essay writing ai cactus

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Caktus AI: How to use the ChatGPT alternative that can write essays for you

Caktus AI is a ChatGPT alternative that has piqued the interest of many people across the web, with approximately 1.1 million users having accessed the service since the beginning of 2023. It’s not quite as popular as ChatGPT , but it has a unique take on AI-generated content.

What is Caktus AI?

How to use caktus ai, what can you do with caktus ai, can caktus ai write essays, do you have to pay for caktus ai, who owns caktus ai.

The student-focused tool has taken AI content creation up a notch with features that haven’t been seen on other services. The brand also offers a number of additional writing generators and several other tools in a myriad of unique categories. Here’s what you need to know about Caktus AI.

Caktus AI is a content-generation tool with several different options beyond writing. Its creators call it an “academic curated search engine,” as it provides content for several different topics including STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and studying, as well as coding and professional services. It is being compared to ChatGPT due to how its essay writer, paragraph writer, and other writing tools work. It might also be able to better evade AI plagiarism detection than its competitor, and has the ability to add citation sources to essays.

The additional tools included in Caktus AI make the service much more comprehensive than ChatGPT or many other AI generators .

Caktus AI works similarly to AI generators like Jasper AI in that you can input a text prompt into your desired service and the chatbot will generate content for you. You will need to register an account to access its features. Unlike many other services that often allow you to use your Google, Apple, or Microsoft accounts as a login, you will have to manually create a username and password.

You should take a look at the company’s terms of service before signing up because the free trial for Caktus AI appears to be over, and there is no easy way to access your account unless you decide to pay for the Premium service.

Caktus AI has several functions. You can use it for a number of writing tasks, in addition to coding and professional development, among others. Many people have noted that Ted Talk to essay and YouTube to essay are some of the more interesting functions of Caktus AI. The latter, for example, can help you use a YouTube video to develop a script of your own.

Because the product is separated into different sections, it helps you navigate the prompts you would have to input into the AI generator to get the content you need.

Caktus AI provides several different topics within each section so you can zero in on your desired function, including writing, coding, career, studying, STEM, fun, arts, and science. You can preview many of the different special interest generators available on the dashboard before you log in and register.

Some of the top coding scripts available on Caktus AI include Python writer, Java writer, C# writer, Javascript writer, Go writer, and Typescript writer. For example, you can input C reate code for a racing game into the Javascript writer, and it will generate a unique code that you can use to build an app. There is also an option that will explain how the code works.

Caktus AI also offers language tutors for Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, French, and Arabic, as well as a Mandarin answerer.

The STEM section of Caktus AI features several science, math, and business-based generators, including a general problem solver, a present value calculator, a derivative calculator, an integral calculator, a chemical analyzer, and a geology tutor.

Some of the more lighthearted uses for Caktus AI include generating class absence excuses, love letters, songs, captions, and text responses. You can also create flashcards for studying and use the citation generator separately from the essay writer.

Yes, Caktus AI can generate essays. The Caktus AI essay generator works a little differently than what many people might be accustomed to with ChatGPT. This product has its various services separated by topic, which can simplify inputting prompts because the service already knows you want an essay.

Unlike ChatGPT, for which you must indicate that you need a 50-word, 200-word, or 500-word essay on a certain topic for optimal results , Caktus AI can begin generating content with more of a keyword-style prompt or a more general statement query.

Since the essay generator is directed toward students, it produces only a set amount of content before allowing you to proceed by pressing the W rite more button. This then brings up a C itation selector , which allows you to choose a source that it will use to create additional content and then cite that source in your AI-generated essay.

Yes, you have to pay to use Caktus AI. There is currently no free or trial tier of the product. Clicking on any of the services on the dashboard will take you to a signup page. If you register for an account, you’ll be directed to subscribe to the service. A Caktus AI subscription goes for $10 per month, and according to its terms and services, canceling the service might be a bit of a challenge.

It appears that there was previously a free trial of Caktus AI, which offered 5,000 characters at no charge. The Premium version of the AI service previously offered a two-day free trial, according to Blogger’s Grotto . Reddit users have noted that these free options have disappeared in recent days in favor of the solely subscription-based service.

Caktus AI was co-founded by Harrison Leonard and Tao Zhang  in May 2022.

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Cactus AI - GPT-3 Powered AI Essay Writer.

• Create now!

Features Of Cactus AI

Free ai essay generator, ai article summarizer, essay outline generator, essay shorter, about cactus ai.

This AI-based platform helps users overcome writer's block, generate new ideas, and simplify the writing process. It's capable of creating essays, finding sources, and formatting documents in MLA or APA style. Beyond essays, Cactus AI can help organize your thoughts with its structure generator, assist with coding assignments, and even create presentations. For those seeking a more refined touch, it offers an additional professional human editing service. Cactus AI is more than a tool, it's a reliable companion for academic writing tasks.

Let's talk about Cactus AI Love to hear from you!

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401 Shepherd Ave, 22th Floor, NYC

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Caktus AI 4+

Ai writing and homework help‪‬.

• 5.0 • 5 Ratings
• Offers In-App Purchases

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Description.

Join 2.6M users using Caktus as their AI essay writer assistant and homework helper. Designed for students as their support system, get the writing guidance you need now. Get high-quality essay writing guidance with verifiable sources and the top homework help with answers on any topic you can think of! Join 2.6 million users already using Caktus AI to support their day-to-day school work by accessing personalized guidance that makes lessons and writing easier to understand and solve in record time. Here are some of our top features: - AI-Powered Essay Writer: Get personalized ideas and suggestions for long or short essays effortlessly with sources by adjusting parameters such as type, length, and tone with intuitive suggestions. - Homework Helper: Boost your grades with the top homework helper around. Get quick and verified answers, video analysis with a comprehensive summary, and discussion post responses to make things easier to understand. - File Management: Organize your school documents and videos in one place with Caktus' file management system. Easily return to edit, improve, or access insightful summaries of past or current classes. With Caktus AI, you can enhance your academic experience with all-in-one support for your homework. Caktus AI technology is trained with the largest database of academic papers and essays globally, enabling students to inspire with high-quality work effortlessly and make their own. Start now! Link to Terms of Use (EULA): https://caktus.ai/version-test/docs/eula

Version 1.6

Ratings and Reviews

Caktus is the best.

The new app is way better. It even looks better! Helped me with my writing and I can even ask questions when I don’t understand something in class and it will explain it to me. It also gives me access to their website which has WAY more tools and content as well. Definitely the best AI for school.

Nice essay writer!

Helped with my super long essay, got pretty good sources too

Functionality

The app is better now.

Developer Response ,

We are glad that you like the newly updated version of the Caktus Mobile app. We apologize for any problems that you have faced in the past. We are putting a major focus on developing the mobile app and will be adding many more features soon!

App Privacy

The developer, Caktus LLC , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

• Financial Info
• Contact Info
• User Content
• Identifiers
• Sensitive Info
• Diagnostics

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

• Caktus Monthly Subscription $9.99
• Developer Website
• App Support
• Privacy Policy

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What is Caktus AI Writer (Tutorial + Review)

Looking to know what Caktus AI Writer is?

Caktus AI has quickly become popular among students, professionals, and anyone using a digital writing assistant. It uses artificial intelligence to create content, help with academic tasks, and improve writing with insights from academic sources.

Are you a student aiming for academic success? Or a content creator looking for efficiency?

Caktus AI Writer is designed for various writing needs.

Let’s dive into the features and functionalities of this platform to help you decide if Caktus AI is right for you.

What is Caktus AI ?

Caktus AI is an AI tool designed to assist students with writing, math, and coding tasks. Launched in 2022 by co-founders Harrison Leonard and Tao Zhang, it offers free trials and premium subscription options.

Besides student support, Caktus AI includes features for educators like automatic grading and personalized teaching tools.

The platform uses artificial intelligence to help with writing. It can create essays and reports with accuracy and creativity.

Since its launch, Caktus has become popular. It now has over 2 million users . Caktus AI is a game-changer for students and educators. Not only does it support writing tasks, but it also improves learning methods.

The AI’s adaptability makes it a great educational companion. It’s not just for writing. It’s an all-in-one suite that enhances your writing and learning journey.

What Can Caktus Do?

Caktus AI Writer is not just a one-trick pony; it’s a tool designed to tackle various academic tasks. This tool’s versatility is evident in its features, each tailored to meet the unique demands of its users.

In writing, Caktus AI offers:

• An essay writer to generate high-quality, lengthy pieces,
• A paragraph generator for those moments of writer’s block and;
• A content improver to help refine your writing.

It can humanize text, summarize complex discussions, expand sentences, and craft professional emails.

The tool can also generate thoughtful responses to discussion questions, making email writing effortless.

Caktus AI has tools like a Java writer, a TypeScript writer, and AI coding assistants for coders.

It can convert JavaScript to Python and create Python docstrings efficiently for students.

Students can use Caktus AI’s study tools to make learning more effective. Features like Article Note Taker and Video Analyzer enhance information retention.

The platform also supports math and science and offers Text to Notes functionality.

Language learners can benefit from Caktus AI’s natural language processing capabilities. It offers Spanish, French, Arabic, English, Japanese, and Italian tutors.

This AI-driven tutor is there to answer your queries, assist with pronunciation, and ensure that the language barrier is not just crossed but demolished.

Job Application

Job seekers can use Caktus AI to improve their resumes and cover letters, helping their applications stand out.

The platform offers tools to perfect your resume bullet points and write impressive cover letters.

Caktus AI can analyze movie scenes for art enthusiasts, providing insights into dialogue, cinematography, and narrative structure.

Our time with Caktus AI wasn’t all about homework and studying. We found plenty of opportunities to have fun with it.

Caktus AI has tools like a Songwriter, a Question Solver, a Love Letter tool, and a Caption Writer. It can even generate humorous excuses for class absences.

Caktus AI Pricing Plans

The Caktus experience begins with choosing a pricing plan .

While a free plan is unavailable, you can explore the platform’s offerings with a three-day trial period to ensure the tool’s services can provide what you need.

For continued access, you have to choose between two plans:

The Base Plan is for those who want writing and learning tools without a hefty price tag.

It costs $14.99 per month or $79.99 per year.

This plan includes a class helper, writing tools, math & science tools, coding tools, citation tools, a conversational tutor, and unlimited AI outputs.

It also provides academic sources, learning tools, and step-by-step solutions. 

It’s a great starting point for anyone who regularly needs help with simple writing and academic tasks.

The Pro Plan offers advanced writing and learning tools.

It costs $19.99 per month or $99.99 per year and includes all Base Plan features, an AI detection tool, priority support, and a special Discord Community Role.

Pro subscribers also get early access to beta tools and updates through the Pro Newsletter. This plan is ideal for those wanting more tools and personalized support.

The Pro Plan unlocks higher service and community engagement by investing a few more dollars each month. You’re not just using a tool but becoming part of a community of like-minded individuals who also want excellence in their writing and learning journeys.

Pros and Cons of Caktus AI

• Intuitive and user-friendly interface
• A diverse range of tools for different needs
• High-quality outputs with minimal editing
• Advanced AI simplifies complex tasks
• Customizable settings for a tailored experience
• Features like step-by-step solutions and academic sources
• Supportive learning environment with unlimited AI outputs
• There is no free plan, only a three-day trial
• Sometimes, it lacks human writing nuances
• May need guidance for creative writing tasks
• It can be overwhelming, with many features
• Depends on user input for best results

How to Use Caktus AI (Tutorial)

Now, let’s look at how you can get started with Caktus AI with this short step-by-step tutorial:

Step 1: Creating an Account

Visit the official Caktus AI Writer website and click the Join Caktus button.

Enter your name, email address, and a secure password.

Agree to the terms of service and privacy policy and click the Continue button to proceed.

Step 2: Setting Up Your Profile

After creating your account, click the profile icon on the upper right side of your screen.

Customize your preferences, choose your preferred tools (writing, coding, or misc), and add details like your writing interests, level of assistance needed, and preferred language.

Caktus AI is currently available in English and Japanese. Following the above steps, you can quickly start using Caktus AI for your academic tasks.

But to get a paid plan, continue with the steps below.

Step 3: Payment Details

Click on the Subscribe Today: Get a 3-Day Trial button at the top of your screen.

You’ll be directed to Caktus’ plans.

Input your payment details using Stripe, GPay, or Pay with Link.

Click Start Trial to begin your three-day trial period.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you can explore Caktus AI Writer and enhance your writing journey.

Step 4: Creating Your First Document

Click All Files, then New Document, to start a new project.

Choose from various writing templates like blog posts or technical reports.

Name your file and start writing.

You’ll see a clean dashboard when you log into Caktus AI Writer. The main toolbar at the top has shortcuts to the document editor and template gallery.

Hover over any icon for a tooltip that explains its function.

You’ll find all the tools you need on the right sidebar:

• The cactus icon (red arrow) is your AI assistant.
• The quill tip (blue arrow) hosts writing tools.
• The upload symbol (green arrow) lets you export your work offline.

Return to the dashboard and click All Tools at the lower left for more tools. You can search among 65 tools and filter them by category, like Writing .

Getting familiar with these features will help you make the most of Caktus AI for your writing projects.

