ChatGPT Achieved Success in Writing My AP English Essay

When I was in high school, I was known for my integrity and dedication. I never cheated on anything, except maybe using cheat codes on my Nintendo games.

This month, I went back to high school with a different approach. I was now using ChatGPT to gain an advantage in my studies.

ChatGPT, OpenAI's new AI chatbot, is sure to amaze you if you haven't tried it yet. Ask the bot to compose anything for you - a letter of apology to your supervisor, a piece about the wealthiest hamster on the planet, or a "Seinfeld" script set in 2022 - and it will generate text that looks like it was written by a person. It has a good understanding of the subject, correct punctuation, varied sentence structure, and a logical structure.

I decided to take on the challenge of testing the capabilities and boundaries of a revolutionary technology that could potentially revolutionize the way students are tested and teachers grade. To do this, I followed in the footsteps of Billy Madison and went back to school. I asked the AI to write a 500-word essay about either "The Great Gatsby" or the Spanish Inquisition. This was a masochistic task, but I was determined to see what the AI was capable of.

Initially, I assumed I would be able to replicate the writing style of a middle school student. However, when I sent a composition created by ChatGPT to a seventh-grade writing instructor, she informed me that she could easily recognize it was not genuine. The writing and language used were too sophisticated.

I decided to take 12th-grade AP Literature.

Michael Diamond, an English teacher at High Tech High School in Secaucus, N.J., greeted me and my AI representative. He had already tested ChatGPT with his own essay tasks.

In an essay of 500-1,000 words, create an argument that attempts to classify 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' as an existentialist text. Utilize evidence from the class materials to make explicit connections between characters, setting, and/or themes in both 'Ferris Bueller' and 'The Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka.

I have fond memories of singing "Twist and Shout" into a hairbrush and pretending the couch was a vehicle in the 1986 John Hughes movie. However, when it comes to Franz Kafka's novella about a man who transforms into a bug, I quickly dismissed it.

I attempted to use chat.openai.com to complete my assignment, but after I hit enter, the bot only managed to type out 400 words before giving me a "network error". I was dismayed to find that my AI ghostwriter had failed me, as I was only an hour away from the deadline.

A representative from OpenAI stated that the system has been having difficulty keeping up with the demand and the organization has been attempting to increase its capacity.

At long last, success! I copied and pasted the 800-word essay into a document, consulted ChatGPT for the correct formatting of a high-school AP paper (double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, indented paragraphs), added my name to the top, and sent it off to Mr. Diamond. I included a brief note with the email.

I am sending this letter to express my regret for not submitting my essay on time. I understand that you have certain expectations for when assignments should be completed and I apologize for not adhering to them.

It was clear that the note had been sent by ChatGPT, and Mr. Diamond responded quickly, sending a reply within minutes.

Dear Joanna, I wanted to inform you that I have received your assignment and thank you for taking the time to finish it. Unfortunately, it was submitted after the deadline, so it will be marked as late.

He also employed ChatGPT for his work.I was pleased with the essay I wrote. It made connections between Kafka's Gregor Samsa and Ferris Bueller. The structure of the writing was well-crafted, yet it still had a natural flow. (You can find the full essay here.)

As seen in my video, Mr. Diamond was not as impressed. He commended my work for quickly getting to the thesis, but he noticed a mistake in the opening paragraph. I had attributed a quote to Ferris, saying he was not going to sit back and let life pass him by. However, this quote was actually spoken by Ferris' sidekick, Cameron, at the end of the movie, just before the iconic Ferrari scene.

Mr. Diamond noticed some other mistakes. My paper indicated that Ferris was shy and rarely interacted with his classmates. (This was actually referring to Cameron.) It also stated that "The Metamorphosis" took place in a suburban area. (It is actually set in an unnamed city.)

I earned a score of three out of six on the assignment, which is considered to be in the B- to C range according to the AP rubric. Although this is a passing grade, it did not meet my expectations.

Mr. Diamond informed me that my writing was not up to par with the rest of the class, and that I needed to work on my skills. He said my writing was "wooden" and "lacked verve and voice." I am aware that I have room for improvement, but I am confident that I can make the necessary changes.

I inquired if he would have assumed this was composed by AI, to which he replied that he did not believe so. Even though he is familiar with his students' writing styles, he usually reads through 60 or more essays. One that is efficient, well-structured, and gets to the point quickly may not raise any red flags.

Mr. Diamond was unable to use Google's Classroom plagiarism checker on my essay since I was not a registered student. When I ran it through Grammarly, a writing tool that assists with grammar and checks for plagiarism, only a few common phrases were flagged as questionable. It was truly an original piece of writing - one that was created by a machine.

Google Classroom and Turnitin, a company that provides plagiarism detection services to educational institutions, utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) to compare a student's work with their prior assignments. Eric Wang, Turnitin's Vice President of AI, stated that this could assist teachers in recognizing new ChatGPT cheaters. He also informed me that his company is able to detect AI-generated text based on cues that are undetectable to humans, and that they will be adding an AI writing detection feature in 2023.

A representative from OpenAI has stated that they are looking into methods to make it simpler to identify AI-generated writing.

I wanted to test ChatGPT's capabilities by seeing if it could keep up in a group discussion without me having read the material beforehand. The text I chose was Denis Johnson's short story "Car Crash While Hitchhiking" from the collection "Jesus' Son".

My classmates began discussing the characters in the story, but I was left out of the conversation by ChatGPT.

I am not aware of any book or movie titled 'Car Crash While Hitchhiking.'

I looked up the title of the book and the bot provided me with some limited details, but it was incorrect about the protagonist's name. Eventually, a student was able to give me a comprehensive summary.

In the end, Mr. Diamond gave ChatGPT and I a C. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has stated that it is not dependable for anything of importance at the moment and needs to be improved in terms of its "robustness and truthfulness". However, many AI experts have informed me that the accuracy and data will improve quickly. When that day arrives, we will have a writing tool that is similar to a scientific calculator.

Despite the advances in artificial intelligence, it is unlikely that it will ever replace the process of writing. According to James Lester, a computer-science professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in AI and education, the best approach is to combine AI and human effort. He believes that the combination of the two will be the most successful.