Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

April 23, Collins is a freelance writer who has been making money by doing homework for American students for the past nine years. He lives in Kenya and is involved in the "essay writing" industry that locals call "academic writing". His assignments include college papers on topics such as psychology, sociology and economics.

Sometimes he is even authorized to visit the university portal directly, submit tests and assignments as a student, participate in group discussions and communicate with professors. By 2022, he had earned $9 to $1200 a month from the job.

Recently, however, his income has fallen to $500 to $800 a month. Collins attributes this to the rapid rise of ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools.

"at this time last year, I got an average of 50 to 70 assignments at a time, including short discussions of about 150 words each, which didn't require much research," Tuyuan PexelsCollins said. "now, on average, I only get more than 30 to 40 assignments."

In January 2023, online learning platform Study conducted a survey of more than 1000 American students and more than 100 educators. The results of the survey showed that more than 89% of the students said they had used ChatGPT to help with their homework. Nearly half of the students admitted that they used ChatGPT,53% in their home exams or tests to write papers, and 22% used it for an overview.

Collins is now very concerned that the rise of artificial intelligence may significantly reduce students' dependence on "thesis shooters" like him in the long run, thus affecting their income. At the same time, he now relies on ChatGPT to generate content he previously outsourced to other writers.

Although 17 states in the United States have banned ghostwriting, this is not a problem for writers who earn a living for themselves and their families in Kenya. It is estimated that about 25.8 per cent of the Kenyan population lives in extreme poverty, making Kenya an important centre for writers. Kenya accounts for 1% of the total number of online freelancers in the world, ranking 15th in the world and second only to Egypt in Africa, according to Online Labour Index (OLI). About 70% of Kenyan online freelancers provide writing and translation services.

John Kamau has been providing ghostwriting services since 2014. He disagrees with Collins's point of view: "even editing AI-generated text to avoid detection takes a lot of time and effort, so you can't simply say that with artificial intelligence, students will finish their homework on their own." Kamau predicts that with the improvement of artificial intelligence technology, more schools will restrict and prevent the use of tools like ChatGPT. He believes that "academic writers" will still have their jobs, but those who use ChatGPT will benefit.

Alfred Ongere, founder of consulting firm AI Kenya, believes that the rise of large language models like ChatGPT will disrupt Kenya's writer supply market. On the one hand, writers and other freelancers have realized that large language models like ChatGPT are powerful and use them at work. This means that they can now spend more time creating, and because ChatGPT saves time, the quality of the article is better. But the downside is that it will mean that their customers and suppliers will turn to ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools to do their work, which will lead to fewer jobs. "

In the United States, although higher education institutions have not yet imposed a complete ban on tools such as ChatGPT, universities, including Yale University, have issued guidance and recommendations on the use of AI, leaving teachers to decide how to use these tools in the classroom.

Wade Brian, a third-year finance major in Kenya, provides ghostwriting services in his spare time. He said he would not use ChatGPT to write a complete composition because it might damage credibility and future homework. Instead, he limits its use to content searches similar to Google.

Brian thinks his business has deteriorated recently. "when I started doing this last year, I completed 30 tasks in my first month as an amateur," he said. as I become more skilled, I can do 60 a month. I earned 40000 Kenyan shillings ($296) in the most month last year. " By March, however, Brian had fewer than 10 assignments. "it's not that I'm not looking for a job, but I didn't even earn 10,000 Kenyan shillings ($74)," he said. "

The rise of generative artificial intelligence makes the work of educators more challenging. Christopher Kanan, an associate professor in the Department of computer Science at the University of Rochester, has begun conducting field tests in class to cope with the widespread use of tools such as ChatGPT.

"it's harder to tell who knows what and who gets help from tools such as ChatGPT," he explained on the school's website. He also made it clear that AI tools will not disappear and will evolve rapidly.

Ethan Mollick, an associate professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, is more open to ChatGPT. "to be honest, even if I don't ask for it, I may not be able to stop students from using it," he said. "

Meanwhile, in Kenya, "shooters" who help American students cheat now have to fight for fewer tasks.

"the first quarter of this year is over, and it used to be the rush hour because students went back to college and had a lot of homework to finish," said Adrian Nyanga, a writer who has been working in the industry for four years.

"but I have seen a decline in the number of tasks this year, so there are no peak and trough seasons. This is bad," he said. "keep in mind that a lot of writers have joined the industry in the past few years, and it has become increasingly difficult for them to find jobs, and now there are fewer jobs available because of AI."

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