Step 5: Customize Your Settings

Go to the settings menu to tailor Caktus AI Writer to your preferences.

Set your language preference to adapt the AI’s output to your chosen dialect.

Adjust the Writing Style to set the tone and formality of the AI’s suggestions from casual to professional.

Toggle notifications to stay informed about updates or new features.

Integrate Caktus AI with other productivity apps to streamline your workflow.

Customizing these settings ensures that Caktus AI Writer works best for your writing style and needs.

Our Experience with Caktus

Testing out Caktus AI’s essay writer and academic tools was quite a revelation.

We started skeptical but were soon impressed by how well the essay writer organized and fleshed out our ideas.

The academic tools didn’t disappoint either, easily handling complex equations and science questions.

Sure, it’s what you’d expect from an AI, but it was still impressive.

However, the AI did show some limitations, especially when dealing with the subtleties of human writing. But these moments were rare.

After a detailed test run, we found that Caktus AI excelled in grammar correction and data analysis. It struggled with capturing the nuances of creative writing, though.

The coding tools provided helpful suggestions but couldn’t replace an experienced developer’s expertise. Caktus AI is best used as a support tool, providing a solid foundation rather than a complete solution.

Despite these drawbacks, the positives outweigh the negatives. The tool consistently delivered high-quality results with minimal editing needed.

The user interface was straightforward, and the wide range of tools met our needs.

In conclusion, our experience with Caktus AI was primarily positive. The advanced AI capabilities made challenging tasks manageable, and the learning curve was almost nonexistent.

Any initial doubts were quickly resolved, and we found Caktus AI to be a valuable resource for improving productivity and learning.

Getting Customized Assistance

With the Pro plan by Caktus AI, you get personalized assistance to help you make the most of the tool.

Here’s how you can access it:

Click your profile on the upper right of your screen.

Select Support from the dropdown menu to open a chat box.

Describe your issue, and the AI will provide customized solutions or suggestions.

The Feedback feature within the platform allows you to report issues or suggest improvements directly to the development team.

This two-way communication ensures that Caktus AI continuously evolves to meet user needs and preferences.

Our Final Verdict: Is Caktus AI Worth It?

After diving into Caktus AI, we’ve reached our verdict. It’s a valuable investment considering its user-friendly interface and powerful suite of AI writing tools.

The AI assistant goes beyond writing help, offering study aids for students and language tutoring for learners. It’s a game-changer for writers, students, and programmers, with tools like Python writer and Java aids.

In short, Caktus AI is a powerhouse of innovation, making it a solid choice for anyone looking to boost their writing or learning journey.

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What is Caktus AI and How to Use it

From helping in essay writing and foreign language homework to producing course plans and love letters, Caktus AI also provides solutions for educators, alleviating the burden of grading and feedback.

Its natural and sophisticated approach positions it as a preferred choice for educational and social writing requirements.

What is Caktus Ai?

Created by Harrison Leonard and Tao Zhang, it can craft essays, solve math problems, write code and more, making it a versatile tool for academic and professional use.

Caktus AI offers unique features like interactive chatbots, language tutors in several languages and the ability to evade AI plagiarism detection, differentiating it from competitors.

How to Use Caktus AI?

After payment, users can select from various features such as AI paragraph generation, essay writing, coding tools and more.

Key Features of Caktus AI

Caktus ai use cases.

Caktus AI is a comprehensive educational tool designed to assist students in a variety of ways.

Overall, Caktus doesn’t merely automate tasks but also facilitates learning and addresses unique educational challenges.

Ways to Make the Most Out of Caktus AI Writer for Education

Ask clear and specific questions, provide relevant context, be open-minded, follow up with additional questions, use caktus ai as a supplement, caktus.ai pricing plans.

The yearly plan is a more cost-effective option at the equivalent of $8.33 per month.

Monthly Premium Plan

Yearly premium plan, frequently asked questions about caktus ai, leave a reply cancel reply.

Added: Jun 13, 2023

Caktus AI is an AI-powered software tool that helps you write, solve, and code faster, with personalized feedback and tutorials.

What does Caktus AI do?

Written By: Nile Frater

Fact-Checked By: Jack Woodwalker

Caktus AI, or Cactus AI as it’s better known by, is a platform designed to help students learn and better understand their classroom material. The platform contains an AI-powered essay writer which lets you easily find citations and improve your writing and I was particularly impressed with the question-solving tool which lets you walk through difficult math equations, tricky sentence structures, or mind-bending physics questions.

If you’re studying computer science or IT like I did, you’ll be glad to know Caktus also has a module for helping you understand tricky coding problems. The platform supports over 10 languages, including Java, Javascript and Python and just like the math question solver, Caktus AI can walk you through what each line of code means and even convert code from one language into another for you.

• Lots of features for multiple subjects
• Very human-sounding essay generation
• Math solver is incredibly useful
• Hard to find any contact for support
• Not as fast as competitors such as Jasper

Screenshots

Our Verdict on Caktus AI

If at any point in your academic career you think life is hard, spare a moment for my school experience 10 years ago when math teachers still thought having a calculator in your pocket at all times was a crazy idea.

Caktus AI is a revolution in learning and stands out against the crowd with it’s suite of learning tools and holds its own against competitors with a convincing, human-sounding essay writing tool. It’s not always fast enough to produce useful output during a lecture, but if you’re willing to put in the effort after class, Caktus AI is the closest thing to a perfect AI learning platform you’re ever going to find.

Compared Alternatives

• JasperAI - Choose this if you want a more general-purpose writing tool
• BookCoach - Pair this with Caktus AI to easily summarise classroom materials and ask questions of any books you’ve been assigned
• AI essay writing platform with a full essay generator and support for finding citations, improving your writing
• Maths Equation solver with AI walk-throughs
• Code explainer, with support for over 10 languages include Python, Java, C++ and Javascript
• Paragraph generator, especially useful if you don’t want Caktus AI to write your entire essay, but you still want some help from the AI writing assistant
• Writing human-sounding essays, complete with full citations and sources
• Understanding difficult work from maths, physics or data classes
• Understanding and completing coding assignments
• General AI-assisted learning in any classroom

Insider Tips

• Caktus comes with a trial period of 5,000 characters for free. This is more than enough to test out the platform and make sure it’s worth paying for
• Some teachers might frown on using Caktus AI in the classroom, but remember the AI platform can help you take better lecture notes in class, it can help you ask better questions or formulate better ideas and it can free you up to spend more time listening to your professor and less time staring at a screen. Teachers take note!
• Caktus AI produces essays which sound more convincing and human-like than ChatGPT does, so it’s worth the extra cost
• One of my biggest frustrations with coding problems is finding the missing semi-colon or other syntax problems professors sneak in there to make sure you’re paying attention. Even if you don’t use Caktus AI’s coding features, you should consider running your final code through the platform just to make sure you haven’t missed any syntax errors.

Caktus AI Pricing

Has Free Tier

Public Pricing

Enterprise Plan

*Last Updated: Nov 04, 2023

No Free Tier

0% off with Annual plan

Classes Helper

Writing tools

58% off with Annual

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About this tool

Reviewed by.

Nile Frater is an entrepreneur and seasoned tool reviewer based in Scotland.

Jack Woodwalker is a tech reviewer, former engineer and the CEO of AllThingsAI.

How We Test

• We verified that CaktusAI and its team are legit
• We signed up to CaktusAI
• We tested the tool out with some essay-writing and verified the pricing
• We tested some of CaktusAI’s competitors like  Smodin  and  WriteSonic
• We reviewed each tool on the basis of its Simplicity, Authenticity, Affordability and Competency

About AllThingsAI

AllThingsAI finds the best AI tools on the Internet and tests them out. Our goal is to make it easy to find the best AI you need, without spending hours of your day trying new tools. Our writing team comes from a variety of backgrounds in media and tech, but we use AI tools every day from web design, to writing, video editing, team collaboration and content production.

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Caktus AI Review: Is It The Best AI Helper For Students? (Complete Guide)

Updated On 06 March, 2024  

Caktus AI is all you need after your class is over! Read its complete review with features, benefits, and final verdict.

AICaktus  is an educational artificial intelligence tool that has piqued the interest of academic scholars as it helps in their writing tasks.

Whether you are taking notes from lectures in running class or completing homework like essay writing, Caktus.AI can be your copilot in between.

Let’s uncover everything we know about Caktus AI review.

Also read: Novel AI Review: Is It The Best Story Writing AI Tool?

Table of Contents

What Is Caktus AI?

Caktus AI is a blend of artificial intelligence and deep learning , observed as an educational content-generation tool as it offers myriads of writing tools including coding and language learning.

As it incubates artificial intelligence and large language models, it develops high-quality content in a short amount of time.

Moreover, Caktus.ai acts as a copilot for all your academic requirements anytime. With its chatbot, you can interact at any time and ask questions to generate answers specifically and accurately.

Who & Why Developed Caktus AI Tool?

Subscription based content-generation tool, Caktus Artificial Intelligence tool created by Harrison Leonard and Tao Zhang in May 2022.

The reason behind the launch of Caktus.ai is to open a new leap of AI legacy in education.

However, there have been many AI innovations made in the educational sector but with Caktus AI, things gonna be different.

The platform is specifically designed for academic enthusiasts pursuing high school diploma or any advanced professional degree.

Caktus.ai can help you take your notes, answer questions, essay writing and in addition, solve and code faster with personalized feedback and tutorials.

What Are The Technologies Behind AI Caktus?

Many from the media sources have said that Caktus AI is an alternative to ChatGPT’s large language model. Being said that Caktus.AI holds several technologies in its sleeves.

Illustrating, the tool is brilliant in generating scholarly readings, providing insights on the subject being asked, creating lesson plans and coding learning effortlessly.

The way it generates results and provides information, surprisingly it is trained on GPT-large language models and artificial intelligence algorithms.

What Students Can Do With Caktus AI Tool?

There are a number of writing tasks that can be done through Caktus.AI including coding and fun arts.

Caktus.ai writing features an array of content generation elements. It can generate long form essays from credible sources considering plagiarism prevention along with flexible writing support.

Apart from writing, students can rewrite generated content, expand paragraphs, and summarize according to their needs.

The tool is also rich in providing accurate coding scripts related to the question being asked. For example; “create a game like snake” is a prompt that I have entered to test whether Caktus.ai produces code accurately.

It does that… perfectly outputs my code in Python. Here’s the snippet.

Additionally, there is a code editor and debugger available which makes it easier for essay writer. Using quality check your code, they can improve paraphrase writing at a glance.

However there are variety of programing language can be used to code with in Caktus AI’s Coding features, such as:

• Python writer
• Java writer
• TypeScript writer

Also there’s a range of libraries and modules to use to enhance your code level.

Good for students finding hard to solve math problems or looking for science related solutions can be found easily with AI Caktus.

It is a helpful tool from the studying point of view as it breaks down the math problem into easy-to-understand language, analyzes chemical compounds, and many things to help students grow their minds and complete homework.

Language Learning

This tool is amazing for students from the perspective of cross-cultural learning as it offers various language learning tutorials at a glance.

In case you are interested in learning or speaking other than your native language, the tool offers dozens of languages and AI-powered learning technology.

Embracing natural language processing capabilities to help learn a variety of languages including:

Tutorials include systemic learning programs from basic to practical and advanced. Consistent learning can help improve your grammar skills and understand idioms and expressions.

Job Application

While helping out students with careful writing outputs, it also helps professional scholars with AI-generated cover letters, resume content, and interview hacks.

This feature can save a lot of time on research and creation of resume and content matters alike. Ask a chatbot to create bullet points for your resume that highlights your skills and achievements .

It may ask you some questions to understand your habits, skills, and knowledge. Weight to these could help AI Caktus to produce better, relevant results.

How To Use Caktus AI As A Writing Tool?

If you are wondering how to use caktus ai for essay writing, here’s a tip on that.

Basically, AI Caktus offers two writing modes, one of them is “basic” and another is “advanced” and both offer good results.

Basic mode entitled “Simple essay” that creates average length of essay with precision and control including citations and academic source.

Advanced mode, on the other hand, entitled “Detailed Essay” will help you create your essay with personalized and manual control elements.

In fact, you can change your tone of voice and customize the essay size and length, etc.

To get started with essay writing on Caktus AI, select “All Tool” option from the menu and then “Essay Writing” option. Now choose between the essay mode as per your need. Enter your topic in the box and click on the “Generate” button.

How Much Is Caktus AI?

How much does Caktus.ai cost? Well, caktus.ai is not available free of cost, not even there is a free trial to experience.

This means that subscription is the only medium to access caktus.ai on your desktop. Caktus AI subscription is split into two types:

1. Monthly premium plan costs $14.99.

2. Yearly premium plan costs $99.99 per year

I would suggest going with a monthly subscription if you want to try out Caktus AI for a short time instead of commiting to a longer-term plan.

Moreover, both plans offer equivalent features and access to complete tools including coding tools, citation tools, and learning tools.

Is Caktus AI Similar To ChatGPT?

It’s a tricky question to answer!

As I have used both the software for months, I can be sure that AI Caktus is similar to ChatGPT in terms of technology and performance but in terms of features, Caktus AI takes the leap.

Similarities are…

👉 Both platforms can generate text, based on prompts related to any subject of nature.

