But if you're considering using Generative AI to write your personal statement, are you aware of the risks? Read on to find out more about the uses of this technology, and whether using AI is cheating.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a machine’s way of mimicking or replicating tasks that typically take human input, such as calculating, writing, talking, and creating imagery.
AI and machine learning have been around for a long time, with commonly used examples like Google, Siri, and Alexa becoming household names.
Generative AI (GenAI) has been in the spotlight recently as a type of AI that generates content after identifying patterns within existing sets of data, often in response to a prompt. The result is a human-like mimicry of conversational text, speech, or imagery.
In November 2022, GenAI chatbot ChatGPT exploded onto the scene. Within five days of its launch, a million people were using ChatGPT. Two months later, that had rocketed to 100 million and, by April 2023, the number of users topped 173 million.
The short answer is: no.
Using AI to write your personal statement may seem like a quick and easy solution to a difficult task, but the risks significantly outweigh any potential benefit.
According to UCAS, if you get an AI tool to generate all or large parts of your personal statement and then copy and paste to use as your final text, it could be considered cheating.
Because GenAI is trained on pre-existing material – sometimes unethically, without consent, and from questionable or copyrighted sources – the risk that your AI-generated personal statement could be too similar to someone else’s is significantly increased.
UCAS already uses a similarity detection system to compare statements and combat fraud. Using AI gives you a higher chance of your personal statement being flagged as plagiarism. If this happens, the university you are applying to may be alerted, and this could affect your chances of receiving an offer.
Instead, the advice from UCAS is that your personal statement should be just that: personal and written by you.
Writing a personal statement is a milestone in your journey to university, and an opportunity to showcase your skills, ambitions, and experiences in your own voice, which is what university admissions staff are interested in.
Putting these experiences down in writing can also help you confirm whether you are applying for the correct course or not: for example, you may find yourself more suited to Film Studies rather than English Language, or Marine Engineering instead of Mechanical Engineering.
It can be tempting to save time by generating a personal statement using ChatGPT, but bear in mind GenAI is rapidly being viewed as a tool for cheating. Leading universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh have released statements prohibiting the unauthorised use of GenAI by their current students, so chances are they'll take a dim view of an AI-generated personal statement submitted as part of an application to study with them.
If you haven't been told that ChatGPT is not a search engine, now you know.
Because of its sudden popularity, some people are turning to ChatGPT as an alternative to Google or Bing. However, to use this in an academic setting would be a huge mistake.
Chatbots are known for getting simple facts wrong, or making up convincing alternatives in a process known as ‘hallucinating’. ChatGPT’s creators have even admitted the chatbot ‘sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers’.
You would be more successful using real search engines to point you towards reliable sources than using an AI chatbot as a search engine.
Even professionals have fallen into the trap of incorrectly using ChatGPT as a search engine. In June 2023, a New York lawyer was reprimanded for inadvertently generating details of a non-existent court case hallucinated by ChatGPT to use as evidence in a real court case.
When used ethically, AI can still be a great tool to support the writing of your personal statement. Here are some ways to use AI without risking your legitimacy:
If you do choose to use a GenAI tool to explore ideas for your personal statement, remember you must confirm your personal statement hasn’t been copied or provided from another source – including AI software – before you submit your application.
Help was always available before AI, and that hasn’t changed. If you need help with your personal statement, you could: