Millie Houlton, a student from the UK, used ChatGPT to get out of a £60 ($74.30) parking fine that she felt she shouldn’t have been issued. The roadworks near her house meant that she was unable to park her Citroën car in her usual spot, although she had a permit, and so Houlton, who had used ChatGPT before to summarize university readings, took advantage of its abilities to generate a letter to the local council in York explaining her situation. Just two days later, the council wrote to her and revoked the parking fine.
“I just found it a bit easier to use a tool that could put my thoughts into words and get my point across properly,” she revealed in an exclusive interview with Insider.
Microsoft fused with OpenAI in November 2022 to make ChatGPT available for public use, and the platform skyrocketed to 100 million monthly active users in just over two months. In its wake, Google also launched its own build, Bard, with Microsoft following with a remodeled version of Bing, which was driven by Artificial Intelligence.
Generative AI automation is a driving force behind writing services like news articles, shopping lists, code and even novels. Some express doubt about its effects, worrying that it could possibly plagiarize, create bias, and even argue with those using it. However, many entrepreneurs applaud the time-saving ability it provides customers.
For her part, Millie Houlton believes the text ChatGPT generated was completely professional, and stated that she only had to add a few personal details. Even though she wrote a lengthy and descriptive prompt, she didn’t have to stress over its grammar, formatting, and professionalism.
Recently, ChatGPT has also been seen in universities, used to write essays or assessments, causing many schools to ban it. Those caught submitting AI written work to be used for exams have faced strict penalties. To counter this, some have created their own AI detectors, making sure their students are not cheating. Despite its potential to help, it is better to avoid AI-generated writing for more formal occasions.
In addition, Millie’s friends have been known to use the software to write resumes and cover letters, or to check grammar and spelling in their own text. As of today, OpenAI’s GPT-4 has been seen to perform better in examinations and assessments, as one professor said “I think the chat writes better than 95% of my students could ever”.
Millie Houlton reinforces to not use ChatGPT to write assessments since accuracy is key, and universities can catch those using the software. She advises to simply stay clear of it altogether. While the model can be used to make the everyday tasks simpler, the future of its usage remains uncertain.