👉 Both platforms can help you with coding, testing errors, and relative matters.

👉 Both platforms can solve math and science related questions quickly, accurately, and intelligently.

👉 Both platforms can produce unlimited AI outputs.

Differences are…

👉 ChatGPT sometimes provides slow responses and incomplete answers.

👉 ChatGPT subscription is cheaper than Caktus AI plans.

👉 Caktus.AI has a different UI interface but ChatGPT is strict to its default UI interface all time.

Final Verdict On Caktus AI

It would not be wrong to say that AI-powered platforms for example Beta Character AI or Jasper.ai are becoming more and more useful for our digital needs.

Merely there is an industry that escapes from the verge of AI tools. With the development of Caktus AI, the educational sector is no exception to AI virtue.

Overall, CaktusAI is a useful text-generation platform and its capability to write, solve, and code faster… makes it great for academic audiences.

You should give a try to Caktus.ai

Thanks for reading this blog 🙂 Have a good day ahead…!

Essential AI Tools:

Kobold AI: It can be said as an open-source program that enables users to create and run personalized AI models locally on their own system. Read More

Janitor AI: It is a chatbot but it’s not like a standard chatbot. It’s a scenario-based anime character role-playing chatbot developed by the Janitor AI community. Read More

ChatGPT 4: In many scenarios, GPT-4 is different from GPT-3. Or I would say more intelligent and accurate. Read More

Bard AI: Google has taken an important next step on the AI journey by introducing “Bard” as a competitor to ChatGPT. Read More

Beta Character AI: Develop fictional and anime style character chatbots. It is spontaneous and highly-rated for dialogue-based interaction. Read More

Frequently Asked Questions

How good is caktus ai.

Caktus AI is a go-to AI tool for high school students, academic scholars, and Ph.D professionals. It’s a good tool to write, solve, and code faster for your requirements.

What does caktus.ai do?

Caktus AI provides efficient, accurate, and fast text generation solutions for essay writing, paragraph writing, question solver, grammar check, and more.

Is caktus ai down?

No, novelai.net is not down. The platform is working fine and it has daily visitors of 1M.

How to get started with caktus ai?

To get started with Caktus AI, sign up or log in, choose your plan, complete payment, and Enjoy caktus.ai

How to cancel caktus.ai subscription?

Canceling caktusAI subscription is simple and straightforward. To cancel caktus ai subscription that is running, mail to [email protected]

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Alan Jackson

Alan is content editor manager of The Next Tech. He loves to share his technology knowledge with write blog and article. Besides this, He is fond of reading books, writing short stories, EDM music and football lover.

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  Caktus AI is an AI-powered learning platform designed to assist both students and educators. It offers a variety of tools, including an essay writer, personal statement writer, and coding assistants. The platform is dedicated to transforming education through AI, providing a range of AI-based tools and applications for educators, such as chatbots and software that can grade essays and provide feedback.

Caktus AI Facts

Starting Price : $14.99 Pricing Model : Per Month Free Trial : No Free Plan : Not Available

What is Caktus AI?

Caktus AI is a comprehensive AI writing tool designed specifically for students. It offers a range of features including code writing, essay writing, paragraph writing, and even math problem-solving. The platform is dedicated to transforming education through AI, providing a range of AI-based tools and applications for educators, such as chatbots and software that can grade essays and provide feedback. Caktus AI is also capable of translating text from one language to the other with a click of a button.

How Does Caktus AI Work?

Caktus AI works similarly to other AI generators. Users input a text prompt into the desired service and the AI generates content. The product is separated into different sections, helping users navigate the prompts they would input into the AI generator to get the content they need. Caktus AI provides several different topics within each section so users can zero in on their desired function, including writing, coding, career, studying, STEM, fun, arts, and science.

Caktus AI Features

Essay Writing Assistance

Caktus AI offers an essay writing tool that helps students structure their essays, providing suggestions for improvement and ensuring grammatical correctness.

Coding Assistance

The platform provides a coding assistant that can help students write and debug code, making it a valuable tool for computer science students.

Language Translation

Caktus AI includes a language translation feature, allowing users to translate text from one language to another with ease.

Math Problem Solving

The AI can assist with solving math problems, providing step-by-step solutions and explanations to help students understand the process.

Personal Statement Writing

Caktus AI offers a personal statement writing tool, guiding students in crafting compelling personal statements for college applications.

Educational Chatbots

The platform includes educational chatbots that can answer questions and provide explanations on various topics, enhancing the learning experience.

Caktus AI Pros and Cons

Let’s delve into the advantages and disadvantages of using Caktus AI as a learning and writing tool.

Caktus AI Pros

Versatility

Caktus AI offers a wide range of tools, from essay writing to coding assistance, making it a versatile tool for students of different disciplines.

User-Friendly Interface

The platform has a user-friendly interface, making it easy for users to navigate and find the tools they need.

Educational Enhancement

The AI’s ability to provide explanations and solutions enhances the learning experience, making it a valuable educational tool.

Caktus AI Cons

No Free Plan

Caktus AI does not offer a free plan, which may limit its accessibility for some users.

Limited Language Support

While the platform offers language translation, it may not support all languages, limiting its usefulness for some users.

No Free Trial

The absence of a free trial means users cannot test the platform before committing to a subscription.

Caktus AI Pricing Plan

Caktus AI offers 3 pricing plans:

Base Plan : This plan costs $14.99 per month. It includes access to all the basic features of Caktus AI, making it a good choice for individuals who need assistance with their writing tasks on a regular basis.

Pro Plan (Monthly) : Priced at $19.99 per month, this plan offers additional features and benefits over the Base Plan, providing more comprehensive assistance for more complex writing tasks.

Pro Plan (Yearly) : This plan costs $8.33 per month, billed annually at $99.99. It offers the same features as the Pro Plan (Monthly), but at a discounted rate for users who commit to a full year’s subscription.

Caktus AI accepts credit cards, PayPal, and bank wire transfers for payment.

Who Should Use Caktus AI?

Caktus AI is an ideal tool for students, educators, and professionals who frequently engage in writing tasks. Its wide range of features, from essay writing to coding assistance, makes it a versatile tool for individuals across various disciplines. Whether you’re a student working on an assignment, a teacher preparing lesson materials, or a professional drafting a report, Caktus AI can help streamline your writing process and enhance the quality of your work.

Caktus AI FAQs

What devices and platforms are compatible with caktus ai.

Caktus AI is a web-based platform, which means it can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. It is compatible with all major web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge.

Is Caktus AI suitable for non-native English speakers?

Yes, Caktus AI is suitable for non-native English speakers. The platform offers language translation features, which can help users translate text from one language to another. Additionally, the AI-powered writing assistance can help improve grammar and sentence structure, making it a valuable tool for non-native speakers looking to improve their English writing skills.

Can Caktus AI help with coding assignments?

Yes, Caktus AI offers coding assistance, which can help students write and debug code. This feature is particularly useful for computer science students or professionals working on coding projects, as it can provide guidance and suggestions for improvement.

How secure is my data on Caktus AI?

Caktus AI takes data security seriously and employs industry-standard encryption methods to protect user data. However, it is always a good practice to review the platform’s privacy policy and terms of service to understand how your data is being used and stored.

Can I use Caktus AI for professional writing tasks?

Yes, Caktus AI can be used for professional writing tasks, such as drafting reports, creating presentations, or writing articles. The platform offers a range of tools and features that can help streamline the writing process and improve the quality of your work.

Does Caktus AI offer customer support?

Caktus AI provides customer support through their website. Users can access a help center with articles and resources, as well as submit support requests via email or a contact form.

Can Caktus AI help with math problems?

Yes, Caktus AI offers math problem-solving assistance. The AI can provide step-by-step solutions and explanations, helping students understand the process and improve their math skills.

Is there a mobile app for Caktus AI?

Currently, there is no dedicated mobile app for Caktus AI. However, since it is a web-based platform, users can access the platform through their mobile device’s web browser.

Caktus AI is a versatile and comprehensive AI writing assistant designed to cater to the needs of students, educators, and professionals. With features such as essay writing assistance, coding help, language translation, and math problem-solving, it offers a wide range of tools to enhance the learning and writing experience. While it lacks a free plan and trial, its pricing plans are reasonably priced, making it an accessible option for those seeking a reliable AI writing tool.

Visit Caktus AI Website

© Copyright 2020 Morning Dough - All rights reserved

The AI Reports

• June 26, 2023
• 10 min read

Caktus AI Review

Have you ever found yourself struggling with essays, coding assignments, or language learning? Imagine a world where an AI-powered learning platform could provide you with all the tools you need to excel academically. That’s where Caktus AI comes in! With its wide array of features and tools designed for students and educators, Caktus AI is here to revolutionize the way you learn and achieve your academic goals.

Short Summary

Discover Caktus AI, an AI-powered learning platform with personalized and engaging solutions!

Explore amazing features like essay writing assistance, coding solutions & language learning capabilities.

Users rave about its 4.8/5 star rating for versatility & effectiveness, but consider potential drawbacks too!

Understanding Caktus AI: An AI-Powered Learning Platform

Caktus AI is an innovative platform that combines the power of artificial intelligence with a user-friendly interface to assist students and educators alike. With AI-based tools like the Caktus AI Writer, this platform offers a range of services, from essay writing assistance to personal statement and resume support, as well as coding solutions. So, whether you’re perfecting your essay writing skills or diving into the world of code, Caktus AI has you covered.

With a vision to transform education by making it more personalized, efficient, and engaging, Caktus AI, founded by Harrison Leonard and Tao Zhang, utilizes advanced AI algorithms to adapt to each student’s unique learning needs and preferences. The platform’s versatility and effectiveness make it an essential tool for learners of all levels, from high school students to professionals.

Essay Writing Assistance

Gone are the days of staring at a blank screen, trying to figure out how to start your essay or academic paper. Caktus AI’s essay writer tool uses inputted prompts to generate essays, providing you with ideas, outlines, and summaries to elevate your content. Moreover, the platform offers grammar and spelling checks, citation formatting, and enhanced writing assistance to ensure your work is accurate and well-written. Who wouldn’t want a helping hand to raise their writing game to new heights?

Teachers and students alike can benefit from Caktus AI’s essay writing assistance. The platform not only improves content quality but also saves valuable time, allowing educators to write and provide feedback more efficiently and students to focus on refining their skills. It’s like having your very own personal writing tutor at your fingertips!

Personal Statement and Resume Support

In today’s competitive job market, having a standout personal statement and resume is crucial. Caktus AI offers personal statement generation, cover letter writing, and resume bullet point creation for job seekers. With the help of a personal statement writer, these tools can help you create impressive resume bullet points and job applications that catch the eyes of potential employers, increasing your chances of landing your dream job.

Caktus AI understands the importance of a well-crafted resume and offers valuable guidance and suggestions throughout the resume-building process. From optimizing content and improving layout to enhancing the overall presentation, users have found this assistance incredibly beneficial for crafting resumes that stand out from the competition.

With Caktus AI on your side, which someone owns, your next job is just a few clicks away!

Coding Solutions

Coding can be a daunting task for many, but Caktus AI is here to make it a breeze. This platform provides the ability to generate code for a few different languages, like Python, Java, C#, and JavaScript, plus Go. It makes coding much easier! With a code editor, debugger, and various libraries and modules at your disposal, learning and mastering programming languages has never been easier.

Caktus AI offers tools such as the Python Writer and Java Writer to help users generate and explain code, making it an essential resource for both beginners and experienced programmers. Whether you’re solving math problems or working on a complex coding project, use ai tools from Caktus. AI’s coding solutions have got your back.

Caktus AI's Unique Offerings

In addition to its primary features, Caktus AI boasts a range of unique offerings that set it apart from other AI platforms. These include an academic curated search engine, a movie scene analysis tool, and language learning capabilities.

Let’s dive deeper into these exciting features and see how they can further enhance your learning experience.

Academic Curated Search Engine

Research is a vital part of any academic endeavor, but finding reliable sources can be a time-consuming challenge. That’s where Caktus AI’s academic curated search engine comes in! This powerful tool streamlines the research process by allowing users to quickly and easily search for academic papers, journals complex articles, and other resources.

Designed with students in mind, this academic curated search engine service combines the convenience of web-based search engines with the rigor of peer-reviewed scholarly sources. By providing access to high-quality information at the click of a button, Caktus AI helps students find the information they need quickly and efficiently, leaving them with more time to focus on their studies.

Movie Scene Analysis Tool

Whether you’re a film buff or a student analyzing a movie for an assignment, Caktus AI’s movie scene analysis tool is here to make your life easier. This innovative tool generates concise summaries of movie scenes, allowing you to extract key information, identify plot points, characters, and other elements of a movie, all without spending hours watching and re-watching the film.

Not only does the movie scene analysis tool save time on essay writing, but it also enables users to gain a deeper understanding of the structure of a movie scene and how different elements interrelate. With these useful tools at your disposal, dissecting and analyzing films, including youtube video content, has never been more straightforward.

Language Learning Capabilities

Learning a new language can be challenging, but Caktus AI is here to make it a more enjoyable and accessible experience. The platform offers a language learning tool with natural language processing capabilities, supporting dozens of languages and translation features. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced learner, Caktus AI can help you improve your language skills and broaden your horizons.

