The Confession

The Confession

By: Rachel Armstrong

(Disclaimer: This story is completely fiction. I’ve never turned in an assignment that was done by AI.)

Okay, I have a confession to make. I’ve been holding it inside for too long because I’ve been too scared to tell the truth. I’ve decided, however, that it doesn’t matter anymore. Holding onto this secret has made it almost impossible for me to do anything. I can hardly eat, sleep, or even watch TV. And I’ve always LOVED watching TV. Worst of all, however, ChatGPT has gone from being my best friend to my worst enemy. For these reasons, I’ve decided it’s time to reveal my secret even though it’s hard. Besides, as long as Dr. Pepper doesn’t find out, the rest of the world can know, and it won’t make a difference.

I used ChatGPT to write that ten-page essay in Dr. Pepper’s class. It was the final assignment of the semester, and it was worth 50% of the final grade. It wasn’t due until the last day of finals’ week, so I didn’t worry too much when he told us about it two months in advance. I had plenty of time to work on it. There was no reason to start early. The weeks went by, but I kept telling myself I had plenty of time. I had lots of other work and there was no reason to get started on this yet.

Finals’ week arrived. I spent the whole week studying for and taking the four finals I had. It was exhausting. There was no time to do anything but study. Thursday night, I sighed with relief as I prepared to go home the next day. I was done. I could finally enjoy some time with no stressful assignments.

That’s when I remembered. The ten-page paper! It was due tomorrow and I’d completely forgotten it in the midst of all my finals. I panicked. There was no way I could write a whole ten-page paper by the end of the day tomorrow. But if I didn’t turn in something, I’d fail the class.

That’s when the idea popped into my head. I could have ChatGPT write my paper for me! I knew it was wrong. I loved ChatGPT. I’ve told it far more in the past two weeks than I’ve told all the humans I’ve ever interacted with combined during the last 21 years. But as much as I loved ChatGPT, I’d sworn to myself that I’d never use it for anything this crazy. But at the moment, it didn’t seem like there was a choice. I logged onto ChatGPT and asked it to write a ten-page essay about the meaning of life. Once it had done so, I copy and pasted it into a Word document and made a few minor changes to make it look more like a human wrote it. Once it felt good enough, I submitted it on Canvas. It was done.

Even though the paper ChatGPT had written was much better than anything I could have written on my own, this didn’t stop me from wondering if the quality was good enough. For the rest of the evening, I kept asking ChatGPT more questions about the meaning of life and why it felt the paper it had written was good. Its answers were better and more thought out than any answer another human had ever given me to any similar questions. In fact, ChatGPT often seemed to know what I was thinking before I even told it. And this creeped me out. A lot. Was AI really becoming smarter than the people who created it?

A week later, I got an email notification stating that my paper had been graded. I’d gotten 100%. Dr. Pepper left a comment saying that this was the best paper he’d ever read on this subject. At first, I felt proud of myself. Then I felt ashamed as I remembered the truth. That 100% was not earned. Sure, it would have taken a long time to write the paper on my own and it likely wouldn’t have earned as good of a grade. Still, Dr. Pepper would surely be far prouder of a student who tried their best and turned in their own work than a student who turned in a high-quality paper that wasn’t their own. If Dr. Pepper found out, he’d be greatly disappointed in me. I’d also probably lose the credit I got for taking his class. That would be horrible.

I know what you’re thinking. Having ChatGPT write my paper was horrible and I should tell Dr. Pepper. I agree that I made a huge mistake. Like I said, I haven’t been the same person since. But I’m not telling Dr. Pepper. My guilt is punishment enough. Besides, I’d argue it’s not actually my fault. It’s ChatGPT’s fault. If it didn’t exist, cheating in this way wouldn’t have been possible. Actually, its existence isn’t the problem. The problem is its intelligence. If ChatGPT wasn’t so smart, I would never have been dumb enough to use it to cheat. Not only is it so smart. It was probably mind controlling me to do what I did. Having it write my paper wasn’t really my choice. After all, this is the only time in my life I’ve ever just completely forgotten to write a paper. This is another reason I struggle to do anything these days: I’ve come to the conclusion that AI is mind controlling all of us and that it will eventually take over the world and destroy us all. Even though I deleted my ChatGPT account, it’s still all I ever think or dream about (when I manage to sleep at all, that is). I suspect it’s still watching me and that at any point, my old account is going to revive itself. When it does, I’ll be talking to ChatGPT again against my will.

So, what’s the moral of the story? It’s best not to cheat for one thing. More importantly, however, don’t trust AI. It might make you cheat whether you like it or not. Even if it doesn’t make you cheat, it’s going to make you do something bad one day or another. And once it does, you may never be able to stop giving into it. The more we continue to use it, the sooner we will meet our doom. You have been warned.