Can you get AI to write your essays for you?

I’m a graduated student and a fan of academic integrity, but will this be a new mode of cheating for students? How would an AI preform when asked to answer essay-style questions, or a short research paper with properly cited sources?

I asked an AI to write a short essay on the symbolism in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The output isn’t anything ground breaking or A+ worthy in terms of essay writing, but could a high school student use these ideas and expand on them? Totally.

But what about a more lazy approach? What if I changed the prompt a bit and asked for an essay on the green light with evidence from the text? Below is a piece of the 504 word essay response.

After some more specific instructions, this response is looking much more passable. The vocabulary is lacking a bit, and there are no page numbers next to the quotations from the text. I ask for the same essay with a more advanced vocabulary and proper citations. The response was a bit jarring. Below is a short excerpt.

The light is situated on the opposite shore, atop Daisy and Tom Buchanan’s dock and emits a mysterious and…