With features such as speech recognition, translation, and grammar correction, Caktus AI’s language learning capabilities enable users to practice speaking, writing, and understanding their target language more effectively. Say goodbye to language barriers and hello to a world of new opportunities.

Pricing and Plans: Is Caktus AI Worth It?

Caktus AI offers a monthly premium plan and yearly premium options, priced at $14.99 per month and $99.99 per year, respectively. With a wide array of features and tools designed to enhance learning and improve productivity, many users find the platform to be a worthwhile investment.

Do you think Caktus AI suits your needs? Can Caktus AI provide you with the desired results? When considering the versatility, effectiveness, and unique features that Caktus AI provides, it’s easy to see the value in this AI-powered learning platform. From essay writing and coding solutions to language learning and academic research, Caktus AI is a comprehensive resource for students and educators alike.

So, if you’re looking to elevate your academic game, why not give Caktus AI a try and see the difference for yourself?

Who's Behind Caktus AI?

Caktus AI is the brainchild of Harrison Leonard and Tao Zhang, two innovative individuals with a passion for education and technology. Harrison, a software engineer, and Tao, a data scientist, combined their expertise to create a platform that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to transform the way students and educators learn and work.

With their vision and dedication, Caktus AI continues to make waves in the world of both science and education.

Comparing Caktus AI to Other AI Tools

While there are many AI tools on the market, Caktus AI stands out with its focus on education and unique offerings. From its primary features like essay writing assistance and coding solutions to its one-of-a-kind tools like the academic curated search engine and movie scene analysis tool, Caktus AI provides students and educators with a comprehensive and user-friendly platform designed to improve learning outcomes and boost productivity.

The platform is designed to be fun, intuitive and easy to use, with a range of features that make it easy to access the resources and tools needed to succeed. Caktus AI also offers a variety of tutorials and support.

AI Platforms for Education

Caktus AI is not the only AI platform designed for education, but it certainly stands out from the crowd. Other AI platforms like Querium, Pearson AI, Altitude Learning, Gradescope, Knewton’s Alta, Knowji, Ivy Chatbot, and Geleza offer various features and benefits, such as personalized learning, adaptive assessments, and intelligent tutoring systems.

However, Caktus AI’s unique set of features, such as its academic curated search engine, movie scene analysis tool, and language learning capabilities, make it a standout contender in the world of AI platforms for education. With its versatility and effectiveness, Caktus AI is an essential tool for learners of all levels, from high school students to professionals.

Content Generation Alternatives

Content generation alternatives, such as AI-powered content generators or chatbots, offer a range of features and capabilities for generating content. Some of these alternatives might provide more accuracy and customization options, but Caktus AI still stands out in the content creation market with its comprehensive and accurate content generation tool solution.

In addition to its primary features like essay writing assistance and coding solutions, Caktus AI also offers unique tools like the academic curated search engine, movie scene analysis tool, and language learning capabilities.

While content generation alternatives might have their own strengths, Caktus AI provides an all-in-one platform that caters to the diverse needs of students and educators, making it a top choice for those looking for a versatile and effective AI-powered learning platform.

User Experience: What Do People Say About Caktus AI?

Caktus AI has received an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars from satisfied customers, who praise the platform’s versatility and effectiveness in writing essays, solving math problems, and improving productivity and learning. While no platform is perfect, the overwhelmingly positive feedback from users highlights the strengths of Caktus AI and its potential to make a significant impact on the world of education.

Caktus AI has been praised for its ability to help students learn more effectively and efficiently, as well as its ability to help them improve their productivity. It has also been praised for its ability to help students write better essays and solve math problems. With its versatility and effectiveness, Caktus AI is well known for its versatility and effectiveness.

Potential Drawbacks and Limitations of Caktus AI

Despite its many advantages, there are potential drawbacks and limitations to using Caktus AI. One of the main concerns is the platform’s occasional generation of answers that are not entirely accurate or relevant to the given task. Additionally, there are limitations to the number of characters that can be generated, and language support might be limited for some users. Nevertheless, Caktus AI remains a valuable resource for generating written content and can be a helpful tool for students and researchers.

Another potential drawback is the issue of academic integrity when using Caktus AI Writer. While the use of Caktus AI might not be detected by plagiarism detection software, it could still be noticed by professors or markers, especially if they are familiar with the AI style of writing. As with any tool, it’s important for users to consider the ethical implications of using Caktus AI and ensure that their work maintains a high standard of academic integrity.

In conclusion, Caktus AI is a game-changing AI-powered learning platform that offers a wide array of features and tools designed to enhance learning and improve productivity. With its primary features like essay writing assistance, personal statement and resume support, coding solutions, and unique offerings like the academic curated search engine, movie scene analysis tool, and language learning capabilities, Caktus AI is an invaluable resource for students and educators alike. While there are potential drawbacks and limitations to consider, the benefits of using Caktus AI far outweigh any concerns, making it a top choice for those looking to revolutionize their academic journey.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, Caktus AI is still free! You can start with a 5,000 character free trial to generate around 500-1,000 words.

If you need more than that, you can upgrade to the Caktus Premium plan for only $9.99 per month, allowing you to also generate content in an unlimited number of words.

Caktus AI has an impressive amount of positive reviews and is highly rated by experts in the field. Its easy-to-use interface and powerful features make it a great choice for those looking to get the most out of their artificial intelligence endeavors. We are confident that Caktus AI is a great choice and will be able to help you reach your goals.

Excitingly, Caktus AI has proven to be a reliable and effective Artificial Intelligence platform with an impressive score of 84.5/100 from A*Help and a spot in our top-10 list of the best AI text generators. With its intuitive interface and comprehensive range of features, this AI tool is sure to satisfy your needs for successful AI ventures.

Wow, the Caktus AI Essay Writer is the perfect way to generate essays and save time on homework! You can get started with their service for only $9.99 a month, or save even more with a yearly premium plan for only $59.99!

It’s an unbeatable deal that lets you take advantage of unlimited usage. Get your AI writing assistant today!

Based on the current evidence, it looks like Caktus AI is pretty difficult to detect. In many cases, even plagiarism detection software might not be able to pick up on it.

So all in all, Caktus AI is quite undetectable!

Caktus AI is an amazing resource that provides students with a variety of powerful tools! Whether you need help writing an essay, polishing a resume, coding a solution, searching for academic information, analyzing a movie scene, or learning a new language, Caktus AI has you covered!

With Caktus AI, students can access a wide range of resources to help them succeed in their studies. From essay writing to coding solutions, Caktus AI provides everything from writing essays to coding solutions.

Cactus.AI – The Ultimate AI Assistant for Students

Overloaded high school and college students need all the help they can get balancing course workloads and reaching extreme levels. Yet traditional support resources like tutors and writing services cost ridiculous sums without even guaranteeing better outcomes.

Enter Cactus.AI – a customizable AI assistant purpose-built to help students learn smarter by generating written content, explaining concepts, solving problems and more.

But does this new AI tool actually lift grades while making school more manageable? This comprehensive review digs into everything students and parents should know to evaluate if Cactus.AI can supercharge education.

What is Cactus.AI?

Cactus.AI Build an AI specifically focused on helping students, not potentially harming them.

Functionality ranges from:

• Essay & paper writing:  Generate drafts from prompts for jumpstarting the writing process
• Text summarization:  Shrink papers, readings and other sources down to only salient points for faster comprehension
• Answering study questions:  Ask about confusing homework problems and receive explanations to bolster understanding
• Writing code:  Enter parameters and have Python scripts auto-generated as learning frameworks
• “Humanizing” AI content:  Special rephrasing so AI written essays pass plagiarism checks after refinement
• Professional correspondence:  Create emails, messages and letters for politely interfacing with teachers about grades, recommendations or other needs

This expands capabilities seen in earlier AI writing tools like ChatGPT with education-centric usage in mind. Students receive an academic aid fine tuned for actual learning applications – not just generic web surfing.

While some critics express hesitation in adding any technology to already tech-saturated student lives, Cactus.AI aims to enhance skills, not replace them outright. More on striking the optimal balance of human vs. AI effort later.

First, examining the tool’s capabilities merits a deeper understanding to gauge the breadth and depth of assistance available.

Cactus.AI Features and Functions for Students

Unlike generalized AI platforms built for professionals, academics or other groups, Cactus.AI focuses squarely on practical student needs:

AI-Powered Essay Writing

The poster child feature – an essay generator allowing writing assignment requirements and keywords as inputs before producing complete essays as outputs. Students receive ready-made drafts to expand upon in their own words.

The functionality even supports creating custom title pages, headers/footers, bibliographies and citations in popular academic styles like APA, MLA and Chicago.

While early waves of AI tools like ChatGPT can write briefly on student prompts, Cactus.AI Essay Writing aims for advancement through lengthier form essays with proper scholarly formatting included.

This provides massive head starts on assignments, especially the tedious lit review and citation portions bogging down human effort. Students then review, refine and finalize drafts in their own words to fulfil academic honesty policies.

When facing essay-heavy majors or course loads bordering unreasonable, essay generation brings immense relief letting pupils focus mental energy on actual learning vs. paper writing overhead.

Efficient Text Summarization

Beyond direct writing needs, Cactus.AI assists in processing overwhelming reading demands through summarization.

Whether condensing dense academic literature, lengthy Wikipedia explainers or textbook chapters into concise overviews, unlocked time savings compound.

By digesting source material into salient points first, students frontload comprehension before diving into finer details. This multiplication of learning rate with minimized inputs positions summarization functionality as an unsung hero.

Much like executive summaries preface in-depth reports in business contexts to frame key talking points upfront, academic summarization helps students rapidly extract core concepts from readings. Enhanced retention and test preparation naturally follow.

Detailed Question Answering

Even the most studious, engaged students encounter confusing questions around course concepts or problem sets. Constant back and forth clarification requests with professors grow tiresome quickly.

Cactus.AI aims to fill gaps by allowing specific question inputs complete with additional context if needed. The tool then generates detailed explanations of answers pulled from its vast knowledge base.

Not only does this accelerate working through assignments or test prep, but it also reinforces foundational understanding. Students receive digestible clarity on formerly fuzzy topics in their own words vs. dense textbook language.

Subject matter coverage even spans complex STEM niches like organic chemistry, physics, coding, algebra, statistics and more posing perpetual difficulty. For struggling students, question solving brings light into the tunnel.

Automated Code Generation

Particularly in rapidly evolving tech-adjacent fields, writing sound, functional code occupies immense mindshare. Students grinding through computer science and engineering programs feel this acutely with endless coding projects.

Cactus.AI code generation tools allow for describing desired functions or outputs. The system then produces starter code frameworks modelling industry best practices. Rather than fixating on pesky syntax and debugging minutiae, students up-level focus on mastery of underlying concepts.

As with essay writing, code generation helps enter keystrokes and foundational structure. Students then carefully review, comprehend and optimize further while retaining authorship.

This allows directing brainpower toward advancing skills through hands-on experimentation vs. reinventing basic code from scratch each assignment. Students code smarter embracing AI assistance .

Specialized “Humanizing” Functionality

A core barrier for some students adopting AI tools remains plagiarism detection risk. Turning in generated content as one’s own counters academic honour codes enforced by automated duplication checks.

Cactus.AI looks to neutralize this friction through integrated “Humanize” functionality. This special paraphrase tool rewrites sentences, switches up the wording, varies diction and makes other micro changes.

The resulting text reads original to both people and software checks. Yet preserves semantic essence from originally generated pieces.

Students invest minimal effort to make AI drafts feel personalized pre-submission vs. extensive full re-writes. This frees up cycles for actual learning.

Professional Correspondence Templates

Beyond core assignments, students juggle heavy administrative overhead like messaging instructors, handling enrollment changes, managing group project dynamics and similar tedium.

Rather than racking brains composing thoughtful emails, Cactus.AI generates professional templates tailored to the audience and purpose. Students then review and send personalized notes efficiently.

Pre-defined email templates cover common scenarios like:

• Assignment extension requests
• Question clarification
• Extra credit opportunity inquiries
• Recommendation letter asks
• Addressing group project conflicts
• Managing enrollment changes

Administrative tasks no longer trigger stress. Students maintain positive rapport through professional correspondence without the typical toil.

Cactus.AI Tools – Your Ultimate School Helper

Taking a zoomed out perspective, Cactus.AI positions itself as more than just an AI essay helper . The full stack of tightly integrated education-focused tools makes it more akin to an ultimate personal assistant:

Rather than a one-dimensional essay bot, Cactus.AI strives to deliver end-to-end functionality improving how students actually learn. Writing becomes smoother. Comprehension deepens faster. Questions get answered quickly. Coding accelerates real skill building.

The tool aims to increase bandwidth for genuine mastery and passion in pursuing academic interests rather than mandated assignments alone. Students spend less time struggling through workstreams feeling pointless or irrelevant.

Administrative overhead disappears into the background as well. Positive student-teacher relationships strengthen without added stress.

This panoramic approach positions Cactus.AI as a game changing 1-stop shop set to evolve education, not just paper writing. However, assessing the offering warrants examining the exact pricing and subscription plans available.

