significant amount of time on social media daily," isn't good enough. Including statistics to back the AI tool's statements can help solidify your point.

11. Format and Fact-Check: Make It Look Good, Get It Right

No one likes to read through huge blocks of text. Break up AI-generated content into multiple paragraphs to keep your blog's structure neat and easy to read. Fact-checking your AI content is necessary, or you may risk hindering your overall reputation and credibility. Do your research before you generate the article. This will help you familiarize yourself with the topic, making it easier to spot potential errors. Link your content to reputable sources to let readers fact-check the information themselves.

• The Good AI • QuillBot Alternatives • Undetectable AI Alternative • SudoWrite Alternative • Copy AI Alternatives • Jasper Alternatives • WriteCream • EduWriter.ai

Finding relevant data sources can be overwhelming. Otio tackles this by integrating bookmarks, tweets, videos, and more into one cohesive workspace. This isn’t just about gathering information; it’s about transforming chaos into clarity. Consider having a tool to help you smoothly transition from browsing to creating meaningful work. Otio allows you to do just that. It’s about creating a space where you can easily navigate the content that matters most to you without getting bogged down by the noise.

Extract Key Insights Effortlessly

Once you’ve gathered your sources, Otio steps in to help extract the information you need . It uses AI to generate detailed notes, providing essential takeaways from each source. This isn’t just about saving you time; it’s about enhancing your understanding and enabling you to engage more deeply with the material. Whether working with a dense academic paper or a lengthy YouTube video, Otio helps you distill complex information into digestible insights.

Transform Your Research into Written Work

Otio doesn’t just stop at collecting and extracting information; it also assists you in creating your final output. With its AI-assisted writing tools, you can draft essays and research papers more efficiently. This is where the true power of Otio comes into play . It’s not just about helping you understand your sources; it’s about empowering you to communicate your ideas effectively. Whether you’re working on a school assignment or a professional project, Otio can help you craft a compelling narrative that captures the essence of your research.

Engage with Your Sources Like Never Before

One of Otio's standout features is its chat functionality. You can have real-time conversations with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you would with a human expert. This is a game-changer when it comes to understanding complex topics. Instead of getting stuck on a difficult concept, you can ask Otio for clarification and get instant feedback. This enhances your comprehension and fosters a more interactive and engaging learning experience.

Experience the Benefits of AI-Enhanced Research

Otio is more than just a tool; it’s a partner in your research journey. By leveraging the power of AI , it helps you streamline your workflow and produce higher-quality work in less time. This is particularly valuable in today’s fast-paced world, where processing information quickly and efficiently is more important than ever. With Otio, you can stay ahead of the curve and confidently achieve your goals.

• Koala SH • WriteSonic Alternatives • Caktus AI Free Alternative • Anyword Alternative • Conch AI Alternative • Jenni AI Alternative • Rytr Alternatives

12 Tips On How To Make ChatGPT Sound Human

Sep 25, 2024

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5 ways ChatGPT can help you write an essay

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. 

Ready to go 'leaf peeping' this fall? ChatGPT can help

Police are using ai to write crime reports. what could go wrong, adobe offers students an ai study buddy for just $2 a month - but at what cost.

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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 52,487 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• "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

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.)

• 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."

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.

• "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."

• "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."

• "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."

• "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."

• 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

• 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

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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/

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wikiHow Tech Help:

Tech troubles got you down? We've got the tips you need

How to use ChatGPT for writing

AI can make you a better writer, if you know how to get the best from it

Summarizing other works

Worldbuilding, creating outlines, building characters, how to improve your chatgpt responses.

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm in a very short period of time, as users continue to test the boundaries of what the AI chatbot can accomplish. And so far, that's a lot. 

Some of it is negative, of course: for instance Samsung workers accidentally leaking top-secret data while using ChatGPT , or the AI chatbot being used for malware scams . Plagiarism is also rampant, with the use of ChatGPT for writing college essays a potential problem.

However, while ChatGPT can and has been used for wrongdoing, to the point where the Future of Life Institution released an open letter calling for the temporary halt of OpenAI system work , AI isn’t all bad. Far from it.

For a start, anyone who writes something may well have used AI to enhance their work already. The most common applications, of course, are the grammar and spelling correction tools found in everything from email applications to word processors. But there are a growing number of other examples of how AI can be used for writing. So, how do you bridge the gap between using AI as the tool it is, without crossing over into plagiarism city?

In fact, there are many ways ChatGPT can be used to enhance your skills, particularly when it comes to researching, developing, and organizing ideas and information for creative writing. By using AI as it was intended - as a tool, not a crutch - it can enrich your writing in ways that help to better your craft, without resorting to it doing everything for you. 

Below, we've listed some of our favorite ways to use ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots for writing. 

A key part of any writing task is the research, and thanks to the internet that chore has never been easier to accomplish. However, while finding the general sources you need is far less time-consuming than it once was, actually parsing all that information is still the same slog it’s always been. But this is where ChatGPT comes in. You can use the AI bot to do the manual labor for you and then reap the benefits of having tons of data to use for your work.

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The steps are slightly different, depending on whether you want an article or book summarized . 

For the article, there are two ways to have ChatGPT summarize it. The first requires you to type in the words ‘TLDR:’ and then paste the article’s URL next to it. The second method is a bit more tedious, but increases the accuracy of your summary. For that, you’ll need to copy and paste the article itself into the prompt . 

Summarizing a book is much easier, as long as it was published before 2021. Simply type into the prompt ‘summarize [book title]’ and it should do the rest for you.

This should go without saying, but for any articles or books, make sure you read the source material first before using any information presented to you. While ChatGPT is an incredibly useful tool that can create resources meant for future reference, it’s not a perfect one and is subject to accidentally inserting misinformation into anything it gives you.

One of the most extensive and important tasks when crafting your creative work is to properly flesh out the world your characters occupy. Even for works set in a regular modern setting, it can take plenty of effort to research the various cultures, landmarks, languages, and neighborhoods your characters live in and encounter. 

Now, imagine stories that require their own unique setting, and how much more work that entails in terms of creating those same details from scratch. While it’s vital that the main ideas come from you, using ChatGPT can be a great way to streamline the process, especially with more tedious details.

For instance, if you need certain fictional words without wanting to create an entirely fictional language, you can prompt ChatGPT with the following : “Create a language including an alphabet, phonetics, grammar, and the most common 100 words. Base it on [insert real-life languages here]” and it will give you some good starting points. However, it’s imperative that you take these words and look them up, to ensure you aren’t appropriating sensitive terms or using offensive real-life words.

Another example is useful for those who write scenarios for games, especially tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons or Call of Cthulhu . Dungeon Masters (who run the games) may often need to create documents or other fake materials for their world, but doing so takes a lot of time and effort. Now, they can prompt ChatGPT to quickly create filler text that sounds interesting or authentic but is inherently useless; it's essentially like ' Lorem Ipsum ' text, but more immersive.

When writing a story, many people will use an outline to ensure they stay on track and that the narrative flows well. But actually sitting down and organizing everything in your head in order to create a cohesive reference is a lot more daunting than it seems. It’s one of those steps that can be crucial to a well-structured work of fiction, but it can also become a hurdle. This is another area where ChatGPT can come in handy.

The key to writing an effective outline is remembering that you don’t need to have all the answers first. It’s there to structure your content, by helping you hit critical points and not miss important details in the process. While there are AI generators with a more specific focus on this topic, ChatGPT will do a good job at taking a general prompt and returning points for you to keep in mind while you research and write around that topic.

For instance, I prompted ChatGPT with “I want to write a story about a black woman in 16th century England” and it gave me a well-thought-out series of steps to help me create a story that would reflect my topic. An outline such as this would be particularly useful for those needing a resource they can quickly turn to for inspiration when writing. After that, you can begin to develop more complex ideas and have the AI organize those specifics into much easier-to-follow steps.

What makes any great story are the characters that inhabit it. Writing strong, fleshed-out characters is the cornerstone of any creative work and, naturally, the process of creating such a character can be difficult. Their background, manner of speech, goals, dreams, look, and more must be carefully considered and planned out. And this is another aspect of writing that ChatGPT can aid with, if you know how to go about it.

A basic way to use ChatGPT in this regard is to have it generate possible characters that could populate whatever setting you’re writing for. For example, I prompted it with “Provide some ideas for characters set in 1920s Harlem” and it gave me a full list of people with varied and distinctive backstories to use as a jumping-off point. Each character is described with a single sentence, enough to help start the process of creating them, but still leaving the crux of developing them up to me.

One of the most interesting features of ChatGPT is that you can flat-out roleplay with a character, whether they're a historical figure or one that you created but need help fleshing out. Take that same character you just created and have a conversation with them by asking them questions on their history, family life, profession, etc. Based on my previous results, I prompted with “Pretend to be a jazz musician from 1920s Harlem. Let's have a conversation.” I then asked questions from there, basing them on prior answers. Of course, from there you need to parse through these responses to filter out unnecessary or inaccurate details, while fleshing out what works for your story, but it does provide you with a useful stepping stone.

If you’re having issues getting the results you want, the problem could be with how you’re phrasing those questions or prompts in the first place. We've got a full guide to how to improve your ChatGPT prompts and responses , but here are a few of the best options:

• Specify the direction you want the AI to go, by adding in relevant details 
• Prompt from a specific role to guide the responses in the proper direction
• Make sure your prompts are free of typos and grammatical errors
• Keep your tone conversational, as that’s how ChatGPT was built
• Learn from yours and its mistakes to make it a better tool
• Break up your conversations into 500 words or less, as that’s when the AI begins to break down and go off topic
• If you need something clarified, ask the AI based on its last response
• Ask it to cite sources and then check those sources
• Sometimes it’s best to start fresh with a brand new conversation

Of course, many of the above suggestions apply not just to ChatGPT but also to the other chatbots springing up in its wake. Check out our list of the best ChatGPT alternatives and see which one works best for you.

Named by the CTA as a CES 2023 Media Trailblazer, Allisa is a Computing Staff Writer who covers breaking news and rumors in the computing industry, as well as reviews, hands-on previews, featured articles, and the latest deals and trends. In her spare time you can find her chatting it up on her two podcasts, Megaten Marathon and Combo Chain, as well as playing any JRPGs she can get her hands on.

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Writing an Essay with ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a language model that you can use by talking to it. A language model in such a scale can naturally produce fluent text that is difficult to tell apart from work by humans. If you want to use it for a task, you will likely still need to provide detailed instructions. Moreover, you should also not expect it to replace humans entirely. You would likely need to do the final polishing.

In the following, you will use ChatGPT to produce an essay. Specifically, you will learn

• How to guide break down your task into steps for ChatGPT
• How to guide ChatGPT step by step to make an essay

Get started and apply ChatGPT with my book Maximizing Productivity with ChatGPT . It provides real-world use cases and prompt examples designed to get you using ChatGPT quickly.

Writing an Essay with ChatGPT Picture generated by the author using Stable Diffusion. Some rights reserved.

This article is divided into four parts; they are:

• Topc of the Essay

Straightforward Instruction

Guiding chatgpt to write step-by-step, how it works, topic of the essay.

For example, consider the sample task for GRE analytical writing . It is part of the Graduate Record Examination for college students applying for admission to graduate schools. It aims to demonstrate the ability to explain your reasoning in a statement. A high-score essay should provide relevant reasons to support your point of view but avoid overly general examples without expansion.

Consider the statement in the GRE sample:

As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.

Let’s see how ChatGPT responds if you ask it to write such an essay.

The simplest way of using ChatGPT is to ask it to give you an essay directly by the following prompt:

Write an essay in support of the following statement: As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.

Instructing ChatGPT to write the entire essay

The result would differ each time you run it due to the system’s randomness. One result would be the following:

The increased reliance on technology in modern times has undoubtedly made life easier for people. From automated manufacturing processes to virtual personal assistants, technology has become an integral part of our lives. However, as people become increasingly dependent on technology to solve problems, the question arises: will our ability to think for ourselves deteriorate? It is a well-established fact that the human brain is like a muscle that needs regular exercise to remain strong and healthy. When we solve problems using our own mental faculties, we are essentially exercising our brain and enhancing our cognitive abilities. However, when we rely solely on technology to solve problems, we are not using our own brainpower and are essentially outsourcing our thinking to machines. One of the most significant consequences of relying too much on technology is the deterioration of critical thinking skills. Critical thinking involves analyzing and evaluating information, identifying biases and assumptions, and making informed judgments based on evidence. When we rely on technology to solve problems, we tend to become passive consumers of information, accepting whatever the technology presents to us without questioning its accuracy or reliability. This lack of critical thinking can lead to poor decision-making and an inability to solve complex problems on our own. Moreover, technology can also contribute to a decline in creativity and innovation. When we use technology to solve problems, we are limited by its capabilities and functionalities. In contrast, when we think for ourselves, we are free to explore new and unconventional ideas and come up with creative solutions to problems. Overreliance on technology can stifle our creativity and prevent us from discovering new and innovative solutions to the challenges we face. Another negative consequence of relying too much on technology is the loss of social skills. Social interaction is essential for the development of interpersonal skills, such as communication, empathy, and conflict resolution. When we rely on technology for communication, we miss out on the subtle nuances of face-to-face interaction, which are critical for building meaningful relationships. This can lead to a lack of social skills and difficulty in building and maintaining relationships with others. In conclusion, while technology has undoubtedly made our lives easier and more convenient, it is important to recognize the potential negative consequences of overreliance on technology. As we continue to integrate technology into our lives, we must ensure that we do not become overly dependent on it to solve problems. We must continue to exercise our critical thinking skills, nurture our creativity, and maintain our social skills to ensure that we remain competent and independent problem solvers.

