AI tools are amazing assistants in many tasks – from content plans to the generation of event concepts. Using artificial intelligence has become a new 'normal' and is adopted by all industries from marketing to tourism. But what about education? Some concerns related to the use of AI still have no clear regulations. Is it legal and ethical to use AI for essay writing help? Let's figure it out below.

By the way, students can explore legal and reputable AI-powered tools and submit their “write my paper AI” requests to platforms like WriteMyEssay.ai, a great resource for creative ideas and effective paper support.

How Can AI Help You Write a Paper?

Creating texts with the help of AI makes the process of research faster and more effective. One can structure papers, create outlines, arrange references, use specific college formatting styles, generate ideas for titles, and more. 

The use of AI helps to beat writer's block, save time, and get a perfect draft of an essay to add to your original thoughts and make it look authentic.

Potential Legal and Ethical Concerns of Using AI for Essay Writing

If you ever use essay writing assistance when another person online creates a paper for you, you remember what ethical and legality concerns may appear. Similar cases relate to the use of AI for academic writing purposes. Let's see when AI writing becomes an issue from the scope of basic academic regulations:

Originality of papers

One of the basic concerns that may appear if a student doesn't write an essay by themselves is plagiarism detection. When a human writer creates an essay and acts unethically they purposefully copy parts of existing texts and pretend to be authors. If a student checks such papers with an originality-checking tool, it becomes clear that the author was a scam. 

If we apply a similar hypothetical idea to AI writing, we surely can say that machines will not copy and paste for purpose. So what are the risks? The AI technology is designed to research thousands of web pages according to the initial prompt. Among the multiple sources, AI detects original works that can be partially copied and presented as an original text. Such an occasion in turn may lead to legal consequences as the protection of intellectual rights. Moreover, if a student submits a plagiarized paper it may influence their grades and reputation badly.

Responsibility concerns

Another doubtful aspect about the use of AI for essay writing is responsibility. Is there any blame on a machine, whose algorithm works a certain way and violates ethical norms? Is it a reason to start updating the technology or adjust the rules of its use? A person who tries to create a paper with the help of AI may not have an intention to violate ethical or legal rules, but does it because of the work of AI. The responsibility question remains a sharp one. 

Preconception issues

AI technology is analyzing information and gives the output based on a particular viewpoint. But what about controversial topics? It may be hard to avoid spreading thoughts that may harm the rights of minorities, or raise discrimination issues. Since the Internet is full of many different thoughts and ideas, no one can predict which of them AI will include in an essay. 

Trickery from the side of students

The most banal concern is a risk of manipulation from the side of students. If one uses AI but pretends that these papers were human written, it’s a deception. While some teachers allow their students to use AI for research purposes, it's crucial to inform them about each time you involve technologies in the writing process.

This list of potential ethical and legal concerns covers the main issues. With further development of AI more issues might appear. Thus, it’s crucial to learn the main ways of how to use AI ethically.

Tips for Ethical AI Use in Essay Writing

As said earlier, some teachers don't ban the use of AI by their students. New technologies are a sufficient part of our lives, and being able to work with them is an essential hard skill in the modern world. If you are going to invoke AI, do it ethically.

• Ask AI for sources of information. Suppose you give AI the prompt with a certain topic to write an argumentative essay. In several minutes you get a perfectly generated paper. To add more expertise and solidity to your paper, ask AI to provide you with a list of sources. Obligatory visit all websites provided by AI and check the actuality of the information. Ensure there are no preconception issues.
• Write precise prompts. Don't rush when formulating a prompt for AI. Meaningful and plagiarism-free papers result from a successful prompt. Let AI learn more about style and tone of voice, and give it some hints on your points to highlight them in the text. The more you customize the prompt, the better the result you'll receive.
• Read a ready paper several times. Once your essay is ready, take time to edit and proofread it. More likely, a paper will be free from punctuation and grammar mistakes, but style and tone of voice might need some improvement. Take the list of a teacher's requirements to ensure that your paper follows them all. Imagine your teacher reading this essay. Would they think you wrote it?
• Check for plagiarism. Any essay, a human-written or a generated one, can contain plagiarism. Even if a paper looks original, it may contain some phrases and words that will be marked as plagiarism. Use any online plagiarism checker to get the percentage of original content in your paper. If needed, rewrite some parts and check again.

Final Thoughts

In our article we explained the legality and ethic of the use of Ai for paper writing. Among the potential issues are responsibility concerns, problems with originality, preconception issues, and trickery from the students' side. To avoid risks, always check generated essays for plagiarism, edit and proofread papers, write precise prompts, and ask AI for sources to check. Good luck!