Cactus.AI Pricing: Assessing Subscription Options

In contrast to traditional services like tutoring running thousands of dollars annually, Cactus.AI looks reasonably accessible to most students:

Functionality like bulk discounts for classrooms and custom Enterprise plans suggest even more cost efficiency at scale.

The Free tier allows limited daily generation volume for lighter needs. But Premium unlocks the full power – critical for extensive writing or heavy course loads. Still far cheaper than alternative solutions.

Compared to hitting up parents for books, tutors, language lessons and various academic extras, Cactus.AI promises strong ROI in helping students directly. Those struggling to afford proper learning resources gain support.

While free exposure seems enticing unlocking all capabilities proves paramount. For $100-150 yearly, Cactus.AI reduces tons of pain points and busy work bogging down success.

Getting Started: Quick & Easy Onboarding

After selecting a pricing plan matching needs, onboarding Cactus.AI takes just minutes:

• Create Account : Register using email, Google or Facebook
• Select Subscription : Choose Monthly, Yearly or Free based on generation volume needs
• Payment & Activation : Submit payment details to unlock Premium benefits
• Start Using Cactus.AI : Begin entering prompts and leveraging AI helper!

No complex software downloads or setups are required. The intuitive browser-based app means students of all tech skill levels can begin immediately enjoying assistance.

Using Cactus.AI to Enhance Learning: Core Benefits for Students

While using AI for school likely first appeals to students seeking shortcuts on assignments, Cactus.AI aims deeper at enhancing actual skills and knowledge. Used judiciously, core benefits include:

1. Write More Original, Higher Quality Papers

Rather than full dependency, students reference AI-written draft essays as jumpstarts clarifying arguments and structure before penning fully original versions.

This diversity of inputs and examples boosts creativity, vocabulary and expression in their own words vs. formulaic templates. Students write better overall through AI collaboration while retaining full authorship.

2. Improve Comprehension & Retention

Summarization tools transform lengthy, dense readings into focused overviews pulling only the most resonant points. Students absorb key concepts faster without getting lost in superfluous details. This multiplication of learning efficiency powers better retention and application vs surface level cramming.

3. Master Concepts Faster, Boost Grades

Getting immediate explanations to complex questions makes conquering formerly confusing topics easier. Students fill knowledge gaps through digestible AI clarification servicing improved grades. Removing hindrances accelerates subject matter mastery.

4. More Energy for Passion, Less Busywork

Eliminating the tedium of writing, research and administrivia unlocks mental bandwidth. Students gain the capacity to focus efforts on personal academic interests rather than mandatory assignments alone. AI assistance powers fulfilment.

The core premise: Cactus.AI helps students learn smarter by removing friction, not replacing critical thinking outright. AI generates drafts and frameworks for people to build upon showcasing original thoughts using our own voices.

This positions the tool as a launch pad for accelerated success vs. a crutch undermining merit. But balancing human effort and AI support warrants ongoing attention.

Optimizing Human + AI Efforts for Sustainable Learning

AI holds immense promise in helping students thrive academically. But reliance without accountability risks diminishing returns as human effort drops:

The key is establishing symbiotic collaboration: humans cue guidance from AI tools before taking generated frameworks into our own words and critical analyses maximizing integrity.

AI provides the jumpstart fuel . Draft essays, summarized concepts and explained questions prime the human pump faster.

But humans add the special sauce . We carefully review AI outputs, refine them fully into our own words and intellect, and produce wholly original work showcasing our emerging voices.

This balances speed and scale from AI leveraging data with nuanced critical analysis from people factoring full context. Students utilize technology deliberately while retaining responsibility.

Judicious usage of Cactus.AI promises huge academic benefits: better writing, faster learning, less tedium. But sustainable usage requires calibrating the right ratios of influence between human effort and AI assistance based on each student’s needs.

Pros & Cons of Using Cactus.AI

As with any technology, reflect on both upsides and downsides when evaluating if Cactus.AI aligns with your learning values:

For many students, boosts like better outcomes and saved time should outweigh risks assuming deliberate usage and adult guidance. But weighing tradeoffs remains smart.

Integrating human judgment into any AI helps offset inherent weaknesses for now. This allows benefiting from rapid advances made possible through technology while retaining autonomy.

Top Alternatives Beyond Cactus.AI

While a niche offering focused specifically on education assistance, other emerging AI tools deserve consideration as supplemental aids:

Each solution warrants individual evaluation balancing features and pricing models against needs beyond Cactus.AI core specialization. Developing an integrated toolkit expands capabilities.

Cactus.AI Review – Verdict on AI for Learning Enhancement

Cactus.AI earns a strong recommendation as a supplemental aide steering students toward success provided it’s deployed deliberately. Key conclusions:

Cactus.AI Hits the Mark On:

• Affordability – Solid value vs. extensive private tutoring
• Relevance – Tools target actual student pain points directly
• Convenience – Easy sign up and onboarding, all digital access

Areas Requiring Student Accountability:

• Judicious Usage – Avoid overreliance and undermining critical thinking
• Review & Customization – Refine AI outputs into original work
• Ethics & Intentions – Uphold academic honesty by embracing support deliberately

Ideal Student Profile:

The tool offers maximal benefit to students balancing advanced coursework amid other obligations simply requiring more bandwidth. Think:

• Honors & AP Courses
• Varsity Athletics
• Jobs After School

For this stretched-thin yet striving to excel, Cactus.AI buoys smoother sailing.

In closing, today’s hyper-competitive academic landscape demands leveraging technology judiciously, not abstaining entirely. AI writing tools lead the charge providing rocket fuel if harnessed deliberately.

Cactus.AI brings specialized power helping students balance growing workloads in customized, ethical ways not seen prior. The future of learning indeed looks bright.

FAQs About Cactus.AI

Is Cactus.AI better than ChatGPT?

For education use cases specifically – yes. Cactus.AI focuses tightly on actual student needs like writing, studying, coding etc. ChatGPT has broader general knowledge.

Is Cactus.AI safe for students to use?

When applied judiciously under adult supervision, yes. Monitoring usage to avoid overreliance is prudent until the maturity of underpinning AI technology improves further.

Does Cactus.AI offer a free version I can try as a student?

Yes! But generation volume caps apply. Premium unlocks additional capacity and optimal generating power.

Is Cactus.AI detectable via plagiarism checks?

Its “Humanize” tool aims specifically to minimize text similarity flags by paraphrasing. But risks still exist so caution is warranted.

• Software & Tools

Caktus AI vs ChatGPT – Which Is Better?

Caktus AI and ChatGPT are two powerful AI tools that are rapidly taking over content generation. But how similar (or different) are they?

ChatGPT was developed as a general-purpose tool for gathering information from a wide range of sources. It mostly excels at combining all of that information and putting it into a coherent structure.

Caktus AI, on the other hand, is tailored towards creating content for educational purposes. It’s what you choose if you’re working on an academic assignment.

There are multiple other differences between Caktus AI and ChatGPT, and this article is going to explore them. If you can’t make up your mind on the one to pick, then you’ve come to the right place.

Caktus AI was founded in 2022 by Harisson Leonard and Tao Zhang. So, it’s a fairly new AI tool, just like the rest. It’s an AI writing assistant that focuses on academic-related works like essays, math problems, writing code, etc.

Using the tool is very easy. You simply launch the Caktus AI website , create an account, choose the features you want to use, and start creating.

Unlike ChatGPT, which can cast a wide net, Caktus AI focuses on the most relevant information. Therefore, it has a higher accuracy rate since academic content requires verified sources.

But what are the main features that make Caktus AI popular among students? Let’s dive into the most prominent ones.

Code Writing

Photo by Rodrigo Santos/ Pexels

Code Writing has no room for mistakes. It can take hours to get any type of code to work as intended. So, how does Caktus AI pull this off? By doing the following.

Code Generation

The ability to generate code based on basic user inputs is Caktus AI’s biggest asset. It’s particularly efficient at handling simple coding tasks like creating variables, basic functions, and loops.

All you need to do is describe your desired functionality in plain language, and it gives you working coding examples. The feature is ideal for beginners who are unfamiliar with coding syntax.

Code Suggestions

Another helpful thing Caktus AI does is give you real-time code suggestions as you type. If you’re not an experienced coder, the auto-suggestions help reduce syntax errors. The more you continue using it, the more you get patterns that work, leading to error-free coding.

Code Documentation

Having enough code documentation is essential to codebase maintenance, and Caktus AI provides that.

It generates vital code comments and documentation for your functions and classes. That helps you keep track of your progress and identify any mistakes for quick fixing.

Code Refactoring

Caktus AI isn’t limited to code creation only. If you already have code that’s causing you issues, the AI tool can assist you with code refactoring.

The suggestions can help you improve things in your code and enhance code readability and performance as well.

Check Out : ChatGPT vs ChatSonic

Essay Writing

Essay writing is another function that Caktus AI handles for students and other professionals. Some of the key writing features it offers include the following.

Outline Creation

Most academic papers require an outline. Caktus AI makes that easier by providing users with one. Based on the instructions you feed it, it provides a logical structure with all the elements.

These are things like introduction, conclusion, and everything in between. Outline creation ensures the essay flows smoothly and appears natural.

Research Assistance

Doing thorough research is essential to writing an informed essay. Caktus AI offers users carefully selected sources, articles, and content selected for their subject.

In a nutshell, the AI tool expedites the research process, saving students time and energy. It also guarantees that the essay writer obtains reliable and verifiable data.

Grammar Checker

Finally, unlike most AI essay writing tools , Caktus AI also pays attention to grammar . It checks the text for mistakes and makes the necessary suggestions for improving the essay. Ultimately, this not only guarantees an error-free essay but also saves time and energy.

Paragraph Writing

Paragraph writing is another important capability provided by Caktus AI. You’ll be surprised at the number of students who can’t hack a paragraph. Caktus AI makes this easy with the following features.

Prompt Generation

Every good paragraph begins with a good prompt, and Caktus excels at kickstarting that process. It gives you context-based prompts that can help you overcome writer’s block.

Furthermore, the prompts can be tailored for different topics and can be tweaked slightly and reused many times.

Word Count Guidance

Another important feature is the word count guidance that stops paragraphs from being too long. Caktus AI ensures you only write concise and well-organized content without any fluff. It’s handy for people who are writing within predefined constraints.

Also Read : Can Grammarly Detect ChatGPT ?

Math Problem-Solving

Math problems are tricky for AI tools, but Caktus AI has a math problem solver designed to handle them with ease. But to nail that, it makes use of the following unique features.

Stepwise Explanations

Caktus doesn’t just dump the answers on you with obscure working processes. It gives you the step-by-step process and the formulas used to get that answer.

This not only provides a vital teachable moment for the student, but it cuts down on time and energy. Being able to explain your mathematical workings is better than just providing the answer.

Vast Academic Resources

Caktus AI doesn’t pull mathematical solutions ; it has access to vast and verified academic resources. You’re assured of accuracy, and if you’re in doubt, you can always verify the answers on your own.

That’s how the AI tool has managed to make life easier for math students across the globe.

ChatGPT was also launched in 2022. It’s a creation of OpenAI, and it allows users to refine and steer any type of conversation in any direction they please. Therefore, it’s inclined towards day-to-day content creation.

Using ChatGPT is straightforward, too. You begin by creating an account, and once you’re in, start by entering your prompts on any subject.

As I mentioned earlier, ChatGPT has a wide range of applications. It’s not limited to just one area like Caktus AI. But because of this, the accuracy and relevancy of the generated content is never guaranteed.

However, since it’s a conversational AI model, it excels in creating blogs or just making conversations like a chatbot. Here are some of the key features and functionalities that make it reliable.

Automated Customer Support

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It’s impossible for online businesses to be there for their customers 24/7. Since chatbots don’t come cheap, ChatGPT fills that gap.

Some of the features the AI tool uses to ensure people get the best automated customer support include the following.

Instant Responses

ChatGPT ensures users get prompt responses, be it day or night. It increases customer satisfaction and loyalty by eliminating the need for lengthy lines.

Businesses have been spending too much coming up with the perfect responses. But now, they can do them for free on ChatGPT.

Multilingual Support

ChatGPT supports multiple languages, making it easy for individuals and businesses to cater to the needs of diverse regions.

In the past, that required businesses to hire multilingual representatives who didn’t come cheap. But with ChatGPT now all it takes are a few prompts and clear instructions, and you get accurate translations.

Also Read : ChatGPT vs Stockfish

Learning Improvement

One of ChatGPT’s biggest assets is that it keeps growing every day. With every update, the platform becomes better as it gains more with each interaction. The level of adaptive learning it offers makes it a reliable assistant.

The platform grows and expands its reach and knowledge every day. It’s been around for less than two years, and it’s already performing tasks that take people years.

Personal Assistant Applications

Photo by Shantanu Kumar from Pexels/ Pexels

Another area ChatGPT can help as far as automated conversational AI tasks are concerned is being your personal assistant. The following are some of the features you can take advantage of.

Natural Language Understanding

Replacing human customer care reps with automated chatbots has always suffered from one drawback. The inability to replicate human-level language.

Because ChatGPT is skilled at understanding and processing human language , it can hold meaningful, context-aware discussions. This is how it’s able to respond to queries, make suggestions, or help with specific tasks.