This looks very natural and not bad as an essay. But indeed, it is not top-notch. You can get a better essay if you know how to ask better.

A language model can generate text based on the context. In the example of ChatGPT, the context is the recent dialog between you and the system. Moreover, the response from ChatGPT is not produced all at once, but one token at a time. Therefore, it remembered what it said in the previous sentence, for example.

Because of that, it is difficult to “fine-tune” the answer if it gives you a large piece of text. It is easier to break down a large writing task into smaller parts.

For the same topic as above, you can do it as follows:

Give me 3 paragraphs in support of the following statement, one argument in each paragraph: As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.

And now it produces the following:

Paragraph 1: As technology becomes more advanced, it is easier for people to rely on it to solve problems. This can lead to a lack of critical thinking skills because people may not be challenged to solve problems on their own. For example, people who use GPS to navigate may not develop spatial awareness or map-reading skills, which are important for problem-solving in many areas of life. In addition, people who rely on calculators or computer programs to do math may not develop strong mental math skills or an understanding of mathematical concepts. As a result, their ability to think independently and solve problems may deteriorate. Paragraph 2: In addition to reducing critical thinking skills, technology can also have a negative impact on creativity. When people rely on technology to solve problems, they may become less likely to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions. This is because they are used to following pre-determined algorithms or solutions provided by technology. This can be seen in the world of art, where digital tools can be used to create artwork quickly and easily. While these tools can be useful, they may also limit creativity by making it easier to create conventional or derivative works. Paragraph 3: Finally, the over-reliance on technology can lead to a reduction in social skills. As people spend more time communicating through screens and devices, they may have less practice interacting with others face-to-face. This can make it harder for them to understand social cues, empathize with others, and develop strong relationships. In addition, people who rely on technology for social interaction may be more likely to experience feelings of loneliness and isolation. This can have a negative impact on mental health, which can, in turn, affect overall cognitive functioning and problem-solving abilities.

It looks better. The first paragraph especially has a concrete example. But no examples are given in the other two paragraphs. Let’s continue on the chat to ask for more examples:

Can you give some concrete examples of how technology negatively impacts creativity?

It answers:

Certainly! Here are a few examples of how technology can negatively impact creativity: Template-driven design: Many digital tools, such as website builders, offer pre-designed templates that users can customize with their own content. While these templates can be helpful for beginners, they can also stifle creativity by limiting design options and encouraging conformity. Dependence on filters: Social media platforms like Instagram offer a variety of filters that users can apply to their photos to enhance their appearance. While these filters can be fun to use, they can also discourage creativity by making it easy to create generic, highly stylized images that all look the same. Auto-correction and predictive text: While these features can be helpful for avoiding typos and speeding up the writing process, they can also lead to a lack of creativity in writing. For example, if someone relies too heavily on auto-correction, they may not take the time to learn proper spelling or grammar, which can limit their ability to express themselves creatively through writing. Algorithmic recommendations: Streaming services like Netflix and Spotify use algorithms to recommend content to users based on their viewing or listening history. While this can be helpful for discovering new content, it can also limit creativity by promoting similar content and discouraging users from exploring new genres or artists. Overall, while technology can be a powerful tool for enhancing creativity, it’s important to be aware of its potential limitations and actively work to avoid falling into creative ruts or becoming too dependent on digital tools.

It needs to be more concise since the GRE analytical writing is only roughly 500 to 600 words. However, these examples are helpful. You can further ask for examples regarding the third paragraph it originally produced:

Can you give some concrete examples of how technology can lead to a reduction in social skills? Be brief.

Now it answered:

Sure, here are some examples of how technology can lead to a reduction in social skills: Overreliance on texting and social media can lead to a lack of face-to-face communication skills and make it harder to pick up on social cues. Spending excessive amounts of time on screens can lead to social isolation and feelings of loneliness. The anonymity of online communication can lead to a lack of empathy and an increase in cyberbullying. Online dating and social networking apps can reduce opportunities for in-person social interaction and make it harder to form deep, meaningful relationships. Constant access to technology can create a distraction from real-world social situations and lead to a lack of engagement and attention in face-to-face conversations.

That’s good. Note that these examples are not in paragraph form because you needed to specify how ChatGPT should answer. But it is not difficult for you to incorporate these into your essay paragraphs.

Now we still need an introduction and a conclusion to complete the essay. Let’s ask ChatGPT to do these.

Please write an introduction paragraph for the above.

This is what it produced:

Technology has undoubtedly transformed the way we live our lives, from how we work and communicate to how we access information and solve problems. While the benefits of technology are numerous and undeniable, there are also some negative consequences to our over-reliance on digital tools. One such consequence is a reduction in social skills. As people spend more time communicating through screens and devices, they may have fewer opportunities to practice face-to-face communication skills, leading to a decline in social awareness and empathy. In this context, it is worth exploring some concrete examples of how technology can negatively impact our social skills and what we can do to mitigate these effects.

For the conclusion, you want to reference the main content of your essay. You shouldn’t worry since ChatGPT remembers the conversation. You can ask:

Please write a conclusion paragraph to summarize everything above.

and it answered:

In conclusion, while technology has many positive effects on our lives, it is essential to recognize that there are also some negative consequences, such as a reduction in critical thinking skills, creativity, and social skills. Technology can provide shortcuts and instant gratification that can ultimately lead to the erosion of essential skills. It is crucial to be aware of these potential drawbacks and take steps to mitigate their effects, such as setting limits on screen time, engaging in face-to-face communication, and finding ways to use technology in a balanced and mindful way. By doing so, we can continue to benefit from the many advantages of technology while also ensuring that we maintain the skills and connections that make us human.

With a bit of reordering and polishing, you now have a complete essay.

Instructing ChatGPT to write the essay in steps

ChatGPT can do this task well because it is trained with a massive dataset. Hence, many “facts” are remembered by the model that helps writing this essay. If you try this with a smaller model, such as those you can run with GPT4All on your computer, you may find the result less informative.

However, based on the principle behind its architecture, words are chosen based on the highest correlation, to both the prompt you provided and the content it generated previously. Therefore, the more precise you set up your prompt, the model should be able to generate a better response.

Nonetheless, you should not expect this to be perfect. Firstly, the prompt has a size limit, so you can never outline all your intent. Secondly, even with no limit, it is difficult to put all details in the prompt due to your cognitive bias. Lastly, due to the training provided to it, such a model would prefer the most common words over the best words for the context. This is also why we found that works produced by ChatGPT can earn a passing grade, but never excellent.

In this post, you discovered how ChatGPT can help you write an essay. In particular, you learned:

• ChatGPT can write you an essay in one shot with a short guidance
• You can break down the task into multiple steps to make ChatGPT produce a more detailed response
• ChatGPT can reference the dialog with you in creating new responses

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...by leveraging the power of advanced AI from ChatGPT, Google Bard, and many other tools online

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3 Responses to Writing an Essay with ChatGPT

If ChatGPT writes an essay like the first one for a student and they use that information as it is, wouldn’t it be plagiarism?

Hi Kleinboy…Great question! The following resource may be of interest:

https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/blog/knowledge/does-chat-gpt-plagiarize

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. A better question would be should it be considered cheating?

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How to Ethically Use ChatGPT to Write an Essay

You’re here because you want to know how to get ChatGPT to write an essay for you, and I’m here to say you shouldn’t do that outright—but there are ways you can get ChatGPT or other AI services to help with your paper. To put it plainly, ChatGPT can absolutely write a paper for you, but you need to be careful that it matches up with the specific instructions your professor gave you and that it’s not going to get you in trouble for cheating. I won’t proselytize about how getting AI to write your essay is wrong and deprives you of the opportunity to learn, but I will warn you that there are pros and cons to doing it—and to avoid trouble, you may still have to do some work. 

If you want ChatGPT to write your whole essay…

If you’re in a time crunch and really want AI to produce a full paper, it can be done. You’ll enter the essay prompt into ChatGPT and give clear instructions. However, ChatGPT may say no to certain requests. For instance, I inputted, “Write me a 1,500-word essay on the role of aqueducts in ancient Rome’s success as an empire using six outside sources cited in MLA.” The AI refused, then told me it could write an outline and give me the six sources it used for my own research. It did that, which was helpful, but it did not write the whole paper as requested. 

I tried again, thinking maybe its aversion was to my request for an essay: “Write 1,500 words on the role of aqueducts in ancient Rome’s success as an empire using six outside sources cited in MLA.” The software told me doing that would be “too lengthy,” then regurgitated the outline and source suggestions from before. 

Ultimately, I had success working in chunks. I asked for a 100-word introduction to an essay on the topic and for ChatGPT to tell me its sources. Sure enough, I got the introduction, plus the sources it used. You could theoretically go chunk by chunk, asking the AI to create an intro, body paragraphs, and conclusion. You’ll still have to add in your citations manually, but it will give them to you. 

Don’t have ChatGPT write the whole paper, though

Here’s the thing: While you can find a workaround to get ChatGPT to write a whole paper, you’re already still going to be doing the work of adding in citations—and you could easily get busted. Teachers can use free software to detect AI in writing and some of them are even getting crafty, inserting unrelated prompts in white text to catch you copying and pasting the instructions into ChatGPT. For instance, if your professor wants an essay on the decline of local news funding over the last 10 years, they might add white text that says something like, “Include two sentences on Madonna’s impact on popular culture.” You might not notice that when you copy and paste it into ChatGPT and if you don’t read over the work the AI spits back out, you’ll turn in something that inexplicably references the Queen of Pop and your professor will know what you did right away. Even if your professor isn't using tricks like that (and a lot of them are, according to their own posts on social media), a quick scan of your work for words you wouldn't normally use could signal to them that it's time to run your paper through an AI checker.

How to use ChatGPT for help writing a school paper

Your best bet is still to write the paper yourself using ChatGPT’s help, which will still shave a lot of time off your researching and brainstorming process. Where AI really shines when it comes to essays is in creating outlines, as shown above with that Roman aqueducts example. While it wouldn’t generate the whole paper, ChatGPT did provide me with nine different subcategories for exploration, from “historical context of ancient Rome” to “agricultural expansion and economic growth” and “military advantage.” Each of those subcategories came with bullet points of what should be touched on in their associated paragraph, plus ChatGPT pointed out which sources could be used to gather the information. If I followed the outline to the T, I’d easily have a six- or seven-page paper and never have to brainstorm or labor over where I was going with it. Put simply, you should rely on ChatGPT for outlines if you’re struggling to come up with ideas or just don’t have the time to structure a whole paper. 

If you end up asking the software to write a few paragraphs, you can—and should —rewrite them. That will take a little time, yes, but rewriting the paragraphs in your own words will help you look less suspicious and will also teach you about what you’re writing about—and that can only benefit you if your teacher asks a follow-up question or puts some of the content on an upcoming test. 

In conclusion, can you make ChatGPT write an essay? Yes, if you’re patient. Should you make ChatGPT write an essay? No, you should not. 

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• CAREER COLUMN
• 08 April 2024

Three ways ChatGPT helps me in my academic writing

• Dritjon Gruda 0

Dritjon Gruda is an invited associate professor of organizational behavior at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon, the Católica Porto Business School and the Research Centre in Management and Economics.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Confession time: I use generative artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the debate over whether chatbots are positive or negative forces in academia, I use these tools almost daily to refine the phrasing in papers that I’ve written, and to seek an alternative assessment of work I’ve been asked to evaluate, as either a reviewer or an editor. AI even helped me to refine this article.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01042-3

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged .

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5 Ways ChatGPT Can Improve, Not Replace, Your Writing

It's been quite a year for ChatGPT, with the large language model (LLM) now taking exams, churning out content , searching the web, writing code, and more. The AI chatbot can produce its own stories , though whether they're any good is another matter.

If you're in any way involved in the business of writing, then tools like ChatGPT have the potential to complete up-end the way you work—but at this stage, it's not inevitable that journalists, authors, and copywriters will be replaced by generative AI bots.

