That’s going on the supposition that a person just prompts for an essay and leaves it at that, which to be fair is likely the issue. The thing is, the genie is out of the bottle and it’s not going to go back in. I think at this point it’ll be better to adjust the way we teach children things, and also get to know the tools they’ll be using.

I’ve been using GPT and LLAMA to assist me in writing emails and reports. I provide a foundation, and working with the LLMs I get a good cohesive output. It saves me time, allowing me to work on other things, and whoever needs to read the report or email gets a well-written document/letter that doesn’t meander in the same way I normally do.

I essentially write a draft, have the LLMs write the whole thing, and then there’s usually some back-and-forth to get the proper tone and verbiage right, as well as trim away whatever nonsense the models make up that wasn’t in my original text. Essentially I act as an editor. Writing is a skill I don’t really possess, but now there are tools to make up for this.

Using an LLM in that way, you’re actively working with the text, and you’re still learning the source material. You’re just leaving the writing to someone else.