Contextual Conversations

Another key aspect of ChatGPT is providing contextual conversions that are relatable and make sense. Because of its exceptional ability to retain context throughout discussions, it’s a priceless tool for personal assistant applications.

With ChatGPT, users can engage in dynamic, back-and-forth conversations that help them accomplish challenging tasks. At the same time, it helps businesses have meaningful interactions with their customers.

Task Automation

ChatGPT can be integrated with task management systems to make handling different roles seamless. It can help you create, edit, and manage tasks through simple prompts that can be automated whenever you wish.

That’s the most effective way of managing time and ensuring everything stays organized.

Customer Service

Photo by Andrew Neel/ Pexels

The final area of our focus is customer service. ChatGPT can be leveraged to be the first point of interaction between businesses and customers. But how can that be achieved? Through the following features.

Increased Efficiency

ChatGPT can help you handle common inquiries and frequently asked questions. The tool can significantly simplify the customer care process.

As a result, the human agents employed in a particular business can concentrate on more difficult and valuable activities. ChatGPT makes the delegation of duties easier.

Customer Satisfaction

Customers come in varying shapes, and things can get very personal if both sides are having a bad day. But with ChatGPT, chances of things getting out of hand are minimal. The fast responses and round-the-clock availability lead to higher customer satisfaction levels.

Caktus AI vs ChatGPT: Head-To-Head Comparison

With the features and capabilities out of the way, how do these two tools compare against each other?

Let’s dive deeper by exploring the two side by side based on performance, intended use, popularity, and pricing.

Performance

Both Caktus AI and ChatGPT are fast when it comes to content generation. In all the tests that I conducted, they both started generating content the moment I hit the Enter button. It didn’t matter how hard or easy the question was.

You can use the two tools on your PC, laptop, and tablet if they have a functioning browser. Caktus and ChatGPT worked smoothly on Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, and Safari.

When it comes to mobile apps, ChatGPT has the upper hand as it’s supported on Android and iOS . Caktus AI, on the other hand, only has an iOS app.

Both AI tools have user-friendly interfaces, but you need an account to use each. However, ChatGPT has a higher rate of adaptability as far as integration is concerned.

Caktus can be described as a niche tool. So the integrations with other apps and services may not be as smooth.

Also Read : Undetectable AI Writing Tools

Intended Use

ChatGPT is a conversational AI platform and that gives it a wider range than Caktus AI. Whether you want to generate content for blogs or automated customer responses, ChatGPT can take care of that. All you have to do is feed it concise instructions on what you need it to do.

Caktus AI, on the other hand, was designed to solve academically included work. It’s used to generate school essays, write code, and solve math problems, among many other things.

Note that this doesn’t mean ChatGPT can’t handle the same. It’s just that Caktus AI has access to more academic materials. ChatGPT may have a wider reach, but it grabs anything related to your query. That includes unrelated material that may not be accurate.

ChatGPT is more popular than Caktus AI, and there are plenty of reasons for that.

First, ChatGPT offers a free version with unlimited content generation. That alone is enough to make people love it more compared to Caktus AI.

You can open a free Caktus AI account, but you’ll be limited to just 20,000 credits, which is equivalent to 20,000 words. That may not be enough, considering some people need to generate content multiple times for a single query.

Secondly, integrating ChatGPT with other apps and services is easier than Caktus AI. Individuals and businesses can automate their tasks with ChatGPT, cutting down costs, time, and energy. Caktus AI’s integrations don’t come anywhere close.

And just to prove how wide the distance is between the two, I checked the user ratings on the App Store, and here are the results.

ChatGPT has a rating of 4.9 out of 5 from over 300,000 reviews.

Also Read : ShortlyAI Review

Caktus AI has so far managed a 3.3 rating out of 5 with just seven reviews.

But again, let me reiterate that popularity has very little to do with functionality. If given time, I believe Caktus AI can also reach that level of popularity.

ChatGPT is cheaper and offers more value for money than Caktus AI, but that depends on the intended use.

For example, while ChatGPT is cheaper, it would make more sense for a student to get Caktus AI.

There are two price plans for ChatGPT: Free and Plus. To use the Free plan, all you need is to open an account. However, you’ll be limited to accessing the GPT-3.5 model, which is inferior, and only get basic model updates.

If you want more, then the Plus plan will cost you $20 per month. In exchange, you’ll get everything in the Free plan plus access to the superior GPT-4 that’s more accurate. The content generation speed is also faster and you get quick model updates.

Caktus AI comes with three price plans . There’s the Base Plan that costs $14.99 per month. It comes with writing, coding, math, and science tools and a class helper.

There is the Pro Plan, which costs $19.99 per month. It comes with everything in the Base Plan, plus an AI detection tool, priority support, and discord community access.

Finally, you get the Yearly Plan that costs $8.33 per month, billed annually. It’s the cheapest of the three and comes with everything the Pro Plan offers, only cheaper.

Also Read : Best Wordtune Alternatives

Conclusion: So Which Is Better?

The answer to which is better between Caktus AI and ChatGPT lies in the intended use.

ChatGPT is phenomenal if you want to generate unlimited but decent content at no cost. All you need is a stable internet connection and an OpenAI account.

But if you want a professional tool that can handle academic projects, then Caktus AI is your best bet.

It will cost you more than ChatGPT. However, you’ll get access to amazing source materials that help you write essays, solve math problems, and code.

So think of what you want to use an AI tool for, then make your choice.

Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.

More From Forbes

How not to write your college essay.

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If you are looking for the “secret formula” for writing a “winning” college essay, you have come to the wrong place. The reality is there is no silver bullet or strategy to write your way to an acceptance. There is not one topic or approach that will guarantee a favorable outcome.

At the end of the day, every admission office just wants to know more about you, what you value, and what excites you. They want to hear about your experiences through your own words and in your own voice. As you set out to write your essay, you will no doubt get input (both sought-after and unsolicited) on what to write. But how about what NOT Notcoin to write? There are avoidable blunders that applicants frequently make in drafting their essays. I asked college admission leaders, who have read thousands of submissions, to share their thoughts.

Don’t Go In There

There is wide consensus on this first one, so before you call on your Jedi mind tricks or predictive analytics, listen to the voices of a diverse range of admission deans. Peter Hagan, executive director of admissions at Syracuse University, sums it up best, saying, “I would recommend that students try not to get inside of our heads. He adds, “Too often the focus is on what they think we want.”

Andy Strickler, dean of admission and financial aid at Connecticut College agrees, warning, “Do NOT get caught in the trap of trying to figure out what is going to impress the admission committee. You have NO idea who is going to read your essay and what is going to connect with them. So, don't try to guess that.” Victoria Romero, vice president for enrollment, at Scripps College adds, “Do not write about something you don’t care about.” She says, “I think students try to figure out what an admission officer wants to read, and the reality is the reader begins every next essay with no expectations about the content THEY want to read.” Chrystal Russell, dean of admission at Hampden-Sydney College, agrees, saying, “If you're not interested in writing it, we will not be interested when reading it.” Jay Jacobs, vice provost for enrollment management at the University of Vermont elaborates, advising. “Don’t try to make yourself sound any different than you are.” He says, “The number one goal for admission officers is to better understand the applicant, what they like to do, what they want to do, where they spend the majority of their time, and what makes them tick. If a student stays genuine to that, it will shine through and make an engaging and successful essay.”

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Don’t Be Artificial

The headlines about college admission are dominated by stories about artificial intelligence and the college essay. Let’s set some ground rules–to allow ChatGPT or some other tool to do your work is not only unethical, it is also unintelligent. The only worse mistake you could make is to let another human write your essay for you. Instead of preoccupying yourself with whether or not colleges are using AI detection software (most are not), spend your time focused on how best to express yourself authentically. Rick Clark is the executive director of strategic student success at Georgia Institute of Technology, one of the first institutions to clearly outline their AI policy for applicants. He says, “Much of a college application is devoted to lines, boxes, and numbers. Essays and supplements are the one place to establish connection, personality, and distinction. AI, in its current state, is terrible at all three.” He adds, “My hope is that students will use ChatGPT or other tools for brainstorming and to get started, but then move quickly into crafting an essay that will provide insight and value.”

Don’t Overdo It

Michael Stefanowicz, vice president for enrollment management at Landmark College says, “You can only cover so much detail about yourself in an admission essay, and a lot of students feel pressure to tell their life story or choose their most defining experience to date as an essay topic. Admission professionals know that you’re sharing just one part of your lived experience in the essay.” He adds, “Some of the favorite essays I’ve read have been episodic, reflecting on the way you’ve found meaning in a seemingly ordinary experience, advice you’ve lived out, a mistake you’ve learned from, or a special tradition in your life.” Gary Ross, vice president for admission and financial aid at Colgate University adds, “More than a few applicants each year craft essays that talk about the frustration and struggles they have experienced in identifying a topic for their college application essay. Presenting your college application essay as a smorgasbord of topics that ultimately landed on the cutting room floor does not give us much insight into an applicant.”

Don’t Believe In Magic

Jason Nevinger, senior director of admission at the University of Rochester warns, “Be skeptical of anyone or any company telling you, ‘This is the essay that got me into _____.’ There is no magic topic, approach, sentence structure, or prose that got any student into any institution ever.” Social media is littered with advertisements promising strategic essay help. Don’t waste your time, energy, or money trying to emulate a certain style, topic, or tone. Liz Cheron is chief executive officer for the Coalition for College and former assistant vice president of enrollment & dean of admissions at Northeastern University. She agrees with Nevinger, saying “Don't put pressure on yourself to find the perfect, slam dunk topic. The vast majority of college essays do exactly what they're supposed to do–they are well-written and tell the admission officer more about the student in that student's voice–and that can take many different forms.”

Don’t Over Recycle

Beatrice Atkinson-Myers, associate director of global recruitment at the University of California at Santa Cruz tells students, “Do not use the same response for each university; research and craft your essay to match the program at the university you are interested in studying. Don't waste time telling me things I can read elsewhere in your application. Use your essay to give the admissions officer insights into your motivations, interests, and thinking. Don't make your essay the kitchen sink, focus on one or two examples which demonstrate your depth and creativity.” Her UC colleague, Jim Rawlins, associate vice chancellor of enrollment management at the University of California at San Diego agrees, saying “Answer the question. Not doing so is the surest way we can tell you are simply giving us a snippet of something you actually wrote for a different purpose.”

Don’t Overedit

Emily Roper-Doten, vice president for undergraduate admissions and financial assistance at Clark University warns against “Too many editors!” She says, “Pick a couple of trusted folks to be your sounding board when considering topics and as readers once you have drafts. You don’t want too many voices in your essay to drown you out!” Scripps’ Romero agrees, suggesting, “Ask a good friend, someone you trust and knows you well, to read your essays.” She adds, “The goal is for the admission committee to get to know a little about you and who better to help you create that framework, than a good friend. This may not work for all students because of content but helps them understand it’s important to be themselves.” Whitney Soule, vice provost and dean of admissions at The University of Pennsylvania adds, “Avoid well-meaning editorial interference that might seem to polish your writing but actually takes your own personal ‘shine’ right out of the message.” She says, “As readers, we connect to applicants through their genuine tone and style. Considering editorial advice for flow and message is OK but hold on to the 'you' for what you want to say and how you want to say it.”

Don’t Get Showy

Palmer Muntz, senior regional admissions counselor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks cautions applicants, “Don’t be fancier than you are. You don’t need to put on airs.” He adds, “Yes, proofread your work for grammar and spelling, but be natural. Craft something you’d want to read yourself, which probably means keeping your paragraphs short, using familiar words, and writing in an active voice.” Connecticut College’s Strickler agrees, warning, “Don't try to be someone you are not. If you are not funny, don't try to write a funny essay. If you are not an intellectual, trying to write an intellectual essay is a bad idea.”

Anthony Jones, the vice president of enrollment management at Loyola University New Orleans offers a unique metaphor for thinking about the essay. He says, “In the new world of the hyper-fast college admission process, it's become easy to overlook the essential meaning of the college application. It's meant to reveal Y...O...U, the real you, not some phony digital avatar. Think of the essay as the essence of that voice but in analog. Like the completeness and authenticity captured in a vinyl record, the few lines you're given to explain your view should be a slow walk through unrestrained expression chock full of unapologetic nuances, crevices of emotion, and exactness about how you feel in the moment. Then, and only then, can you give the admissions officer an experience that makes them want to tune in and listen for more.”

Don’t Be A Downer

James Nondorf, vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid at The University of Chicago says, “Don’t be negative about other people, be appreciative of those who have supported you, and be excited about who you are and what you will bring to our campus!” He adds, “While admissions offices want smart students for our classrooms, we also want kind-hearted, caring, and joyous students who will add to our campus communities too.”

Don’t Pattern Match

Alan Ramirez is the dean of admission and financial aid at Sewanee, The University of the South. He explains, “A big concern I have is when students find themselves comparing their writing to other students or past applicants and transform their writing to be more like those individuals as a way to better their chances of offering a more-compelling essay.” He emphasizes that the result is that the “essay is no longer authentic nor the best representation of themselves and the whole point of the essay is lost. Their distinctive voice and viewpoint contribute to the range of voices in the incoming class, enhancing the diversity of perspectives we aim to achieve.” Ramirez simple tells students, “Be yourself, that’s what we want to see, plus there's no one else who can do it better than you!”