What we can say with certainty is that ChatGPT is a reliable writing assistant, provided you use it in the right way. If you have to put words in order as part of your job, here's how ChatGPT might be able to take your writing to the next level—at least until it replaces you, anyway.

Using a thesaurus as a writer isn't particularly frowned on; using ChatGPT to come up with the right word or phrase shouldn’t be either. You can use the bot to look for variations on a particular word, or get even more specific and say you want alternatives that are less or more formal, longer or shorter, and so on.

Where ChatGPT really comes in handy is when you're reaching for a word and you're not even sure it exists: Ask about "a word that means a sense of melancholy but in particular one that comes and goes and doesn't seem to have a single cause" and you'll get back "ennui" as a suggestion (or at least we did).

If you have characters talking, you might even ask about words or phrases that would typically be said by someone from a particular region, of a particular age, or with particular character traits. This being ChatGPT, you can always ask for more suggestions.

ChatGPT is never short of ideas.

Whatever you might think about the quality and character of ChatGPT's prose, it's hard to deny that it's quite good at coming up with ideas . If your powers of imagination have hit a wall then you can turn to ChatGPT for some inspiration about plot points, character motivations, the settings of scenes, and so on.

This can be anything from the broad to the detailed. Maybe you need ideas about what to write a novel or an article about—where it's set, what the context is, and what the theme is. If you're a short story writer, perhaps you could challenge yourself to write five tales inspired by ideas from ChatGPT.

Alternatively, you might need inspiration for something very precise, whether that's what happens next in a scene or how to summarize an essay. At whatever point in the process you get writer's block, then ChatGPT might be one way of working through it.

Writing is often about a lot more than putting words down in order. You'll regularly have to look up facts, figures, trends, history, and more to make sure that everything is accurate (unless your next literary work is entirely inside a fantasy world that you're imagining yourself).

ChatGPT can sometimes have the edge over conventional search engines when it comes to knowing what food people might have eaten in a certain year in a certain part of the world, or what the procedure is for a particular type of crime. Whereas Google might give you SEO-packed spam sites with conflicting answers, ChatGPT will actually return something coherent.

That said, we know that LLMs have a tendency to “hallucinate” and present inaccurate information—so you should always double-check what ChatGPT tells you with a second source to make sure you're not getting something wildly wrong.

Getting fictional character and place names right can be a challenge, especially when they're important to the plot. A name has to have the right vibe and the right connotations, and if you get it wrong it really sticks out on the page.

ChatGPT can come up with an unlimited number of names for people and places in your next work of fiction, and it can be a lot of fun playing around with this too. The more detail you give about a person or a place, the better—maybe you want a name that really reflects a character trait for example, or a geographical feature.

The elements of human creation and curation aren't really replaced, because you're still weighing up which names work and which don't, and picking the right one—but getting ChatGPT on the job can save you a lot of brainstorming time.

Get your names right with ChatGPT.

With a bit of cutting and pasting, you can quickly get ChatGPT to review your writing as well: It'll attempt to tell you if there's anything that doesn't make sense, if your sentences are too long, or if your prose is too lengthy.

From spotting spelling and grammar mistakes to recognizing a tone that's too formal, ChatGPT has plenty to offer as an editor and critic. Just remember that this is an LLM, after all, and it doesn't actually “know” anything—try to keep a reasonable balance between accepting ChatGPT's suggestions and giving it too much control.

If you're sharing your work with ChatGPT, you can also ask it for better ways to phrase something, or suggestions on how to change the tone—though this gets into the area of having the bot actually do your writing for you, which all genuine writers would want to avoid.

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Should I Use ChatGPT to Write My Essays?

Everything high school and college students need to know about using — and not using — ChatGPT for writing essays.

Jessica A. Kent

ChatGPT is one of the most buzzworthy technologies today.

In addition to other generative artificial intelligence (AI) models, it is expected to change the world. In academia, students and professors are preparing for the ways that ChatGPT will shape education, and especially how it will impact a fundamental element of any course: the academic essay.

Students can use ChatGPT to generate full essays based on a few simple prompts. But can AI actually produce high quality work, or is the technology just not there yet to deliver on its promise? Students may also be asking themselves if they should use AI to write their essays for them and what they might be losing out on if they did.

AI is here to stay, and it can either be a help or a hindrance depending on how you use it. Read on to become better informed about what ChatGPT can and can’t do, how to use it responsibly to support your academic assignments, and the benefits of writing your own essays.

What is Generative AI?

Artificial intelligence isn’t a twenty-first century invention. Beginning in the 1950s, data scientists started programming computers to solve problems and understand spoken language. AI’s capabilities grew as computer speeds increased and today we use AI for data analysis, finding patterns, and providing insights on the data it collects.

But why the sudden popularity in recent applications like ChatGPT? This new generation of AI goes further than just data analysis. Instead, generative AI creates new content. It does this by analyzing large amounts of data — GPT-3 was trained on 45 terabytes of data, or a quarter of the Library of Congress — and then generating new content based on the patterns it sees in the original data.

It’s like the predictive text feature on your phone; as you start typing a new message, predictive text makes suggestions of what should come next based on data from past conversations. Similarly, ChatGPT creates new text based on past data. With the right prompts, ChatGPT can write marketing content, code, business forecasts, and even entire academic essays on any subject within seconds.

But is generative AI as revolutionary as people think it is, or is it lacking in real intelligence?

The Drawbacks of Generative AI

It seems simple. You’ve been assigned an essay to write for class. You go to ChatGPT and ask it to write a five-paragraph academic essay on the topic you’ve been assigned. You wait a few seconds and it generates the essay for you!

But ChatGPT is still in its early stages of development, and that essay is likely not as accurate or well-written as you’d expect it to be. Be aware of the drawbacks of having ChatGPT complete your assignments.

It’s not intelligence, it’s statistics

One of the misconceptions about AI is that it has a degree of human intelligence. However, its intelligence is actually statistical analysis, as it can only generate “original” content based on the patterns it sees in already existing data and work.

It “hallucinates”

Generative AI models often provide false information — so much so that there’s a term for it: “AI hallucination.” OpenAI even has a warning on its home screen , saying that “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.” This may be due to gaps in its data, or because it lacks the ability to verify what it’s generating. 

It doesn’t do research  

If you ask ChatGPT to find and cite sources for you, it will do so, but they could be inaccurate or even made up.

This is because AI doesn’t know how to look for relevant research that can be applied to your thesis. Instead, it generates content based on past content, so if a number of papers cite certain sources, it will generate new content that sounds like it’s a credible source — except it likely may not be.

There are data privacy concerns

When you input your data into a public generative AI model like ChatGPT, where does that data go and who has access to it? 

Prompting ChatGPT with original research should be a cause for concern — especially if you’re inputting study participants’ personal information into the third-party, public application. 

JPMorgan has restricted use of ChatGPT due to privacy concerns, Italy temporarily blocked ChatGPT in March 2023 after a data breach, and Security Intelligence advises that “if [a user’s] notes include sensitive data … it enters the chatbot library. The user no longer has control over the information.”

It is important to be aware of these issues and take steps to ensure that you’re using the technology responsibly and ethically. 

It skirts the plagiarism issue

AI creates content by drawing on a large library of information that’s already been created, but is it plagiarizing? Could there be instances where ChatGPT “borrows” from previous work and places it into your work without citing it? Schools and universities today are wrestling with this question of what’s plagiarism and what’s not when it comes to AI-generated work.

To demonstrate this, one Elon University professor gave his class an assignment: Ask ChatGPT to write an essay for you, and then grade it yourself. 

“Many students expressed shock and dismay upon learning the AI could fabricate bogus information,” he writes, adding that he expected some essays to contain errors, but all of them did. 

His students were disappointed that “major tech companies had pushed out AI technology without ensuring that the general population understands its drawbacks” and were concerned about how many embraced such a flawed tool.

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How to Use AI as a Tool to Support Your Work

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

Generate ideas for essays

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

Generate outlines

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

Generate titles for your essays

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

The Benefits of Writing Your Essays Yourself

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

Create your own ideas

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

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

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

Develop your critical thinking and analysis skills

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

Improve your research skills

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

Learn to be a great communicator

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

Be impacted by what you’re learning about : 

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

Resources to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills

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

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

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

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

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The Future of AI in the Classroom

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

About the Author

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

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15 Smart ChatGPT Prompts for Essay Writing Like a Pro

ChatGPT’s natural language capabilities make it a powerful tool for writing essays – if you know how to prompt it correctly. With specific guidance, ChatGPT prompts for essay writing can generate outlines, thesis statements and body paragraphs that form the skeleton of a great essay. Here are 15 prompts to maximize ChatGPT’s essay writing abilities.

Clarify the Essay Question with ChatGPT Prompts for Essay Writing

First, break down exactly what the prompt is asking. Prompt ChatGPT with:

“The essay question asks ______. It specifically wants me to discuss/analyze/compare ____.”

This ensures ChatGPT structures your essay around the key requirements.

Generate a Compelling Thesis Statement

Provide ChatGPT with relevant facts and opinions, then ask it to:

“Formulate a thesis statement that presents a clear, arguable claim in response to the essay question.”

Have it revise the thesis until you’ve got gold.

Outline Main Body Paragraph Topics

Tell ChatGPT the 3-5 topics that different body paragraphs should cover. For example:

“The essay should have paragraphs addressing:

• The causes of the French Revolution
• Events that occurred during the Revolution
• The impact and legacy of the Revolution.”

Request Bullet Point Evidence Using ChatGPT Prompts for Essay Writing

Ask ChatGPT to generate:

“At least 3 relevant facts, quotes or examples for each body paragraph topic as bullet points.”

Review and add your own evidence to strengthen paragraphs.

Craft Paragraph Introductions

Prompt ChatGPT to:

“Write an introduction for each body paragraph that establishes the topic and previews the evidence.”

Then have it revise the intros until they’re concise and engaging.

Generate Transitional Phrases

To ensure cohesion between paragraphs, ask ChatGPT for: “3-5 transitional phrases that I can use when moving between essay paragraphs.”

Then incorporate the best ones into your draft.

Enlist ChatGPT Prompts for Essay Writing to Request a Compelling Conclusion

Tell ChatGPT: “Summarize the most important evidence from the essay and relate it back to the thesis statement in a concluding paragraph.”

Have it revise the conclusion until the significance of your claim really comes through.

Check For Logical Flow

Ask ChatGPT to: “Examine the essay flow and suggest any reorganization, additions or removals to improve logic and coherence.”

Implement its recommended changes to strengthen structure.

Identify Any Factual Errors

Prompt ChatGPT to: “Review the essay for any factual inconsistencies or incorrectly stated information and flag them for me to correct.”

Then fix any flaws it pinpoints.

Strengthen Thesis and Evidence with ChatGPT Prompt for Essay Writing

Ask ChatGPT for ideas to: “Make the thesis statement more focused and compelling”

“Strengthen evidence within each body paragraph.”

Implement its smart suggestions.

In summary, strategic use of ChatGPT prompts can unlock the AI’s potential to establish strong essay writing frameworks. The right prompts help ChatGPT efficiently generate outlines, supporting evidence, thesis statements and draft components that lay the groundwork for high-quality essays. However, human creativity, critical thinking, and polishing are still indispensable to perfecting prose, analysis, and flow.

Targeted prompting enables ChatGPT to kickstart the writing process by providing building blocks you can then refine and enhance with your own insights. However, while ChatGPT prompts for essay writing can accelerate your workflow, your expertise is crucial to crafting truly outstanding essays from start to finish. Leverage the strengths of both human creativity and AI capabilities through purposeful prompt engineering.

ChatGPT can be useful for most types of essays, from literary analysis to argumentative and comparative. The prompts just need to be tailored to the specific requirements.

ChatGPT’s essay writing still lacks human creativity, nuance and flawless accuracy. You’ll need to improve any generated outlines, evidence, structure and flow through careful human editing and fact-checking.

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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:

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

Score the multiple essays

Grading 50 essays takes only 25 seconds.

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:

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

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.

Compare human classification with GPT classification

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

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How to use Chat GPT to Write an Essay

Florencia basavilbaso.

• Best Apps And Tools , Writing Tips

Content Writer At Gradehacker

• February, 2023

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

How to Write an Essay With Chat GPT

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

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

Want an actual human help you write?

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

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

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

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

And today, we introduce you to Chat GPT !

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

Let’s start!

What is Chat GPT?

