Why students should avoid AI essays, and what to use instead

If you think AI-generated essays are in any way difficult to detect, think again. Most universities have invested heavily in AI detection tools that can flag AI-generated content with a high degree of accuracy. Even if you try to submit work with your own words and mixed AI-generated text, these tools can still detect the real source. One of the most reliable AI detectors, Copyleaks, has "over 99% accuracy" and "an industry-low false positive rate of just 0.2%." It doesn’t only scan for ChatGPT - it also looks for content from various AI models, including Gemini and Claude, and the company is constantly updating and improving its software.

Other popular and widely-adopted tools, such as Turnitin and GPTZero, also detect AI-generated text, with a very high degree of reliability.

How AI detectors work

AI detectors typically work by analysing the writing style of the content. Copyleaks explains that its detector is trained to recognise "human writing patterns," and that it identifies AI-generated text when it "detects deviations from known human patterns and specific AI signals."

Put simply, AI-written content has a certain rhythm, structure, and level of predictability that these tools can pick up. While plenty of software claims it can get around these checks and make AI content appear 'human written', generally such tools are very unreliable.

But detection tools aren’t the only problem for students - lecturers are also pretty adept at spotting AI-written work. Professor Claire Wardle at Cornell explains:

"There are obvious tells. If it’s too polished, too bland, or uses phrasing that doesn’t match how students talk in class, it’s a giveaway."

So if your AI-generated essay suddenly sounds a lot more refined than your usual writing style, it's very likely that your lecturer will notice.

False positives

False positives in detection software are rare. Copyleaks for example, reports a false positive rate of just 0.2%, so the risk of being falsely accused is minimal.

However, there is one innocent mistake that many students make: using Grammarly or Scribbr to edit their work. As these tools often "over-polish" writing to the point where it no longer sounds natural, it can result in the essay being flagged as AI - even if you wrote every word yourself.

AI hurts your critical thinking

Writing essays certainly isn’t just about meeting a word count or even just getting the answers right. It’s a key part of developing research skills, critical thinking and the ability to construct a well-reasoned argument.

When you rely on AI to write your essay for you, you miss out on these valuable learning experiences. In essence, you're wasting the typical £28,500 investment you've made into your future, by outsourcing your learning process to a bot.

AI doesn’t really understand, it just predicts

Despite its name, AI doesn’t actually think. It creates your essay by predicting what words are likely to come next, based on patterns acquired from its training data. That means, firstly it doesn’t actually understand the material, or form original arguments, or even engage in real analysis. Second, it's only as good as its training data - if that’s flawed, then so is your essay.

Even though your AI-generated essay might on the face of it sound a lot better than you think you could ever write, it’s often shallow, lacking the depth of thought that comes from students really engaging with a topic.

"While AI can produce essays efficiently, its lack of genuine understanding and critical thinking can limit the depth of argumentation and originality."

~ Jordan Cox

That’s a major problem when writing an essay, because the main goal is to demonstrate understanding and show critical thinking!

Over reliance on AI can also lead to a false sense of competency. You've created a rough draft, and it might seem harmless enough to let AI restructure your argument or refine your writing: but this is a pattern that's too easy to fall into and become reliant on. What happens when you have to sit an exam, get involved in a group discussion, or write something where there's no possibility of AI assistance? The whole point of studying for a degree is to build skills you’ll later use in your career - whether this is analysing complex ideas, making persuasive arguments, or simply communicating clearly in the workplace. If you're letting AI do all the hard work for you (and not necessarily do it that well!), you’re not developing any of those abilities.

AI can get things wrong (and make you look bad)

One of the biggest risks of handing in an AI essay is that AI writers often produce inaccurate, misleading, or just downright false information.

AI models don't fact-check or verify their claims. If you submit an AI-written essay without thoroughly checking every single detail, there's a good chance it will be full of errors. At best, you'll look careless, but if a few of your references are fake, you'll look dishonest. It's an AI red-flag and lecturers are pretty wise to it.

AI "hallucinations" can invent fake information

The phenomenon of AI completely making things up is known as AI hallucination, and it happens when AI generates false or non-existent facts, references, or statistics. When writing your essay, AI might:

• Invent fake sources - fictional books, articles, or academic papers that don’t exist.
• Misquote real sources - even if you give it the original source material to work with.
• Take information out of context - it commonly 'bends' source material to suit its rhetoric.
• Include incorrect facts - either due to logical mistakes, outdated knowledge or lack of understanding.

Handing in work full of errors like this is not just embarrassing - you can risk getting thrown off your course.

Getting legitimate help when you need it

Students turn to AI for help not just out of laziness, but because university support systems often fall short. Research by Hind Naaman at the department of Education Management at GBSB Global found weak support structures to be a major cause of student dropout.

If you need assistance, a better option is ordering a custom-written essay from a real-world academic. While this could be misused, it can also be a powerful learning tool when utilised properly. There are plenty of respected theories that support the idea that learning by example is extremely effective.

The importance of being ethical

The goal with a custom essay is to use it as a guide, not to submit it as your own work.

• Study its structure – See how the introduction sets up an argument, how paragraphs flow, and how evidence is used.
• Use it as a research aid – Review its sources and expand your research from there.
• Write in your own words – Rework key ideas in your own style, adding your own analysis.
• Develop your own perspective – Engage critically with the content, forming independent arguments.

You can order a custom written essay through our essay writing services, or find out more about our fair use policy here.