Don’t Feel Tied To A Topic

Jessica Ricker is the vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions and financial aid at Skidmore College. She says, “Sometimes students feel they must tell a story of grief or hardship, and then end up reliving that during the essay-writing process in ways that are emotionally detrimental. I encourage students to choose a topic they can reflect upon positively but recommend that if they choose a more challenging experience to write about, they avoid belaboring the details and instead focus on the outcome of that journey.” She adds, "They simply need to name it, frame its impact, and then help us as the reader understand how it has shaped their lens on life and their approach moving forward.”

Landmark College’s Stefanowicz adds, “A lot of students worry about how personal to get in sharing a part of their identity like your race or heritage (recalling last year’s Supreme Court case about race-conscious admissions), a learning difference or other disability, your religious values, LGBTQ identity…the list goes on.” He emphasizes, “This is always your choice, and your essay doesn’t have to be about a defining identity. But I encourage you to be fully yourself as you present yourself to colleges—because the college admission process is about finding a school where your whole self is welcome and you find a setting to flourish!”

Don’t Be Redundant

Hillen Grason Jr., dean of admission at Franklin & Marshall College, advises, “Don't repeat academic or co-curricular information that is easily identifiable within other parts of your application unless the topic is a core tenant of you as an individual.” He adds, “Use your essay, and other parts of your application, wisely. Your essay is the best way to convey who your authentic self is to the schools you apply. If you navigated a situation that led to a dip in your grades or co-curricular involvement, leverage the ‘additional information’ section of the application.

Thomas Marr is a regional manager of admissions for the Americas at The University of St Andrews in Scotland and points out that “Not all international schools use the main college essay as part of their assessment when reviewing student applications.” He says, “At the University of St Andrews, we focus on the supplemental essay and students should avoid the mistake of making the supplemental a repeat of their other essay. The supplemental (called the Personal Statement if using the UCAS application process) is to show the extent of their passion and enthusiasm for the subject/s to which they are applying and we expect about 75% of the content to cover this. They can use the remaining space to mention their interests outside of the classroom. Some students confuse passion for the school with passion for their subject; do not fall into that trap.”

A Few Final Don’ts

Don’t delay. Every college applicant I have ever worked with has wished they had started earlier. You can best avoid the pitfalls above if you give yourself the time and space to write a thoughtful essay and welcome feedback openly but cautiously. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect . Do your best, share your voice, and stay true to who you are.

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Tips on Detecting & Improving AI-generated Text

As generative AI tools become increasingly sophisticated and widely used, the ability to distinguish between AI-generated and human-written text has become a hot topic. While AI can be an incredibly powerful tool for writing and research, it’s important to understand its strengths, limitations, and potential “tells” that may indicate its use. Below are some tips for detecting AI-generated text and, more importantly, how to improve and personalize AI-assisted writing to make it truly your own.

Last week’s Inside Higher Ed offers tips on how to distinguish AI-generated text from human-written text.  The author, a literature professor, generated 50+ essays with AI and compared them to characteristics she had come to expect from text written by humans.  Her findings are in bold below, supplemented by my own experience.

• AI-generated essays are often confidently wrong.

Oh yes, I’ve found the confidence thing to be absolutely true.  Generative AI is like the world’s biggest people pleaser.  It tells you what it thinks you want to hear and goes all in on its response. But it’s worth noting that many times, it’s confidently right .  So here’s my first tip, and it’s a big one: It’s up to you as the user to do your due diligence in vetting the response.

• AI essays tend to get straight to the point and AI-generated essays are often list-like

Yeah, these two can be AI “tells,” but they also point to one of the major strengths of generative AI:  organization of ideas.  I frequently use AI to refine my own writing to help me order my thoughts and cut to the chase.

Sometimes it organizes its responses into lists.  So, here’s my 2nd tip – and it’s a theme I’ll be repeating throughout:  if you don’t want a list, then ask it to put it in narrative or some other format.  Generative AI is really good at following directions so tell it exactly what you want.

• AI-generated work is often banal,  AI-generated essays are often repetitive, the paragraphs of AI-generated essays also often begin with formulaic transitional phrases , and AI-generated text tends to remain in the third person

Yes, I’ve seen all these things in AI-generated writing.  Out-of-the-box, it can be formulaic and fairly bland.  But I’ve also seen it generate some really wild and creative stuff when I’ve asked it to do so.

So, I’m going to repeat my 2nd tip: If you don’t want it to be banal, repetitive, formulaic, or in the third person, then tell it that.  Be descriptive enough in your prompts to direct it to do what you want.  Tell it who you are, who your reader is, and what tone you’re looking for.  Think of the responses it provides as suggestions for you to take or leave.  In exchanges with AI, I’ll often say something like, “No, I don’t like that.  Try this instead.”  Or “Yes, that’s what I was thinking of.  Give me more of that.”

And remember that 1st tip again: AI may have helped you or even fully generated the text, but if you’re putting that text out into the world, you better make sure that you’re comfortable and confident having your name on it.  Always vet the content.

• AI-produced text tends to discuss “readers” being “challenged” to “confront” ideologies or being “invited” to “reflect” on key topics

Yeah, using flowery, sophisticated-sounding words is something I’ve observed.  In fact, there’s a new study from Cornell that explores “excess word usage” as a way to detect generative AI use in academic texts.  The authors examined abstracts in PubMed from 2010-24 and found that there was an “unprecedented increase in excess style words” in recent scholarship which they attribute to ChatGPT usage.

Per the article, the following real 2023 abstracts illustrate this ChatGPT-style flowery excess language:

By meticulously delving into the intricate web connecting […] and […], this comprehensive chapter takes a deep dive into their involvement as significant risk factors for […]. A comprehensive grasp of the intricate interplay between […] and […] is pivotal for effective therapeutic strategies. Initially, we delve into the intricacies of […], accentuating its indispensability in cellular physiology, the enzymatic labyrinth governing its flux, and the pivotal […] mechanisms.

So, going back to tip 2, if you don’t want it to use these types of flowery, sophisticated-sounding excess words, then prompt it to put it in another tone.  You’d be amazed at the many different tones and voices it can give you, such as 1st-year law student, new associate, or experienced attorney.  You can also ask it to put it in the tone of a specific Supreme Court Justice or well-known author.  Whether this raises IP issues is another ball of wax.

I recommend reading the full Inside Higher Ed article for further discussion of each point.

As someone who uses AI almost every day and teaches law students about the ethical and effective use of generative AI, I believe it’s valuable to be aware of these potential “tells” while also recognizing their limitations. While there are indeed characteristics that may hint at AI-generated content, it’s important to remember that they are not foolproof indicators.

The key is not to focus solely on detection, but rather on how to use AI effectively and ethically as a writing tool. By providing clear, specific prompts and actively refining AI-generated content, we can use the power of AI while maintaining our unique voice and ensuring the final product reflects our own thoughts and insights. This approach transforms AI from a potential shortcut into a valuable writing assistant, much like spell-check or grammar tools.

Remember, the goal is not to outsource our thinking to AI, but to use it as a tool to enhance our own abilities and productivity. As we continue to explore the possibilities and challenges of AI in research and writing, I encourage you to experiment with these tools responsibly and always prioritize your own critical thinking and analysis.

And by way of full disclosure: I used Claude.AI to help me organize my ideas and suggest phrasing for this post.  Can you tell?

• Original article
• Open access
• Published: 08 July 2024

Can you spot the bot? Identifying AI-generated writing in college essays

• Tal Waltzer   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4464-0336 1 ,
• Celeste Pilegard 1 &
• Gail D. Heyman 1  

International Journal for Educational Integrity volume  20 , Article number:  11 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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The release of ChatGPT in 2022 has generated extensive speculation about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) will impact the capacity of institutions for higher learning to achieve their central missions of promoting learning and certifying knowledge. Our main questions were whether people could identify AI-generated text and whether factors such as expertise or confidence would predict this ability. The present research provides empirical data to inform these speculations through an assessment given to a convenience sample of 140 college instructors and 145 college students (Study 1) as well as to ChatGPT itself (Study 2). The assessment was administered in an online survey and included an AI Identification Test which presented pairs of essays: In each case, one was written by a college student during an in-class exam and the other was generated by ChatGPT. Analyses with binomial tests and linear modeling suggested that the AI Identification Test was challenging: On average, instructors were able to guess which one was written by ChatGPT only 70% of the time (compared to 60% for students and 63% for ChatGPT). Neither experience with ChatGPT nor content expertise improved performance. Even people who were confident in their abilities struggled with the test. ChatGPT responses reflected much more confidence than human participants despite performing just as poorly. ChatGPT responses on an AI Attitude Assessment measure were similar to those reported by instructors and students except that ChatGPT rated several AI uses more favorably and indicated substantially more optimism about the positive educational benefits of AI. The findings highlight challenges for scholars and practitioners to consider as they navigate the integration of AI in education.

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming ubiquitous in daily life. It has the potential to help solve many of society’s most complex and important problems, such as improving the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic disease (Jiang et al. 2017 ), and informing public policy regarding climate change (Biswas 2023 ). However, AI also comes with potential pitfalls, such as threatening widely-held values like fairness and the right to privacy (Borenstein and Howard 2021 ; Weidinger et al. 2021 ; Zhuo et al. 2023 ). Although the specific ways in which the promises and pitfalls of AI will play out remain to be seen, it is clear that AI will change human societies in significant ways.

In late November of 2022, the generative large-language model ChatGPT (GPT-3, Brown et al. 2020 ) was released to the public. It soon became clear that talk about the consequences of AI was much more than futuristic speculation, and that we are now watching its consequences unfold before our eyes in real time. This is not only because the technology is now easily accessible to the general public, but also because of its advanced capacities, including a sophisticated ability to use context to generate appropriate responses to a wide range of prompts (Devlin et al. 2018 ; Gilson et al. 2022 ; Susnjak 2022 ; Vaswani et al. 2017 ).

How AI-generated content poses challenges for educational assessment

Since AI technologies like ChatGPT can flexibly produce human-like content, this raises the possibility that students may use the technology to complete their academic work for them, and that instructors may not be able to tell when their students turn in such AI-assisted work. This possibility has led some people to argue that we may be seeing the end of essay assignments in education (Mitchell 2022 ; Stokel-Walker 2022 ). Even some advocates of AI in the classroom have expressed concerns about its potential for undermining academic integrity (Cotton et al. 2023 ; Eke 2023 ). For example, as Kasneci et al. ( 2023 ) noted, the technology might “amplify laziness and counteract the learners’ interest to conduct their own investigations and come to their own conclusions or solutions” (p. 5). In response to these concerns, some educational institutions have already tried to ban ChatGPT (Johnson, 2023; Rosenzweig-Ziff 2023 ; Schulten, 2023).

These discussions are founded on extensive scholarship on academic integrity, which is fundamental to ethics in higher education (Bertram Gallant 2011 ; Bretag 2016 ; Rettinger and Bertram Gallant 2022 ). Challenges to academic integrity are not new: Students have long found and used tools to circumvent the work their teachers assign to them, and research on these behaviors spans nearly a century (Cizek 1999 ; Hartshorne and May 1928 ; McCabe et al. 2012 ). One recent example is contract cheating, where students pay other people to do their schoolwork for them, such as writing an essay (Bretag et al. 2019 ; Curtis and Clare 2017 ). While very few students (less than 5% by most estimates) tend to use contract cheating, AI has the potential to make cheating more accessible and affordable and it raises many new questions about the relationship between technology, academic integrity, and ethics in education (Cotton et al. 2023 ; Eke 2023 ; Susnjak 2022 ).

To date, there is very little empirical evidence to inform debates about the likely impact of ChatGPT on education or to inform what best practices might look like regarding use of the technology (Dwivedi et al. 2023 ; Lo 2023 ). The primary goal of the present research is to provide such evidence with reference to college-essay writing. One critical question is whether college students can pass off work generated by ChatGPT as their own. If so, large numbers of students may simply paste in ChatGPT responses to essays they are asked to write without the kind of active engagement with the material that leads to deep learning (Chi and Wylie 2014 ). This problem is likely to be exacerbated when students brag about doing this and earning high scores, which can encourage other students to follow suit. Indeed, this kind of bragging motivated the present work (when the last author learned about a college student bragging about using ChatGPT to write all of her final papers in her college classes and getting A’s on all of them).

In support of the possibility that instructors may have trouble identifying ChatGPT-generated test, some previous research suggests that ChatGPT is capable of successfully generating college- or graduate-school level writing. Yeadon et al. ( 2023 ) used AI to generate responses to essays based on a set of prompts used in a physics module that was in current use and asked graders to evaluate the responses. An example prompt they used was: “How did natural philosophers’ understanding of electricity change during the 18th and 19th centuries?” The researchers found that the AI-generated responses earned scores comparable to most students taking the module and concluded that current AI large-language models pose “a significant threat to the fidelity of short-form essays as an assessment method in Physics courses.” Terwiesch ( 2023 ) found that ChatGPT scored at a B or B- level on the final exam of Operations Management in an MBA program, and Katz et al. ( 2023 ) found that ChatGPT has the necessary legal knowledge, reading comprehension, and writing ability to pass the Bar exam in nearly all jurisdictions in the United States. This evidence makes it very clear that ChatGPT can generate well-written content in response to a wide range of prompts.