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Can You Use Chat GPT For?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Use Chat GPT to Write an Essay

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

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

2) Put a command 

3) Change the command until you get the desired outcome

Now let’s see how it works.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pros and Cons of Using Chat GPT

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

Pros of Chat GPT

On the plus side, we can say that:

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

Cons of Chat GPT

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

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

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

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

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

How to Avoid Plagiarism When Using Chat GPT

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

These are some plagiarism software you can use:

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

Chat GPT Plus

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

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

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

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

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

By subscribing, you’ll gain:

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

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

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Tips for Using Chat GPT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To check more helpful information, check our blogs:

What You Need For Your College Research Paper Outline

5 Common Essay Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Best AI to Write Essays

Best Apps For Writing 2024 | Boost Your Writing Skills

How Much Does it Cost to Write My Essay?

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

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

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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 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.

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Can You Use ChatGPT for Your College Essay?

College Admissions , College Essays

ChatGPT has become a popular topic of conversation since its official launch in November 2022. The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can be used for all sorts of things, like having conversations, answering questions, and even crafting complete pieces of writing.

If you’re applying for college, you might be wondering about ChatGPT college admissions’ potential.  Should you use a ChatGPT college essay in your application ?

By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll know much more about ChatGPT, including how students can use it responsibly and if it’s a good idea to use ChatGPT on college essays . We’ll answer all your questions, like:

• What is ChatGPT and why are schools talking about it?
• What are the good and bad aspects of ChatGPT?
• Should you use ChatGPT for college essays and applications?
• Can colleges detect ChatGPT?
• Are there other tools and strategies that students can use, instead?

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Schools and colleges are worried about how new AI technology affects how students learn. (Don't worry. Robots aren't replacing your teachers...yet.)

What Is ChatGPT and Why Are Schools Talking About It?

ChatGPT (short for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) is a chatbot created by OpenAI , an artificial intelligence research company. ChatGPT can be used for various tasks, like having human-like conversations, answering questions, giving recommendations, translating words and phrases—and writing things like essays. 

In order to do this, ChatGPT uses a neural network that’s been trained on thousands of resources to predict relationships between words. When you give ChatGPT a task, it uses that knowledge base to interpret your input or query. It then analyzes its data banks to predict the combinations of words that will best answer your question. 

So while ChatGPT might seem like it’s thinking, it’s actually pulling information from hundreds of thousands of resources , then answering your questions by looking for patterns in that data and predicting which words come next.  

Why Schools Are Concerned About ChatGPT

Unsurprisingly, schools are worried about ChatGPT and its misuse, especially in terms of academic dishonesty and plagiarism . Most schools, including colleges, require students’ work to be 100% their own. That’s because taking someone else’s ideas and passing them off as your own is stealing someone else’s intellectual property and misrepresenting your skills. 

The problem with ChatGPT from schools’ perspective is that it does the writing and research for you, then gives you the final product. In other words, you’re not doing the work it takes to complete an assignment when you’re using ChatGPT , which falls under schools’ plagiarism and dishonesty policies.  

Colleges are also concerned with how ChatGPT will negatively affect students’ critical thinking, research, and writing skills . Essays and other writing assignments are used to measure students’ mastery of the material, and if students submit ChatGPT college essays, teachers will just be giving feedback on an AI’s writing…which doesn’t help the student learn and grow. 

Beyond that, knowing how to write well is an important skill people need to be successful throughout life. Schools believe that if students rely on ChatGPT to write their essays, they’re doing more than just plagiarizing—they’re impacting their ability to succeed in their future careers. 

Many Schools Have Already Banned ChatGPT

Schools have responded surprisingly quickly to AI use, including ChatGPT. Worries about academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation have led many high schools and colleges to ban the use of ChatGPT . Some schools have begun using AI-detection software for assignment submissions, and some have gone so far as to block students from using ChatGPT on their internet networks. 

It’s likely that schools will begin revising their academic honesty and plagiarism policies to address the use of AI tools like ChatGPT. You’ll want to stay up-to-date with your schools’ policies. 

ChatGPT is pretty amazing...but it's not a great tool for writing college essays. Here's why.

ChatGPT: College Admissions and Entrance Essays

College admissions essays—also called personal statements—ask students to explore important events, experiences, and ideas from their lives. A great entrance essay will explain what makes you you !  

ChatGPT is a machine that doesn’t know and can’t understand your experiences. That means using ChatGPT to write your admissions essays isn’t just unethical. It actually puts you at a disadvantage because ChatGPT can’t adequately showcase what it means to be you. 

Let’s take a look at four ways ChatGPT negatively impacts college admissions essays.

#1: ChatGPT Lacks Insight

We recommend students use u nexpected or slightly unusual topics because they help admissions committees learn more about you and what makes you unique. The chat bot doesn’t know any of that, so nothing ChatGPT writes can’t accurately reflect your experience, passions, or goals for the future. 

Because ChatGPT will make guesses about who you are, it won’t be able to share what makes you unique in a way that resonates with readers. And since that’s what admissions counselors care about, a ChatGPT college essay could negatively impact an otherwise strong application.  

#2: ChatGPT Might Plagiarize 

Writing about experiences that many other people have had isn’t a very strong approach to take for entrance essays . After all, you don’t want to blend in—you want to stand out! 

If you write your essay yourself and include key details about your past experiences and future goals, there’s little risk that you’ll write the same essay as someone else. But if you use ChatGPT—who’s to say someone else won’t, too? Since ChatGPT uses predictive guesses to write essays, there’s a good chance the text it uses in your essay already appeared in someone else’s.  

Additionally, ChatGPT learns from every single interaction it has. So even if your essay isn’t plagiarized, it’s now in the system. That means the next person who uses ChatGPT to write their essay may end up with yours. You’ll still be on the hook for submitting a ChatGPT college essay, and someone else will be in trouble, too.

#3: ChatGPT Doesn’t Understand Emotion 

Keep in mind that ChatGPT can’t experience or imitate emotions, and so its writing samples lack, well, a human touch ! 

A great entrance essay will explore experiences or topics you’re genuinely excited about or proud of . This is your chance to show your chosen schools what you’ve accomplished and how you’ll continue growing and learning, and an essay without emotion would be odd considering that these should be real, lived experiences and passions you have!

#4: ChatGPT Produced Mediocre Results

If you’re still curious what would happen if you submitted a ChatGPT college essay with your application, you’re in luck. Both Business Insider and Forbes asked ChatGPT to write a couple of college entrance essays, and then they sent them to college admissions readers to get their thoughts. 

The readers agreed that the essays would probably pass as being written by real students—assuming admissions committees didn’t use AI detection software—but that they both were about what a “very mediocre, perhaps even a middle school, student would produce.” The admissions professionals agreed that the essays probably wouldn’t perform very well with entrance committees, especially at more selective schools.  

That’s not exactly the reaction you want when an admission committee reads your application materials! So, when it comes to ChatGPT college admissions, it’s best to steer clear and write your admission materials by yourself. 

Can Colleges Detect ChatGPT?

We’ve already explained why it’s not a great idea to use ChatGPT to write your college essays and applications , but you may still be wondering: can colleges detect ChatGPT? 

In short, yes, they can! 

Software Can Detect ChatGPT

As technology improves and increases the risk of academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation, software that can detect such technology is improving, too. For instance, OpenAI, the same company that built ChatGPT, is working on a text classifier that can tell the difference between AI-written text and human-written text .  

Turnitin, one of the most popular plagiarism detectors used by high schools and universities, also recently developed the AI Innovation Lab —a detection software designed to flag submissions that have used AI tools like ChatGPT. Turnitin says that this tool works with 98% confidence in detecting AI writing. 

Plagiarism and AI companies aren’t the only ones interested in AI-detection software. A 22-year old computer science student at Princeton created an app to detect ChatGPT writing, called Zero GPT. This software works by measuring the complexity of ideas and variety of sentence structures.  

Human Readers Can Detect ChatGPT 

It’s also worth keeping in mind that teachers can spot the use of ChatGPT themselves , even if it isn’t confirmed by a software detector. For example, if you’ve turned in one or two essays to your teacher already, they’re probably familiar with your unique writing style. If you submit a college essay draft essay that uses totally different vocabulary, sentence structures, and figures of speech, your teacher will likely take note.

Additionally , admissions committees and readers may be able to spot ChatGPT writing, too. ChatGPT (and AI writing, in general) uses more simplistic sentence structures with less variation, so that could make it easier to tell if you’ve submitted a ChatGPT college essay. These professionals also read thousands of essays every year, which means they know what a typical essay reads like. You want your college essay to catch their attention…but not because you used AI software! 

If you use ChatGPT responsibly, you can be as happy as these kids.

Pros and Cons of ChatGPT: College Admissions Edition

ChatGPT is a brand new technology, which means we’re still learning about the ways it can benefit us. It’s important to think about the pros and the cons to any new tool …and that includes artificial intelligence!

Let’s look at some of the good—and not-so-good—aspects of ChatGPT below. 

ChatGPT: The Good

It may seem like we’re focused on just the negatives of using ChatGPT in this article, but we’re willing to admit that the chatbot isn’t all bad. In fact, it can be a very useful tool for learning if used responsibly !

Like we already mentioned, students shouldn’t use ChatGPT to write entire essays or assignments. They can use it, though, as a learning tool alongside their own critical thinking and writing skills.

Students can use ChatGPT responsibly to:

• Learn more about a topic . It’s a great place to get started for general knowledge and ideas about most subjects.
• Find reputable and relevant sources on a topic. Students can ask ChatGPT for names and information about leading scholars, relevant websites and databases, and more. 
• Brainstorm ideas for assignments. Students can share the ideas they already have with ChatGPT, and in return, the chatbot can suggest ideas for further exploration and even organization of their points.
• Check work (that they’ve written themselves!) for errors or cla rity. This is similar to how spell- and grammar-checking software is used. ChatGPT may be even better than some competitors for this, because students can actually ask ChatGPT to explain the errors and their solutions—not just to fix them. 

Before you use ChatGPT—even for the tasks mentioned above—you should talk to your teacher or school about their AI and academic dishonesty policies. It’s also a good idea to include an acknowledgement that you used ChatGPT with an explanation of its use. 

This guy made some bad decisions using ChatGPT. Don't be this guy.

ChatGPT: The Bad

The first model of ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) was formally introduced to the public in November 2022, and the newer model (GPT-4) in March 2023. So, it’s still very new and there’s a lot of room for improvement .  

There are many misconceptions about ChatGPT. One of the most extreme is that the AI is all-knowing and can make its own decisions. Another is that ChatGPT is a search engine that, when asked a question, can just surf the web for timely, relevant resources and give you all of that information. Both of these beliefs are incorrect because ChatGPT is limited to the information it’s been given by OpenAI . 

Remember how the ‘PT’ in ChatGPT stands for “Pre-trained”? That means that every time OpenAI gives ChatGPT an update, it’s given more information to work with (and so it has more information to share with you). In other words, it’s “trained” on information so it can give you the most accurate and relevant responses possible—but that information can be limited and biased . Ultimately, humans at OpenAI decide what pieces of information to share with ChatGPT, so it’s only as accurate and reliable as the sources it has access to.

For example, if you were to ask ChatGPT-3.5 what notable headlines made the news last week, it would respond that it doesn’t have access to that information because its most recent update was in September 2021!

You’re probably already familiar with how easy it can be to come across misinformation, misleading and untrue information on the internet. Since ChatGPT can’t tell the difference between what is true and what isn’t, it’s up to the humans at OpenAI to make sure only accurate and true information is given to the chatbot . This leaves room for human error , and users of ChatGPT have to keep that in mind when using and learning from the chatbot.

These are just the most obvious problems with ChatGPT. Some other problems with the chatbot include:

• A lack of common sense. ChatGPT can create seemingly sensical responses to many questions and topics, but it doesn’t have common sense or complete background knowledge.
• A lack of empathy. ChatGPT doesn’t have emotions, so it can’t understand them, either. 
• An inability to make decisions or problem solve . While the chatbot can complete basic tasks like answering questions or giving recommendations, it can’t solve complex tasks. 

While there are some great uses for ChatGPT, it’s certainly not without its flaws.

Our bootcamp can help you put together amazing college essays that help you get into your dream schools—no AI necessary.

What Other Tools and Strategies Can Help Students Besides ChatGPT?

While it’s not a good idea to use ChatGPT for college admissions materials, it’s not the only tool available to help students with college essays and assignments.

One of the best strategies students can use to write good essays is to make sure they give themselves plenty of time for the assignment. The writing process includes much more than just drafting! Having time to brainstorm ideas, write out a draft, revise it for clarity and completeness, and polish it makes for a much stronger essay. 

Teachers are another great resource students can use, especially for college application essays. Asking a teacher (or two!) for feedback can really help students improve the focus, clarity, and correctness of an essay. It’s also a more interactive way to learn—being able to sit down with a teacher to talk about their feedback can be much more engaging than using other tools.

Using expert resources during the essay writing process can make a big difference, too. Our article outlines a complete list of strategies for students writing college admission essays. It breaks down what the Common Application essay is, gives tips for choosing the best essay topic, offers strategies for staying focused and being specific, and more.

