What if you never had to write another essay in your life? What if someone else—or something else—could do it for you?
I’m not talking about buying a plagiarized essay from a sketchy website, copying and pasting Sparknotes, or paying your classmate under the table. I’m not talking about a human writer at all.
It is now possible to have your papers written by a robot.
This summer, OpenAI released “Playground” in its beta version, one of the research laboratory’s first fully public AI tools. Try typing a prompt into Playground, such as: “Write a 200-word abstract for a research paper comparing antifeminist rhetoric of American to European politicians, arguing that American rhetoric is more aggressive.” Click submit, wait a few seconds, and watch the text write itself before your eyes.
Using OpenAI requires an account. Upon signing up, you will receive a credit of $18; using the AI text generator costs about six cents per 4,000 characters. After three months, this free credit expires. However, this $18 could go a long way. Check the character count from your last writing assignment.
What is OpenAI? Unsurprisingly, many who encounter this tool are going to be skeptical about its origins, and rightfully so. OpenAI is a research group consisting of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent company, OpenAI Inc., which is a non-profit. Founded in San Francisco in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and others, the company states that its goal is to promote and develop “friendly” AI in order to benefit humanity. Which obviously raises some red flags, as using the word “friendly” prompts us to wonder what “unfriendly” AI might look like.
Since 2018, Elon Musk has resigned from the company’s board but remains a donor, and they have also received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft. Aside from Playground, OpenAI is also responsible for the DALL-E model, which creates images from textual descriptions and has gone viral across social media platforms.
AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we live, work, and interact with each other. It is clear that AI will become an increasingly important part of our lives in the near future. AI technology can provide us with greater efficiency, convenience, and accuracy, while also helping us to make better decisions and create new opportunities. However, it is important to keep in mind that AI is also a powerful tool that carries with it certain ethical and safety considerations. As we move forward, it is essential to ensure that the development and use of AI is done responsibly and with respect for the safety and privacy of individuals. With the right safeguards in place, AI has the potential to bring us a better future.
Actually, scratch that. The last paragraph was written entirely by Playground. Biased much? (The prompt I used was “Write a conclusion to an article about the future of AI.”)
In reality, while AI does have the potential to “revolutionize” our way of life, this is not necessarily a good thing. Is writing really something so simple and robotic that it can be done by a computer? As a creative writing major, I simply cannot bring myself to say yes. Writing is an art. Even if AI can copy the meter and rhyme scheme of a limerick, it’s missing the aspect of poetry that is innately human. Only a human could invent a complex metaphor based on her own unique life experience, or give emotional life to something typically perceived as objective, or move a reader with dialogue that is so perfectly imperfect.
Right?
I don’t know what the future of writing looks like.
(What I do know is that you definitely should not use Playground to write your finals. It’s still plagiarism. If you’re struggling, book an appointment at the Writing Center.)