Human vs AI Essay Writers – A Comparative Analysis

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in education has sparked debate about its potential to supplement or even replace human essay writing. This short essay compares human and AI essay writers, examining their respective strengths, limitations, and implications for academic practice.

Human essay writers bring unique cognitive abilities to the task, including critical thinking, creativity, and the capacity to draw nuanced connections between ideas. As Elkins and Chun (2020, p. 412) note, “human writers can leverage personal experiences and emotional intelligence to craft compelling narratives and arguments”. This ability to inject originality and insight remains a key advantage of human writers.

Conversely, AI essay writers excel in rapidly processing vast amounts of information and generating coherent text based on learned patterns. Large language models like GPT-3 can produce essays on a wide range of topics with impressive fluency (Brown et al., 2020). However, these AI systems fundamentally lack true understanding and often struggle with higher-order reasoning tasks essential to academic writing.

In terms of accuracy and factual content, both human and AI writers have strengths and weaknesses. Humans are prone to errors and biases in recall, potentially leading to inaccuracies in their writing. AI systems, drawing from extensive training data, can often produce more factually dense content. However, as Bender et al. (2021, p. 615) caution, “language models are stochastic parrots”, meaning they can confidently generate plausible-sounding but potentially false information.

“The strength of current language models lies in their ability to rapidly produce human-like text, not in their capacity for reliable factual recall or logical reasoning” (Bender et al., 2021, p. 616).

Regarding the writing process, humans typically engage in iterative planning, drafting, and revision, allowing for refinement of ideas and arguments. AI systems, in contrast, generate text in a more linear fashion, though some can engage in simple self-editing when prompted. The human approach often results in more cohesive and well-structured essays, particularly for complex topics (Flower and Hayes, 1981).

Ethical considerations also differentiate human (such as essay writing services) and AI essay writers. Human writers must adhere to academic integrity standards, citing sources and avoiding plagiarism. AI systems, while capable of incorporating citations, may inadvertently reproduce copyrighted text or fail to properly attribute ideas (Sharples and Pérez y Pérez, 2022). Moreover, the use of AI in academic writing raises questions about authorship and the value of the writing process in education.

The quality of language and style is another point of comparison. Human writers can adapt their voice and tone to specific audiences and contexts, drawing on cultural knowledge and rhetorical skills. While AI can mimic different styles to some extent, it often lacks the nuance and contextual awareness that characterise skilled human writing. As Elkins and Chun (2020, p. 415) observe, “AI-generated text, while grammatically correct, often lacks the ‘human touch’ that makes writing truly engaging”.

In terms of efficiency and scalability, AI clearly outperforms humans. AI systems can produce essays in minutes or seconds, whereas human writers may take hours or days. This speed makes AI attractive for certain applications, such as generating draft content or producing large volumes of text. However, the trade-off is often a loss of depth and originality (Sharples and Pérez y Pérez, 2022).

The role of emotion and personal experience in writing is another crucial distinction. Human writers can draw on their lived experiences, empathy, and emotional intelligence to create powerful, resonant essays. AI, lacking genuine emotions or experiences, can only simulate these aspects based on patterns in its training data. This limitation is particularly relevant in fields like creative writing or personal essays (Elkins and Chun, 2020).

Looking to the future, it is likely that the boundaries between human and AI writing will become increasingly blurred. Hybrid approaches, where AI assists human writers or humans edit AI-generated content, may become more common (Sharples and Pérez y Pérez, 2022). However, the uniquely human aspects of writing – creativity, critical thinking, and emotional depth – are likely to remain valued in academic and professional contexts.

In conclusion, while AI essay writers have made impressive strides in generating coherent and informative text, they still fall short of human capabilities in several key areas. Human writers retain advantages in critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to produce truly original and insightful work. However, AI’s strengths in processing speed and information recall suggest it may play an increasingly important role in the writing process. As AI technology continues to evolve, educators and policymakers will need to carefully consider its appropriate use in academic contexts, balancing efficiency gains against the educational value of the human writing process.

References

Bender, E.M., Gebru, T., McMillan-Major, A. and Shmitchell, S., 2021. On the dangers of stochastic parrots: Can language models be too big? In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, pp. 610-623.

Brown, T.B., Mann, B., Ryder, N., Subbiah, M., Kaplan, J., Dhariwal, P., Neelakantan, A., Shyam, P., Sastry, G., Askell, A. and Agarwal, S., 2020. Language models are few-shot learners. arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.14165.

Elkins, K. and Chun, J., 2020. Can GPT-3 pass a writer’s Turing test? Journal of Cultural Analytics, 5(2), pp.397-416.

Flower, L. and Hayes, J.R., 1981. A cognitive process theory of writing. College composition and communication, 32(4), pp.365-387.

Sharples, M. and Pérez y Pérez, R., 2022. Story machines: How computers have become creative writers. Routledge.