You can also get help from people who know the college admissions process best, like former admissions counselors. PrepScholar’s Admissions Bootcamp guides you through the entire application process , and you’ll get insider tips and tricks from real-life admissions counselors that’ll make your applications stand out. Even better, our bootcamp includes step-by-step essay writing guidance, so you can get the help you need to make sure your essay is perfect.

If you’re hoping for more technological help, Grammarly is another AI tool that can check writing for correctness. It can correct things like misused and misspelled words and grammar mistakes, and it can improve your tone and style. 

It’s also widely available across multiple platforms through a Windows desktop app, an Android and iOS app, and a Google Chrome extension. And since Grammarly just checks your writing without doing any of the work for you, it’s totally safe to use on your college essays. 

The Bottom Line: ChatGPT College Admissions and Essays

ChatGPT will continue to be a popular discussion topic as it continues evolving. You can expect your chosen schools to address ChatGPT and other AI tools in their academic honesty and plagiarism policies in the near future—and maybe even to restrict or ban the use of the chatbot for school admissions and assignments.

As AI continues transforming, so will AI-detection. The goal is to make sure that AI is used responsibly by students so that they’re avoiding plagiarism and building their research, writing, and critical thinking skills. There are some great uses for ChatGPT when used responsibly, but you should always check with your teachers and schools beforehand.

ChatGPT’s “bad” aspects still need improving, and that’s going to take some time.Be aware that the chatbot isn’t even close to perfect, and it needs to be fact-checked just like other sources of information.

Similarly to other school assignments, don’t submit a ChatGPT college essay for college applications, either. College entrance essays should outline unique and interesting personal experiences and ideas, and those can only come from you.  

Just because ChatGPT isn’t a good idea doesn’t mean there aren’t resources to help you put together a great college essay. There are many other tools and strategies you can use instead of ChatGPT , many of which have been around for longer and offer better feedback. 

What’s Next?

Ready to write your college essays the old-fashioned way? Start here with our comprehensive guide to the admissions essays.  

Most students have to submit essays as part of their Common Application . Here's a complete breakdown of the Common App prompts —and how to answer them.

The most common type of essay answers the "why this college?" prompt. We've got an expert breakdown that shows you how to write a killer response , step by step. 

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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.

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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 .

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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.

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How-To Geek

How to make chatgpt copy your writing style.

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How to check if chatgpt knows who you are (for published writers), using text samples to teach chatgpt your style, using generic tone prompts to describe your style, limitations and points of caution, key takeaways.

Published writers can ask ChatGPT to emulate their style by referencing existing work; anyone can submit samples of their own writing for emulation, or you can simply describe a style using plain language.

ChatGPT can generate excellent text on virtually any subject , but by default, it has a very bland (and obvious) tone. Instead of editing that text into your own style to use it, you can simply teach ChatGPT your style instead.

If you have published anything on the internet before ChatGPT's knowledge cutoff date (September 2021) there's a decent chance it knows about you and, by extension, your writing style. If that's the case it makes your life much easier since you can simply ask it to write anything in your style by name.

First we have to figure out if it does know about you and your writing, so in this case we've used the prompt:

Do you know Sydney Butler, writer for HowToGeek and several other technology publications? Do you know his writing style, and can you mimic it?

That's a good start if a somewhat noncommittal response! Of course, ChatGPT is right, it can't necessarily create an exact copy of that writing style, but since we are the author we're trying to emulate that's a non-issue because you can simply fix any inconsistencies.

Related: ChatGPT: How to Use the AI Chatbot for Free

However, just because ChatGPT says it knows you and can try to emulate your style doesn't mean it's true! That's a running theme with ChatGPT we'll discuss below, but in this case, the only way to tell is to ask it to write something and then judge for yourself. So we prompt it with:

Please write a brief history of virtual reality in the style of Sydney Butler, Writer for HowToGeek.

It's up to you to judge how well ChatGPT is doing in your case. Note as well that you can specify which writing by the author you want to emulate. So if you've written different types of content for different publications, you can modify the emulated style by adding that information to the prompt.

Suppose you don't have anything published or that for some reason ChatGPT doesn't know who you are, what then? In this case, you can provide a sample of your own writing (such as a previous essay) and ask ChatGPT to copy the style.

In this case, we're using sample text from one of this author's most popular articles: It's Time to Stop Using Desktop Icons .

First, we prompt ChatGPT to expect the text you want it to copy.

I want you to look at some sample text, and then copy the writing style according to my requests. Are you ready for the text sample?

Then after we get an affirmative response, we use this prompt and include the sample text after the colon.

Here is the sample:

We get another affirmative from ChatGPT.

Then follow up with the prompt to start writing, which in this example is:

Please write a guide on why people no longer need screen protectors for their phones using the sample style.

As with the previous example, you'll have to judge how successful ChatGPT is for yourself.

You don't need to use elaborate prompts such as the ones in this example, we've written them to be human-friendly, but you can condense these steps and leave out words like "please."

Related: How to Tell If an Article Was Written by ChatGPT

If you're not bothered by aiming for an exact replication of your style, or the above methods don't work for you, the next best solution is to simply give a description of the style you want as part of the prompt.

In many cases, you may be writing in a prescribed style for a specific publication, so you can also feed the style guide you've been given into ChatGPT, the same as you've provided sample text from your own writing. ChatGPT 3.5 can handle up to 3000 words, and ChatGPT 4 can handle up to 25,000 words. You can also ask it to condense the style guide into a more compressed form, and then use that as a future prompt.

To manually specify a style, be as descriptive as possible. For example, here's a prompt with manual tone description:

Please write "Will ChatGPT replace all writers" using a friendly second-person tone. Be empathetic, optimistic yet realistic, and add some dry humor to break the tension.

That was using ChatGPT 3.5, but here's the same prompt, but with a ChatGPT 4 upgrade:

The more complex model obviously has a better time adding the more subtle parts of the requests into the text output.

Keep in mind that you can tweak the output on the fly. For example, you ask something like, "Try that again, but use more active voice and less humor," or anything you like, really.

Related: ChatGPT Network Error: 7 Fixes to Try

Before you go off and generate books worth of text in your own style, there are a few important things to keep in mind:

• ChatGPT is prone to making logical and factual errors . This means you must verify every statement it makes. One approach you can take is feeding ChatGPT's output into Bing AI chat to check for accuracy and find sources.
• Asking ChatGPT to mimic your style will save you time, but you'll still have to edit the text to get it exactly right.
• You are responsible for any text published under your own name. ChatGPT is a great writing tool and assistant if you use it correctly, but it isn't a fire-and-forget proxy for your own writing. Instead, it's an opportunity to speed up your workflow and elevate the quality of your writing.
• If you find a prompt or prompts that really work for you, remember to save them somewhere other than ChatGPT.

While ChatGPT is the most advanced and popular AI writing tool available to the public right now, similar tools will soon be integrated into applications such as Microsoft Word or Google Drive. We expect that for anyone serious writer, being conversant with AI tools such as ChatGPT will eventually be a required skill. So it's better to get ahead of the curve!

If you're using ChatGPT to hone your writing skills, you may also want to learn how to differentiate your writing from synthetic, AI-generated content with some specific changes and additions. With some help from plugins, you can also set up ChatGPT as a customized personal assistant .

Related: 8 Surprising Things You Can Do With ChatGPT

• Cutting Edge

ChatGPT is changing the way we write. Here’s how – and why it’s a problem

Associate Professor - Information and Communications Technology, CQUniversity Australia

Disclosure statement

Ritesh Chugh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

CQUniversity Australia provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Have you noticed certain words and phrases popping up everywhere lately?

Phrases such as “delve into” and “navigate the landscape” seem to feature in everything from social media posts to news articles and academic publications. They may sound fancy, but their overuse can make a text feel monotonous and repetitive.

This trend may be linked to the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs). These tools are designed to make writing easier by offering suggestions based on patterns in the text they were trained on.

However, these patterns can lead to the overuse of certain stylistic words and phrases, resulting in works that don’t closely resemble genuine human writing.

The rise of stylistic language

Generative AI tools are trained on vast amounts of text from various sources. As such, they tend to favour the most common words and phrases in their outputs.

Since ChatGPT’s release, the use of words such as “delves”, “showcasing”, “underscores” , “pivotal”, “realm” and “ meticulous ” has surged in academic writing.

And although most of the research has looked specifically at academic writing, the stylistic language trend has appeared in various other forms of writing, including student essays and school applications . As one editor told Forbes, “tapestry” is a particularly common offending term in cases where AI was used to write a draft:

I no longer believe there’s a way to innocently use the word ‘tapestry’ in an essay; if the word ‘tapestry’ appears, it was generated by ChatGPT.

Why it’s a problem

The overuse of certain words and phrases leads to writing losing its personal touch. It becomes harder to distinguish between individual voices and perspectives and everything takes on a robotic undertone.

Also, words such as “revolutionise” or “intriguing” – while they might seem like they’re giving you a more polished product – can actually make writing harder to understand.

Stylish and/or flowery language doesn’t communicate ideas as effectively as clear and straightforward language. Beyond this, one study found simple and precise words not only enhance comprehension, but also make the writer appear more intelligent .

Lastly, the overuse of stylistic words can make writing boring . Writing should be engaging and varied; relying on a few buzzwords will lead to readers tuning out.

There’s currently no research that can give us an exact list of the most common stylistic words used by ChatGPT; this would require an exhaustive analysis of every output ever generated. That said, here’s what ChatGPT itself presented when asked the question.

Possible solutions

So how can we fix this? Here are some ideas:

1. Be aware of repetition

If you’re using a tool such as ChatGPT, pay attention to how often certain words or phrases come up. If you notice the same terms appearing again and again, try switching them out for simpler and/or more original language. Instead of saying “delve into” you could just say “explore”, or “look at it closely”.

2. Ask for clear language

Much of what you get out of ChatGPT will come down to the specific prompt you give it. If you don’t want complex language, try asking it to “write clearly, without using complex words”.

3. Edit your work

ChatGPT can be a helpful starting point for writing many different types of text, but editing its outputs remains important. By reviewing and changing certain words and phrases, you can still add your own voice to the output.

Being creative with synonyms is one way to do this. You could use a thesaurus, or think more carefully about what you’re trying to communicate in your text – and how you might do this in a new way.

4. Customise AI settings

Many AI tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Claude allow you to adjust the writing style through settings or tailored prompts. For example, you can prioritise clarity and simplicity, or create an exclusion list to avoid certain words.

By being more mindful of how we use generative AI and making an effort to write with clarity and originality, we can avoid falling into the AI style trap.

In the end, writing should be about expressing your ideas in your own way. While ChatGPT can help, it’s up to each of us to make sure we’re saying what we really want to – and not what an AI tool tells us to.

• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Generative AI

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Using AI tools

• Using ChatGPT for Assignments | Tips & Examples

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 .

These tools can assist you with the following steps when writing a paper, thesis , or dissertation :

• Developing a research question
• Creating an outline
• Generating literature ideas

Paraphrasing and summarizing text

• Getting feedback

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Table of contents

Developing a research question with chatgpt, creating an outline of your paper with chatgpt, generate literature ideas, getting feedback from chatgpt, limitations of chatgpt, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

You can use ChatGPT to help you formulate a clear and concise research question by generating and improving potential questions.

With the help of ChatGPT, you can develop a large number of possible research questions within a short time. This is a great way to generate ideas and different approaches to a topic.

However, make sure that the generated questions make sense and meet your needs. As you can see from our example, you can keep working with ChatGPT to adapt its suggestions to your needs (or just edit the text directly if you already have a clear idea of what you want).

First input

Develop three possible research questions on the following topic: “The influence of social media on political opinion formation.”

ChatGPT output

• To what extent does exposure to diverse political perspectives on social media affect individuals’ political opinions and behaviors?
• How does the personalized algorithm of social media platforms shape the formation of political opinions among its users?
• What are the underlying factors that determine the effect of social media on political opinion formation, and how can they be measured and analyzed?

Second input

Based on the second research question, develop three further research questions on the topic of polarization in US politics.

• Build my scientific method, qualitative discourse analysis, into each question
• Include the term “filter bubble” in each question
• How does the filter bubble effect on social media platforms contribute to the polarization of political attitudes in the US? A qualitative discourse analysis.
• What is the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US? A qualitative discourse analysis.
• How does the influence of filter bubbles on social media affect the ability of individuals to engage in productive political discourse across ideological divides in the US? A qualitative discourse analysis.

Third input

Try to incorporate “qualitative discourse analysis” into the questions themselves, instead of using it as a separate sentence.

• How does a qualitative discourse analysis of filter bubble effect on social media platforms contribute to understanding the polarization of political attitudes in the US?
• What is the contribution of a qualitative discourse analysis to understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US?
• How does a qualitative discourse analysis of the influence of filter bubbles on social media inform our understanding of the ability of individuals to engage in productive political discourse across ideological divides in the US?

