ChatGPT Might Ironically Save the College Essay Ghostwriting Industry

“Contract cheating” is the practice of paying others to do your homework and it’s a $21 billion dollar industry that is “technically legal in Canada, and data suggests it’s become prevalent across post-secondary institutions.”

Rationalizing their existence, one ghostwriting company founder argues that colleges are failing their students anyway with “false promises of prestige following the completion of their degrees” so it makes sense that students are getting help instead of stressing out over “assignments that have nothing to do with [their] career goals.”

While ChatGPT is putting a short term dent in the revenue streams of some of these contract cheating firms, given the rise in AI detection tools in higher ed, it’s possible that the existence of these tools makes the idea of using ghostwriters to produce college essays even more normalized. The real danger, of course, is that this might eventually mean we’ll have an entire generation of younger workers incapable of communicating through writing and unwilling to endure the unpleasantness of doing any task they feel is unworthy of their time.