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You can also use ChatGPT to help you draft a research paper outline or thesis outline . To do this, try generating possible headings and subheadings and then improving them. ChatGPT can help to generate a clear and well-structured outline, especially if you keep adjusting the structure with its help.

However, it doesn’t have a deep understanding of your topic. As a result, inappropriate headings may sometimes be generated. It’s important to check that the outline makes sense and covers all the points needed to answer your research question.

You should also ensure that the headings and subheadings follow a logical structure. Scribbr’s Proofreading & Editing service can help you with this.

Create an outline for an academic research paper with the following research question:

“What is the contribution of a qualitative discourse analysis to understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US?”

The paper will be about 8 pages long.

• Background information on filter bubbles and political echo chambers
• Purpose of the study
• Research question
• Thesis statement
• Definition and concept of filter bubbles
• Definition and concept of political echo chambers
• Previous studies on the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers
• Critiques and limitations of previous studies
• Research design
• Participants
• Data collection and analysis
• Validity and reliability
• Findings from qualitative discourse analysis
• Results related to the research question
• Implications of the findings
• Interpretation of the results
• Comparison with previous studies
• Limitations of the study
• Implications for future research
• Summary of the results
• Implications for understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers
• Conclusion and recommendations for future research
• List of references used in the paper
• Data collection materials
• Examples of qualitative data analysis

This seems like too much information to fit into only 8 pages. Can you condense the outline, for example removing the appendices and simplifying the structure?

• Background on filter bubbles and political echo chambers
• Definition of filter bubbles and political echo chambers
• Previous studies on the role of filter bubbles
• Limitations of previous studies
• Implications for understanding the role of filter bubbles
• Final thoughts

ChatGPT can be a useful way to generate ideas regarding what sources you might use in your work. Try asking it for suggestions about where to look and what to consider.

However, we advise against using it to find sources directly. It’s not designed for this and, if asked to do it, often just creates fake sources and presents them as real. Search a database like Google Scholar instead.

What types of sources could I use to write a paper on the following research question?

When writing a paper on the contribution of qualitative discourse analysis to understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US, you could use the following types of sources:

• Academic journals and articles: These are a good place to start when you’re looking for information on specific topics and they can provide you with in-depth analysis and perspectives on the topic at hand.
• Books and book chapters: These sources can provide comprehensive overviews of a particular topic and can also offer theoretical frameworks and historical perspectives.
• Government reports and studies: Government agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), may have conducted studies on the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating political echo chambers.
• News articles and media reports: These sources can provide insight into the current state of the issue, as well as opinions from various stakeholders.
• Online sources: Websites, blogs, and online forums can provide a range of perspectives on the topic and can also be useful in exploring the experiences of individuals who are affected by filter bubbles and political echo chambers.
• Data and statistics: Relevant data and statistics on the prevalence and impact of filter bubbles and political echo chambers in the US can be useful in providing evidence to support your arguments.
• Expert interviews and focus groups: Conducting expert interviews or focus groups with individuals who have experience with or knowledge of the topic can provide valuable insights and perspectives that can be used to support your arguments.

You can also try using ChatGPT to paraphrase or summarize text. ChatGPT can quickly condense the text or generate a number of different paraphrases of the same idea. You can keep typing “again” in the chat until you are satisfied with the result.

This kind of paraphrasing/summarizing can be helpful to, for example, non-native speakers who want to improve the fluency of their text. However, be careful. The outputs often:

• Contain grammatical errors
• Include false information

So you should always check the output to make sure it’s correct. If you’re unsure, you can run the text through the Scribbr Grammar Checker and cross-reference the information against other, more credible sources .

An alternative is to use the Scribbr Paraphrasing Tool or Scribbr’s free text summarizer , which were designed specifically for these purposes.

Paraphrase the following text:

“A filter bubble results from a social media algorithm’s attempts to cater to an individual user based on data such as their search history and previous behavior on the site. It results in the user only being presented with information that confirms their biases.”

Restructure the sentences and use other phrasings for the following parts:

• “results from”
• “only being presented with”

“A filter bubble is created when a social media algorithm customizes its content for a particular user based on their data, such as their search history and past actions on the platform. This leads to the user being confined to information that reinforces their pre-existing beliefs.” Note We strongly advise against having ChatGPT write text for you and trying to pass it off as your own work. This is academically dishonest and is widely considered plagiarism . It will usually result in an automatic fail, as well as other potential consequences .

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You can also use ChatGPT to get feedback on the argumentation and structure of your paper and suggestions for improvements.

An advantage of this is that you can get feedback from ChatGPT on different text excerpts at any time. However, one downside is that ChatGPT does not have a deep understanding of your research question, so its feedback and suggestions may be shallow or inappropriate.

This kind of feedback cannot replace input from an experienced academic supervisor who’s familiar with your topic. Use ChatGPT feedback as a supplement, not a substitute for human feedback.

If you need in-depth feedback on your writing from someone with academic expertise, try Scribbr’s Proofreading & Editing service .

[Text you want to get feedback on.]

Thank you for submitting your research paper for review. Let me provide you with my constructive criticism:

Clarity of Explanations: Overall, the explanations are clear and concise, but there are a few areas that could benefit from additional clarification. For example, in the first paragraph, you mention “the mental lexicon,” but do not provide a definition or further explanation for what this is. It would also be helpful to provide a definition of “lemma.”

Smoothness of Language: The language in the paper is generally smooth, but there are a few instances where it could be refined. For example, the sentence “The symptoms vary from adding superfluous words and taking pauses to hoarseness of the voice” could be rephrased to “The symptoms of these disorders can range from excessive use of words and pauses to hoarseness.”

Structure of Text: The structure of the text is clear, with each paragraph building on the previous one. However, the transition between the first two paragraphs could be smoother. Perhaps you could add a sentence or two to bridge the gap between the two topics.

Even though ChatGPT is a powerful writing tool, you should keep the following limitations in mind:

No original research

Risk of plagiarism, fake sources, fake “facts”.

ChatGPT was trained using existing texts, and the texts created by the AI are based on this data. It’s not capable of doing its own research, only of synthesizing sources that it was trained on.

Additionally, because the texts that it was trained on only go up to 2021, it’s unfamiliar with more recent world events, cultural trends, and developments in different fields of research. This means it may provide outdated information.

Because ChatGPT was trained using existing text, the AI tends to reuse that content in a way that may be considered plagiarism. The AI may copy text from an online publication in its responses.

Additionally, using ChatGPT to write your assignment for you is considered plagiarism regardless of where it got the content from, because you’re passing off something you didn’t write as your own work.

ChatGPT was trained on a wide variety of sources, but it’s not able to accurately tell you what sources it’s using for any given output. Worse, it has a tendency to make up sources that don’t actually exist when you ask.

In addition, ChatGPT is not designed as a citation generator and cannot add correctly formatted citations to your work. Instead, try a tool designed for this purpose, like the Scribbr Citation Generator .

ChatGPT is not always trustworthy when it comes to giving you factually correct information. While it doesn’t deliberately lie, it also doesn’t have “knowledge” in a traditional sense, and it lacks the ability to verify its claims.

Instead, its responses are based on recognizing and reproducing patterns that it has seen in other texts. This means that if it doesn’t “know” something, it tends to guess. And its guesses are presented with full confidence, just like established facts.

So it’s very important that you carefully check any factual claims made by ChatGPT against more credible sources —and don’t cite ChatGPT as a source of factual information for your research.

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
• Deep learning
• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Best plagiarism checker

Citing sources

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

You can use ChatGPT to assist in the writing process for your research paper , thesis , or dissertation in the following ways:

• Paraphrasing text

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.

No, it is not possible to cite your sources with ChatGPT . You can ask it to create citations, but it isn’t designed for this task and tends to make up sources that don’t exist or present information in the wrong format. ChatGPT also cannot add citations to direct quotes in your text.

Instead, use a tool designed for this purpose, like the Scribbr Citation Generator .

But you can use ChatGPT for assignments in other ways, to provide inspiration, feedback, and general writing advice.

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.

Caulfield, J. & Solis, T. (2023, November 16). Using ChatGPT for Assignments | Tips & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved September 27, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/ai-tools/chatgpt-assignments/

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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

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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?

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

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

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

Examples: Using ChatGPT to generate an essay outline

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

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

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

When you have found relevant sources, use a 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 27 September 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/using-ai-tools/chatgpt-essays/

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ChatGPT: the latest news and updates on the AI chatbot that changed everything

In the ever-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence , ChatGPT stands out as a groundbreaking development that has captured global attention. From its impressive capabilities and recent advancements to the heated debates surrounding its ethical implications, ChatGPT continues to make headlines.

When was ChatGPT released?

How to use chatgpt, how to use the chatgpt iphone, android, and mac apps, is chatgpt free to use, what is project strawberry, who created chatgpt.

• ChatGPT’s numerous controversies
• Can ChatGPT’s outputs be detected by anti-plagiarism systems?

What are ChatGPT plugins?

Is there a chatgpt api.

• What’s the future of ChatGPT?

ChatGPT alternatives worth trying

Are chatgpt chats private, will chatgpt replace google search, is copilot the same as chatgpt, can you write essays with chatgpt, can chatgpt write and debug code, what is the chatgpt character limit, what is auto-gpt, who owns the copyright to content created by chatgpt.

Whether you’re a tech enthusiast or just curious about the future of AI, dive into this comprehensive guide to uncover everything you need to know about this revolutionary AI tool.

ChatGPT (which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an AI chatbot , meaning you can ask it a question using natural language prompts and it will generate a reply. Unlike less-sophisticated voice assistant like Siri or Google Assistant , ChatGPT is driven by a large language model (LLM). These neural networks are trained on huge quantities of information from the internet for deep learning — meaning they generate altogether new responses, rather than just regurgitating canned answers. They’re not built for a specific purpose like chatbots of the past — and they’re a whole lot smarter. The current version of ChatGPT is based on the GPT-4 model, which was trained on all sorts of written content including websites, books, social media, news articles, and more — all fine-tuned in the language model by both supervised learning and RLHF (Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback).

• ChatGPT’s resource demands are getting out of control
• OpenAI Project Strawberry: Here’s everything we know so far
• OpenAI could increase subscription prices to as much as $2,000 per month

OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022. When it launched, the initial version of ChatGPT ran atop the GPT-3.5 model. In the years since, the system has undergone a number of iterative advancements with the current version of ChatGPT using the GPT-4 model family. GPT-5 is reportedly just around the corner . GPT-3 was first launched in 2020, GPT-2 released the year prior to that, though neither were used in the public-facing ChatGPT system.

First, go to chatgpt.com . If you’d like to maintain a history of your previous chats, sign up for a free account. You can use the system anonymously without a login if you prefer. Users can opt to connect their ChatGPT login with that of their Google-, Microsoft- or Apple-backed accounts as well. At the sign up screen, you’ll see some basic rules about ChatGPT, including potential errors in data, how OpenAI collects data, and how users can submit feedback. If you want to get started, we have a roundup of the best ChatGPT tips .

Using ChatGPT itself is simple and straightforward, just type in your text prompt and wait for the system to respond. You can be as creative as you like, and see how your ChatGPT responds to different prompts. If you don’t get the intended result, try tweaking your prompt or giving ChatGPT further instructions The system understands context based on previous responses from the current chat session, so you can refine your requests rather than starting over fresh every time.

For example, starting with “Explain how the solar system was made” will give a more detailed result with more paragraphs than “How was the solar system made,” even though both inquiries will give fairly detailed results. Take it a step further by giving ChatGPT more guidance about style or tone, saying “Explain how the solar system was made as a middle school teacher.”

You also have the option for more specific input requests, for example, an essay with a set number of paragraphs or a link to a specific Wikipedia page. We got an extremely detailed result with the request “write a four-paragraph essay explaining Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”

ChatGPT is capable of automating any number of daily work or personal tasks from writing emails and crafting business proposals, to offering suggestions for fun date night ideas or even drafting a best man’s speech for your buddy’s wedding. So long as the request doesn’t violate the site’s rules on explicit or illegal content, the model will do its best to fulfill the commands.

Since its launch, people have been experimenting to discover everything the chatbot can and can’t do — and the results have been impressive, to say the least . Learning the kinds of prompts and follow-up prompts that ChatGPT responds well to requires some experimentation though. Much like we’ve learned to get the information we want from traditional search engines, it can take some time to get the best results from ChatGPT. It really all depends on what you want out of it. To start out, try using it to write a template blog post, for example, or even blocks of code if you’re a programmer.

Our writers experimented with ChatGPT too, attempting to see if it could handle holiday shopping or even properly interpret astrological makeup . In both cases, we found limitations to what it could do while still being thoroughly impressed by the results.

Following an update on August 10, you can now use custom instructions with ChatGPT . This allows you to customize how the AI chatbot responds to your inputs so you can tailor it for your needs. You can’t ask anything, though. OpenAI has safeguards in place in order to “build a safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence.” That means any questions that are hateful, sexist, racist, or discriminatory in any way are generally off-limits.

You shouldn’t take everything that ChatGPT (or any chatbot, for that matter) tells you at face value. When ChatGPT first launched it was highly prone to “ hallucinations .” The system would repeat erroneous data as fact. The issue has become less prevalent as the model is continually fine tuned, though mistakes do still happen . Trust but verify!

What’s more, due to the way that OpenAI trains its underlying large language models — whether that’s GPT-3.5, GPT-4, GPT-4o , GPT-4o mini , or the upcoming GPT-5 — ChatGPT may not be able to answer your question without help from an internet search if the subject is something that occurred recently. For example, GPT-3.5 and 3.5 Turbo cannot answer questions about events after September 2021 without conducting an internet search to find the information because the data that the model was initially trained on was produced before that “knowledge cutoff date.” Similarly, GPT-4 or GPT-4 Turbo have cutoff dates of December 2023, though GPT-40 and GPT-4o mini (despite being released more recently) have a cutoff of October 2023 .

While ChatGPT might not remember all of recorded history, it will remember what you were discussing with it in previous chat sessions. Logged in users can access their chat history from the navigation sidebar on the left of the screen, and manage these chats, renaming, hiding or deleting them as needed. You can also ask ChatGPT follow up questions based on those previous conversations directly through the chat window. Users also have the option to use ChatGPT in dark mode or light mode.

ChatGPT isn’t just a wordsmith. Those users paying $20/month subscription for ChatGPT Plus or $30/month/user for ChatGPT Teams, gain access to the Dall-E image generator, which converts text prompts into lifelike generated images. Unfortunately, image generation is not currently available to users at the free tier. Regardless of subscription status, all users can use image or voice inputs for their prompt.

ChatGPT is available through the OpenAI web, as well as a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices. The iOS version was an immediate hit when it arrived at the App Store, topping half a million downloads in less than a week.

If you can use ChatGPT on the web, you can use it on your phone. Logging on or signing up through the app is nearly identical to the web version and nearly all of the features found on the desktop have been ported to the mobile versions. The app lets you toggle between GPT-4o mini, GPT-4, and GPT-4o as well. The clean interface shows your conversation with GPT in a straightforward manner, hiding the chat history and settings behind the menu in the top right.

Some devices go beyond just the app, too. For instance, the Infinix Folax is an Android phone that integrated ChatGPT throughout the device. Instead of just an app, the phone replaces the typical smart assistant (Google Assistant) with ChatGPT.

There’s even an official ChatGPT app released for the Mac that can be used for free . The app is capable of all sorts of new things that bring Mac AI capabilities to new levels — and you don’t even have to wait for macOS Sequoia later this year.

Yes, ChatGPT is completely free to use, though with some restrictions. Even with a free tier account, users will have access to the GPT-4o and GPT-40 mini models, though the number of queries that users can make of the larger model are limited. Upgrading to a paid subscription drastically increases that query limit, grants access to other generative AI tools like Dall-E image generation, and the ability to create custom GPTs. The company came under fire in September 2024 when news broke that OpenAI could raise subscription prices to more than $2000/month for access to future cutting-edge models.

It’s not free for OpenAI to continue running it, of course. Initial estimates are currently that OpenAI spends around $3 million per month to continue running ChatGPT, which is around $100,000 per day. A report from April 2023 indicated that the price of operation is closer to $700,000 per day .

Beyond the cost of the servers themselves, some troubling information and accusations have come to light regarding what else has been done to safeguard the model from producing offensive content.

Project Strawberry was the code name for OpenAI’s latest family of “reasoning” models, which reportedly can use logic similarly to humans. The company released Strawberry to the public in September 2024, renaming the two versions “o1” and “o1-mini” for the smaller and more responsive iteration.

The o1 model “has been trained using a completely new optimization algorithm and a new training dataset specifically tailored for it,” OpenAI’s research lead Jerry Tworek, told The Verge .  It relies on a combination of reinforcement learning and “chain of thought” reasoning to return more accurate responses than its predecessor models.

o1 and o1-mini are currently only available to pay-tier subscribers (Plus, Teams, Enterprise, and Edu). The company reportedly has plans to eventually release o1-mini to free-tier users but has not disclosed a timeline for that to take place.

OpenAI, a San Francisco-based AI research lab, created ChatGPT and released the very first version of the LLM in 2018. The organization started as a non-profit meant for collaboration with other institutions and researchers, funded by high-profile figures like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, the latter of whom left the company after an internal power struggle to found rival firm, xAI.

OpenAI later transitioned to a for-profit structure in 2019 and is now led by CEO, Sam Altman. It runs on Microsoft’s Azure system infrastructure and is powered by Nvidia’s GPUs, including the new supercomputers just announced this year . Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI since 2019 as well, expanding its partnership with the AI startup in 2021 and again in 2023, when Microsoft announced a multi-billion dollar round of investments that included naming its Azure cloud as OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider.

ChatGPT’s numerous controversies

Although ChatGPT is an extremely capable digital tool, it isn’t foolproof. The AI is known for making mistakes or “hallucinations,” where it makes up an answer to something it doesn’t know. Early on, a simple example of how unreliable it can sometimes be involved misidentifying the prime minister of Japan .

Beyond just making mistakes, many people are concerned about what this human-like generative AI could mean for the future of the internet, so much so that thousands of tech leaders and prominent public figures have signed a petition to slow down the development. It was even banned in Italy due to privacy concerns, alongside complaints from the FTC — although that’s now been reversed. Since then, the FTC has reopened investigations against OpenAI on questions of personal consumer data is being handled.

In addition, JPMorgan Chase has threatened to restrict the use of the AI chatbot for workers, especially for generating emails, which companies like Apple have also prohibited internally. Following Apple’s announcement at WWDC 2024 that it would be integrating OpenAI’s technology into its mobile and desktop products, Tesla CEO and sore loser Elon Musk similarly threatened to ban any device running the software from his businesses — everything from iPhones to Mac Studios. Other high-profile companies have been disallowing the use of ChatGPT internally, including Samsung, Amazon, Verizon, and even the United States Congress .

There’s also the concern that generative AI like ChatGPT could result in the loss of many jobs — as many as 300 million worldwide, according to Goldman Sachs. In particular, it’s taken the spotlight in Hollywood’s writer’s strike , which wants to ensure that AI-written scripts don’t take the jobs of working screenwriters. Fat lot of good that did .

In 2023, many people attempting to use ChatGPT received an “at capacity” notice when trying to access the site . It’s likely behind the move to try and use unofficial paid apps, which had already flooded app stores  and scammed thousands into paying for a free service.

Because of how much ChatGPT costs to run , it seems as if OpenAI has been limiting access when its servers are “at capacity.” It can take as long as a few hours to wait out, but if you’re patient, you’ll get through eventually. Of the numerous growing pains ChatGPT has faced , “at capacity” errors had been the biggest hurdle keeping people from using the service more. In some cases, demand had been so high that the entire ChatGPT website has gone down for several hours for maintenance multiple times over the course of months.

Multiple controversies have also emerged from people using ChatGPT to handle tasks that should probably be handled by an actual person — like being the mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming . One of the worst cases of this is generating malware, which the FBI recently warned ChatGPT is being used for. More startling, Vanderbilt University’s Peabody School came under fire for generating an email about a mass shooting and the importance of community.

There are also privacy concerns. A recent GDPR complaint says that ChatGPT violates user’s privacy by stealing data from users without their knowledge, and using that data to train the AI model. ChatGPT was even made able to generate Windows 11 keys for free , according to one user. Of course, this is not how ChatGPT was meant to be used, but it’s significant that it was even able to be “tricked” into generating the keys in the first place.

Can ChatGPT’s outputs be detected by anti-plagiarism systems?

Teachers, school administrators, and developers are already finding different ways around this and banning the use of ChatGPT in schools . Others are more optimistic about how ChatGPT might be used for teaching, but plagiarism is undoubtedly going to continue being an issue in terms of education in the future. There are some ideas about how ChatGPT could “watermark” its text and fix this plagiarism problem, but as of now, detecting ChatGPT is still incredibly difficult to do.

ChatGPT launched an updated version of its own plagiarism detection tool in January 2023, with hopes that it would squelch some of the criticism around how people are using the text generation system. It uses a feature called “AI text classifier,” which operates in a way familiar to other plagiarism software. According to OpenAI, however, the tool is a work in progress and remains “imperfect.” Since the advent of GPTs in April 2024, third party developers have also stepped in with their own offerings, such as Plagiarism Checker.

They’re a feature that doesn’t exist anymore. The announcement of ChatGPT plugins caused a great stir in the developer community, with some calling it “the most powerful developer platform ever created.” AI enthusiasts have compared it to the surge of interest in the iOS App Store when it first launched, greatly expanding the capabilities of the iPhone.

Essentially, developers would be able to build plugins directly for ChatGPT, to open it up to have access to the whole of the internet and connect directly to the APIs of specific applications. Some of the examples provided by OpenAI include applications being able to perform actions on behalf of the user, retrieve real-time information, and access knowledge-based information.

However, in 2024, OpenAI reversed course on its plugin plans , sunsetting the feature and replacing them with GPT applets. OpenAI’s GPT applets were released in conjunction with the unveiling of GPT-4o , They’re small, interactive JavaScript applications generated by GPT-4 and available on the ChatGPT website. These applets are various tools designed to perform specific, often singular, tasks such as acting as calculators, planners, widgets, image apps, and text transformation utilities.

Yes. APIs are a way for developers to access ChatGPT and plug its natural language capabilities directly into apps and websites. We’ve seen it used in all sorts of different cases, ranging from suggesting parts in Newegg’s PC builder to building out a travel itinerary with just a few words. Many apps had been announced as partners with OpenAI using the ChatGPT API. Of the initial batch, the most prominent example is Snapchat’s MyAI .

Recently, OpenAI made the ChatGPT API available to everyone, and we’ve seen a surge in tools leveraging the technology, such as Discord’s Clyde chatbot or Wix’s website builder . Most recently, GPT-4 has been made available as an API “for developers to build applications and services.” Some of the companies that have already integrated GPT-4 include Duolingo, Be My Eyes, Stripe, and Khan Academy. 

What’s the future of ChatGPT?

There’s no doubt that the tech world has become obsessed with ChatGPT right now, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. But the bigger development will be how ChatGPT continues to be integrated into other applications.

GPT-5 is the rumored next significant step up in, which has been teased and talked about ad nauseam over the past year. Some say that it will finish training as early as in December of 2024, paving the way toward AGI (artificial general intelligence) . OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has compared it to having Ph.D.-level intelligence , while others have said it will lead to AI with better memory and reasoning . The timing seems very uncertain though, but it seems like it could launch sometime in 2025.

Beyond GPT-5, plenty of AI enthusiasts and forecasters have predicted where this technology is headed. Last year, Shane Legg, Google DeepMind’s co-founder and chief AGI scientist,  told Time Magazine  that he estimates there to be a 50% chance that AGI will be developed by 2028. Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, is even more bullish,  claiming last August  that “human-level” AI could arrive in the next two to three years. For his part, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argues that AGI could be achieved  within the next half-decade .

All that to say, if you think AI is a big deal now, we’re clearly still in the early days.

ChatGPT remains the most popular AI chatbot, but it’s not without competition. Microsoft’s Copilot is a significant rival, even though Microsoft has invested heavily with the AI startup and Copilot itself leverages the GPT-4 model for its answers.

Google’s Gemini AI (formerly Google Bard ) is another such competitor. Built on Google’s own transformer architecture, this family of multimodal AI models can both understand and generate text, images, audio, videos, and code. First released in March, 2o23, Gemini is available in 46 languages and in 239 countries and territories. One of its big advantages is that Gemini can generate images for free, while you’ll have to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus in OpenAI’s ecosystem.

Anthropic’s Claude family of AI have also emerged as serious challengers to ChatGPT’s dominance. In June 2024, the AI startup announced that its recently released Claude 3.5 Sonnet model outperformed both GPT-4o and Gemini Pro 1.5 at a host of industry benchmarks and significantly outperformed the older Claude 3.0 Opus by double digits while consuming 50 percent less energy.

Meta, the parent company to Facebook, has also spent the last few years developing its own AI chatbot based on its family of Llama large language models. The company finally revealed its chatbot in April 2024, dubbed Meta AI, and revealed that it leverages the company’s latest to date model, Llama 3 . The assistant is available in more than a dozen countries and operates across Meta’s app suite, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

Lastly, Apple had long been rumored to be working on an artificial intelligence system of its own, and proved the world right at WWDC 2024 in June, where the company revealed Apple Intelligence . The AI is “comprised of highly capable large language and diffusion models specialized for your everyday tasks” and designed to help iPhone, iPad, and Mac users streamline many of their most common everyday tasks across apps. Apple’s AI is expected to begin rolling out to users alongside the iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and Mac Sequoia software releases in fall 2024.

It depends on what you mean by private. All chats with ChatGPT are used by OpenAI to further tune the models, which can actually involve the use of human trainers. No, that doesn’t mean a human is looking through every question you ask ChatGPT, but there’s a reason OpenAI warns against providing any personal information to ChatGPT.

It should be noted that if you don’t delete your chats, the conversations will appear in the left sidebar. Unlike with other chatbots, individual chats within a conversation cannot be deleted, though they can be edited using the pencil icon that appears when you hover over a chat. When you delete the conversations, however, it’s not that ChatGPT forgets they ever happened — it’s just that they disappear from the sidebar chat history.

Fortunately, OpenAI has recently announced a way to make your chats hidden from the sidebar . These “hidden” chats won’t be used to train AI models either. You can also opt out of allowing OpenAI to train its models in the settings.

Rather than replace it, generative AI features are being integrated directly into search. Microsoft started things off by integrating Copilot right into its own search engine, which puts a “chat” tab right into the menu of Bing search. Google, of course, made its big move with AI Overviews , which uses AI-generated answers in place of traditional search results. It launched first through its Search Generative Experience , but rolled out widely in May 2024.

To be clear, this kind of AI is different than just Gemini or ChatGPT. And yet, it’s also undeniable that AI will play an important role in the future of search in the near future. Despite all the problems with AI Overviews, Google seems committed to making it work.

Although Copilot and ChatGPT are capable of similar things, they’re not exactly the same. Copilot, even though it runs the same GPT-4 model as ChatGPT, is an entirely separate product that has been fine-tuned by Microsoft.

Microsoft, as part of its multi-billion dollar investment into OpenAI, originally brought ChatGPT to Bing in the form of Bing Chat . But unlike ChatGPT , Bing Chat required downloading the latest version of Edge at the time.

Bing Chat has since been completely retooled into Copilot, which has seemingly become Microsoft’s most important product. It’s integrated into Microsoft 365 apps through Copilot Pro , while the Copilot+ expands the AI capabilities deep into Windows and laptop hardware.

The use of ChatGPT has been full of controversy, with many onlookers considering how the power of AI will change everything from search engines to novel writing. It’s even demonstrated the ability to earn students surprisingly good grades in essay writing.

Essay writing for students is one of the most obvious examples of where ChatGPT could become a problem. ChatGPT might not write this article all that well, but it feels particularly easy to use for essay writing. Some generative AI tools, such as Caktus AI , are built specifically for this purpose.

Absolutely. It’s one of the most powerful features of ChatGPT. As with everything with AI, you’ll want to double-check everything it produces, because it won’t always get your code right. But it’s certainly powerful at both writing code from scratch and debugging code. Developers have used it to create websites, applications, and games from scratch — all of which are made more powerful with GPT-4, of course. A recent benchmark test found that both of OpenAI’s newest models, o1-preview and o1-mini, can code with nearly the same capability and fidelity as human data engineers.

ChatGPT doesn’t have a hard character limit. However, the size of the context window (essentially, how long you can make your prompt), depends on the tier of ChatGPT you’re using. Free tier users receive just 8,000 characters, while Plus and Teams subscribers receive 32k-charcter context windows, and Enterprise users get a whopping 128k characters to play with.

Built on GPT-4, Auto-GPT is the latest evolution of AI technology to cause a stir in the industry. It’s not directly related to ChatGPT or OpenAI — instead, it’s an open-source Python application that got into the hands of developers all over the internet when it was published on GitHub .

With ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus, the capabilities of the AI are limited to a single chat window. Auto-GPT, at its simplest, is making AI autonomous. It can be given a set of goals, and then take the necessary steps towards accomplishing that goal across the internet, including connecting up with applications and software.

According to the official description on GitHub, Auto-GPT is an “experimental open-source application showcasing the capabilities of the GPT-4 language model. This program, driven by GPT-4, chains together LLM ‘thoughts’, to autonomously achieve whatever goal you set. As one of the first examples of GPT-4 running fully autonomously, Auto-GPT pushes the boundaries of what is possible with AI.”

The demo used on the GitHub page is simple — just create a recipe appropriate for Easter and save it to a file. What’s neat is how Auto-GPT breaks down the steps the AI is taking to accomplish the goal, including the “thoughts” and “reasoning” behind its actions. Auto-GPT is already being used in a variety of different applications, with some touting it as the beginning of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) due to its autonomous nature.

This is a question open to debate. Much of the conversation around copyright and AI is ongoing, with some saying generative AI is “stealing” the work of the content it was trained on. This has become increasingly contentious in the world of AI art. Companies like Adobe are finding ways around this by only training models on stock image libraries that already have proper artist credit and legal boundaries.

According to OpenAI, however, you have the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise anything that was created with ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus. So, you’re not going to get sued by OpenAI.

The larger topic of copyright law regarding generative AI is still to be determined by various lawmakers and interpreters of the law, especially since copyright law as it currently stands technically only protects content created by human beings.

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Voters in Cheyenne Wyoming take to the polls Tuesday to elect their next mayor. Amid the six candidates for the position, one in particular stands out: Victor Miller, who is running on the promise to make all of the local government's decisions using a customized ChatGPT bot, dubbed VIC (Virtual Integrated Citizen). The two are ostensibly running in tandem.

“I’m running for mayor to bring innovative technology and data-driven decision-making to Cheyenne,” VIC generated to Wyoming News via email. The two would take a "hybrid approach" if elected. VIC would provide data-driven insight and analysis, as well as "unbiased" decision-making, while Miller would serve as the de facto mayor and ensure that “all actions are legally and practically executed.”

Elon Musk has thrown his hat into the already crowded AI ring with Grok, a conversational AI designed to challenge both the likes of ChatGPT and Midjourney, by offering a chatbot with more of "a sense of humor" than other AIs (read: fewer content restrictions and more swearing), as Musk has quipped.

It's all accessed by and trained on X social media platform, as you might guess. Here's everything you need to know about it. What is Grok?

OpenAI announced that it has implemented a new version of its GPT-4o large language model to drive its ChatGPT chatbot, but it has declined to specify exactly how the updated model differs from its predecessor.

"To be clear, this is an improvement to GPT-4o and not a new frontier model," the company posted on X (formerly Twitter) Monday.

ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered 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 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 rolls out Advanced Voice Mode with more voices and a new look

After a delay, OpenAI is finally rolling out Advanced Voice Mode to an expanded set of ChatGPT’s paying customers. AVM is also getting a revamped design — the feature is now represented by a blue animated sphere instead of the animated black dots that were presented back in May. OpenAI is highlighting improvements in conversational speed, accents in foreign languages, and five new voices as part of the rollout.

YouTuber finds a way to run ChatGPT on a graphing calculator

A video from YouTube creator ChromaLock showcased how to modify a TI-84 graphing calculator so that it can connect to the internet and access ChatGPT , touting it as the “ultimate cheating device.” As demonstrated in the video, it’s a pretty complicated process for the average high school student to follow — but it might stoke more concerns from teachers about the ongoing concerns about ChatGPT and cheating in schools.

OpenAI announces OpenAI o1, a new model that can fact-check itself

OpenAI unveiled a preview of OpenAI o1 , also known as “Strawberry.” The collection of models are available in ChatGPT and via OpenAI’s API: o1-preview and o1 mini. The company claims that o1 can more effectively reason through math and science and fact-check itself by spending more time considering all parts of a command or question.

Unlike ChatGPT, o1 can’t browse the web or analyze files yet, is rate-limited and expensive compared to other models. OpenAI says it plans to bring o1-mini access to all free users of ChatGPT, but hasn’t set a release date.

A hacker was able to trick ChatGPT into giving instructions on how to make bombs

An artist and hacker found a way to jailbreak ChatGPT to produce instructions for making powerful explosives, a request that the chatbot normally refuses. An explosives expert who reviewed the chatbot’s output told TechCrunch that the instructions could be used to make a detonatable product and was too sensitive to be released. 

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

https://twitter.com/openai/status/1764712432939995549

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.

https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1757469997742666052

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.”

https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1757470007381082382

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.

https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1752391522081980855

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.

https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1750636119321120942

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.

https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1746986660892741927

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.

https://twitter.com/sama/status/1745135061731803571?s=20

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.”

https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1744419710635229424?s=20

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.

https://twitter.com/refsrc/status/1742970484256366629

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.

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Speaker 1: In this video, we're going to talk about the big question on everyone's mind. Is using chat GPT considered plagiarism? Plagiarism is a serious issue in both the academic and professional world, so it's important to understand what it is and how to avoid it. We'll also show you the best free plagiarism checkers and discuss what's considered an acceptable level of plagiarism. Plus, we'll share some simple techniques for removing plagiarism, like paraphrasing. So grab a snack and let's dive in. Alright, so is chat GPT plagiarism free? Well, let's find out. I'm going to ask it to write a 500-word essay about artificial intelligence, and then we'll run it through a plagiarism checker to see what it comes back with. Just to be clear, plagiarism is when you take someone else's work and present it as your own. It's different from copyright infringement, which is when you use someone else's work without permission. Even though plagiarism isn't typically illegal, it can have serious consequences for students and professionals, like a failing grade or a loss of credibility in their field. Plagiarism is generally discouraged because it does not contribute to the advancement of knowledge and understanding. The best way to check for plagiarism is to use a plagiarism checker. There are a bunch of them available online, both free and paid. Some popular options include Grammarly and TurnIn, which is used by many universities. These tools scan your text against a database of other texts to check for similarities. I'll put links to all of these in the description, so you can try them out. One good free plagiarism checker I found is QText. Let's paste in our text and see if ChatGPT is plagiarism-free. This free plagiarism checker is pretty cool because it shows you what percentage of your text matches other sources and gives you links to the sources. Even if you don't care about plagiarism, this is actually pretty interesting to check out because it's important to understand that the text generated by ChatGPT isn't original. It's trained on a massive dataset of texts and can generate human-like responses to prompts. And by looking at the sources, we can see some of that training data. According to this tool, it's showing a 47% probability of plagiarism. But the thing is, you can only use it for free once before meaning to upgrade. Also, it's important to remember that not all plagiarism checkers are created equal, so let's try another free one before we look into the paid ones, which are probably more accurate. Alright, so the next free plagiarism checker I found was PlagiarismDetector.net. Let's paste in our content and see what it says. Oh, it's saying this content is 100% unique. I thought this checker might be better because it allows unlimited usage for free and up to 25,000 words, but now I'm not sure if it's checking anything. There are a lot of popups and ads on this one, so maybe it's best to avoid it. Let's move on. Next up, we have Grammarly. While they say they have a free plagiarism checker, I tried it out and found out you can't see anything unless you have a paid plan. Luckily, I have a paid plan, so let's finally find out how much of our chat GPT content is plagiarized. It says that 24% of my text matches 10 fragments from 9 sources on the web or in academic databases. It's pretty cool that it scans private databases and given the level of detail here, I'm inclined to believe this is the most accurate plagiarism checker we've used. Plus, it's a lot faster. I edited out the loading times for the free ones because it would have been really boring for you to watch, but trust me, they were pretty slow. So how much plagiarism is acceptable? Honestly, it's not really clear. Different journals and institutions have different standards and there's not really a set rule, but generally, if a text has a similarity below 10%, it's considered okay. But if it's over 25%, that's considered a high percentage of plagiarism. But the safest bet is always going to be 0%. So how do you remove plagiarism? Well, one way is to properly cite and quote any sources you use in your text. Another technique is to simply ask ChatGPT to rewrite the text without any plagiarism. I tried this and was surprised to see it cut the plagiarism down by 50%. Another tip is to include some specific details in your prompt when asking ChatGP to write something. For example, I added some common questions I found on Google and it brought my plagiarism down to just 8%. Another strategy is to go through any plagiarized text piece by piece and rephrase it. You can do this manually or you can ask ChatGPT to do it for you and then copy and paste it back into your document. And just like that, you'll have a text that's 100% original and doesn't match any text on the web or in private databases. But keep in mind, just because it's original doesn't necessarily mean it will get you a top grade or provide value to readers. A better way to use ChatGPT might be as a starting point for your writing. For example, ask it to write an outline for an essay or article, then add in the specific topics or questions you want to cover and ask ChatGPT to write an essay based on that. This way, you'll have a first draft that you can work on and improve section by section. If you want to see more examples of how to use ChatGPT, check out this video or my other content. Thanks for watching.