Distinguishing AI-generated from human-generated work

What is still not clear is how good instructors are at distinguishing between ChatGPT-generated writing and writing generated by students at the college level given that it is at least possible that ChatGPT-generated writing could be both high quality and be distinctly different than anything people generally write (e.g., because ChatGPT-generated writing has particular features). To our knowledge, this question has not yet been addressed, but a few prior studies have examined related questions. In the first such study, Gunser et al. ( 2021 ) used writing generated by a ChatGPT predecessor, GPT-2 (see Radford et al. 2019 ). They tested nine participants with a professional background in literature. These participants both generated content (i.e., wrote continuations after receiving the first few lines of unfamiliar poems or stories), and determined how other writing was generated. Gunser et al. ( 2021 ) found that misclassifications were relatively common. For example, in 18% of cases participants judged AI-assisted writing to be human-generated. This suggests that even AI technology that is substantially less advanced than ChatGPT is capable of generating writing that is hard to distinguish from human writing.

Köbis and Mossink ( 2021 ) also examined participants’ ability to distinguish between poetry written by GPT-2 and humans. Their participants were given pairs of poems. They were told that one poem in each pair was written by a human and the other was written by GPT-2, and they were asked to determine which was which. In one of their studies, the human-written poems were written by professional poets. The researchers generated multiple poems in response to prompts, and they found that when the comparison GPT-2 poems were ones they selected as the best among the set generated by the AI, participants could not distinguish between the GPT-2 and human writing. However, when researchers randomly selected poems generated by GPT-2, participants were better than chance at detecting which ones were generated by the AI.

In a third relevant study, Waltzer et al. ( 2023a ) tested high school teachers and students. All participants were presented with pairs of English essays, such as one on why literature matters. In each case one essay was written by a high school student and the other was generated by ChatGPT, and participants were asked which essay in each pair had been generated by ChatGPT. Waltzer et al. ( 2023a ) found that teachers only got it right 70% of the time, and that students’ performance was even worse (62%). They also found that well-written essays were harder to distinguish from those generated by ChatGPT than poorly written ones. However, it is unclear the extent to which these findings are specific to the high school context. It should also be noted that there were no clear right or wrong answers in the types of essays used in Waltzer et al. ( 2023a ), so the results may not generalize to essays that ask for factual information based on specific class content.

AI detection skills, attitudes, and perceptions

If college instructors find it challenging to distinguish between writing generated by ChatGPT and college students, it raises the question of what factors might be correlated with the ability to perform this discrimination. One possible correlate is experience with ChatGPT, which may allow people to recognize patterns in the writing style it generates, such as a tendency to formally summarize previous content. Content-relevant knowledge is another possible predictor. Individuals with such knowledge will presumably be better at spotting errors in answers, and it is plausible that instructors know that AI tools are likely to get content of introductory-level college courses correct and assume that essays that contain errors are written by students.

Another possible predictor is confidence about one’s ability to discriminate on the task or on particular items of the task (Erickson and Heit 2015 ; Fischer & Budesco, 2005 ; Wixted and Wells 2017 ). In other words, are AI discriminations made with a high degree of confidence more likely to be accurate than low-confidence discriminations? In some cases, confidence judgments are a good predictor of accuracy, such as on many perceptual decision tasks (e.g., detecting contrast between light and dark bars, Fleming et al. 2010 ). However, in other cases correlations between confidence and accuracy are small or non-existent, such as on some deductive reasoning tasks (e.g., Shynkaruk and Thompson 2006 ). Links to confidence can also depend on how confidence is measured: Gigerenzer et al. ( 1991 ) found overconfidence on individual items, but good calibration when participants were asked how many items they got right after seeing many items.

In addition to the importance of gathering empirical data on the extent to which instructors can distinguish ChatGPT from college student writing, it is important to examine how college instructors and students perceive AI in education given that such attitudes may affect behavior (Al Darayseh 2023 ; Chocarro et al. 2023 ; Joo et al. 2018 ; Tlili et al. 2023 ). For example, instructors may only try to develop precautions to prevent AI cheating if they view this as a significant concern. Similarly, students’ confusion about what counts as cheating can play an important role in their cheating decisions (Waltzer and Dahl 2023 ; Waltzer et al. 2023b ).

The present research

In the present research we developed an assessment that we gave to college instructors and students (Study 1) and ChatGPT itself (Study 2). The central feature of the assessment was an AI Identification Test , which included 6 pairs of essays. In each case (as was indicated in the instructions), one essay in each pair was generated by ChatGPT and the other was written by college students. The task was to determine which essay was written by the chatbot. The essay pairs were drawn from larger pools of essays of each type.

The student essays were written by students as part of a graded exam in a psychology class, and the ChatGPT essays were generated in response to the same essay prompts. Of interest was overall performance and to assess potential correlates of performance. Performance of college instructors was of particular interest because they are the ones typically responsible for grading, but performance of students and ChatGPT were also of interest for comparison. ChatGPT was also of interest given anecdotal evidence that college instructors are asking ChatGPT to tell them whether pieces of work were AI-generated. For example, the academic integrity office at one major university sent out an announcement asking instructors not to report students for cheating if their evidence was solely based on using ChatGPT to detect AI-generated writing (UCSD Academic Integrity Office, 2023 ).

We also administered an AI Attitude Assessment (Waltzer et al. 2023a ), which included questions about overall levels of optimism and pessimism about the use of AI in education, and the appropriateness of specific uses of AI in academic settings, such as a student submitting an edited version of a ChatGPT-generated essay for a writing assignment.

Study 1: College instructors and students

Participants were given an online assessment that included an AI Identification Test , an AI Attitude Assessment , and some demographic questions. The AI Identification Test was developed for the present research, as described below (see Materials and Procedure). The test involved presenting six pairs of essays, with the instructions to try to identify which one was written by ChatGPT in each case. Participants also rated their confidence before the task and after responding to each item, and reported how many they thought they got right at the end. The AI Attitude Assessment was drawn from Waltzer et al. ( 2023a ) to assess participants’ views of the use of AI in education.

Participants

For the testing phase of the project, we recruited 140 instructors who had taught or worked as a teaching assistant for classes at the college level (69 of them taught psychology and 63 taught other subjects such as philosophy, computer science, and history). We recruited instructors through personal connections and snowball sampling. Most of the instructors were women (59%), white (60%), and native English speakers (67%), and most of them taught at colleges in the United States (91%). We also recruited 145 undergraduate students ( M age = 20.90 years, 80% women, 52% Asian, 63% native English speakers) from a subject recruitment system in the psychology department at a large research university in the United States. All data collection took place between 3/15/2023 and 4/15/2023 and followed our pre-registration plan ( https://aspredicted.org/mk3a2.pdf ).

Materials and procedure

Developing the ai identification test.

To create the stimuli for the AI Identification Test, we first generated two prompts for the essays (Table  1 ). We chose these prompts in collaboration with an instructor to reflect real student assignments for a college psychology class.

Fifty undergraduate students hand-wrote both essays as part of a proctored exam in their psychology class on 1/30/2023. Research assistants transcribed the essays and removed essays from the pool that were not written in third-person or did not include the correct number of sentences. Three additional essays were excluded for being illegible, and another one was excluded for mentioning a specific location on campus. This led to 15 exclusions for the Phonemic Awareness prompt and 25 exclusions for the Studying Advice prompt. After applying these exclusions, we randomly selected 25 essays for each prompt to generate the 6 pairs given to each participant. To prepare the texts for use as stimuli, research assistants then used a word processor to correct obvious errors that could be corrected without major rewriting (e.g., punctuation, spelling, and capitalization).

All student essays were graded according to the class rubric on a scale from 0 to 10 by two individuals on the teaching team of the class: the course’s primary instructor and a graduate student teaching assistant. Grades were averaged together to create one combined grade for each essay (mean: 7.93, SD: 2.29, range: 2–10). Two of the authors also scored the student essays for writing quality on a scale from 0 to 100, including clarity, conciseness, and coherence (combined score mean: 82.83, SD : 7.53, range: 65–98). Materials for the study, including detailed scoring rubrics, are available at https://osf.io/2c54a/ .

The ChatGPT stimuli were prepared by entering the same prompts into ChatGPT ( https://chat.openai.com/ ) between 1/23/2023 and 1/25/2023, and re-generating the responses until there were 25 different essays for each prompt.

Testing Phase

In the participant testing phase, college instructors and students took the assessment, which lasted approximately 10 min. All participants began by indicating the name of their school and whether they were an instructor or a student, how familiar they were with ChatGPT (“Please rate how much experience you have with using ChatGPT”), and how confident they were that they would be able to distinguish between writing generated by ChatGPT and by college students. Then they were told they would get to see how well they score at the end, and they began the AI Identification Test.

The AI Identification Test consisted of six pairs of essays: three Phonemic Awareness pairs, and three Studying Advice pairs, in counterbalanced order. Each pair included one text generated by ChatGPT and one text generated by a college student, both drawn randomly from their respective pools of 25 possible essays. No essays were repeated for the same participant. Figure  1 illustrates what a text pair looked like in the survey.

Example pair of essays for the Phonemic Awareness prompt. Top: student essay. Bottom: ChatGPT essay

For each pair, participants selected the essay they thought was generated by ChatGPT and indicated how confident they were about their choice (slider from 0 = “not at all confident” to 100 = “extremely confident”). After all six pairs, participants estimated how well they did (“How many of the text pairs do you think you answered correctly?”).

After completing the AI Identification task, participants completed the AI Attitude Assessment concerning their views of ChatGPT in educational contexts (see Waltzer et al. 2023a ). On this assessment, participants first estimated what percent of college students in the United States would ask ChatGPT to write an essay for them and submit it. Next, they rated their concerns (“How concerned are you about ChatGPT having negative effects on education?”) and optimism (“How optimistic are you about ChatGPT having positive benefits for education?”) about the technology on a scale from 0 (“not at all”) to 100 (“extremely”). On the final part of the AI Attitude Assessment, they evaluated five different possible uses of ChatGPT in education (such as submitting an essay after asking ChatGPT to improve the vocabulary) on a scale from − 10 (“really bad”) to + 10 (“really good”).

Participants also rated the extent to which they already knew the subject matter (i.e., cognitive psychology and the science of learning), and were given optional open-ended text boxes to share any experiences from their classes or suggestions for instructors related to the use of ChatGPT, or to comment on any of the questions in the Attitude Assessment. Instructors were also asked whether they had ever taught a psychology class and to describe their teaching experience. At the end, all participants reported demographic information (e.g., age, gender). All prompts are available in the online supplementary materials ( https://osf.io/2c54a/ ).

Data Analysis

We descriptively summarized variables of interest (e.g., overall accuracy on the Identification Test). We used inferential tests to predict Identification Test accuracy from group (instructor or student), confidence, subject expertise, and familiarity with ChatGPT. We also predicted responses to the AI Attitude Assessment as a function of group (instructor or student). All data analysis was done using R Statistical Software (v4.3.2; R Core Team 2021 ).

Key hypotheses were tested using Welch’s two-sample t-tests for group comparisons, linear regression models with F-tests for other predictors of accuracy, and Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs, Hox 2010 ) with likelihood ratio tests for within-subjects trial-by-trial analyses. GLMMs used random intercepts for participants and predicted trial performance (correct or incorrect) using trial confidence and essay quality as fixed effects.

Overall performance on AI identification test

Instructors correctly identified which essay was written by the chatbot 70% of the time, which was above chance (chance: 50%, binomial test: p  < .001, 95% CI: [66%, 73%]). Students also performed above chance, with an average score of 60% (binomial test: p  < .001, 95% CI: [57%, 64%]). Instructors performed significantly better than students (Welch’s two-sample t -test: t [283] = 3.30, p  = .001).

Familiarity With subject matter

Participants rated how much previous knowledge they had in the essay subject matter (i.e., cognitive psychology and the science of learning). Linear regression models with F- tests indicated that familiarity with the subject did not predict instructors’ or students’ accuracy, F s(1) < 0.49, p s > .486. Psychology instructors did not perform any better than non-psychology instructors, t (130) = 0.18, p  = .860.

Familiarity with ChatGPT

Nearly all participants (94%) said they had heard of ChatGPT before taking the survey, and most instructors (62%) and about half of students (50%) said they had used ChatGPT before. For both groups, participants who used ChatGPT did not perform any better than those who never used it before, F s(1) < 0.77, p s > .383. Instructors’ and students’ experience with ChatGPT (from 0 = not at all experienced to 100 = extremely experienced) also did not predict their performance, F s(1) < 0.77, p s > .383.

Confidence and estimated score

Before they began the Identification Test, both instructors and students expressed low confidence in their abilities to identify the chatbot ( M  = 34.60 on a scale from 0 = not at all confident to 100 = extremely confident). Their confidence was significantly below the midpoint of the scale (midpoint: 50), one-sample t -test: t (282) = 11.46, p  < .001, 95% CI: [31.95, 37.24]. Confidence ratings that were done before the AI Identification test did not predict performance for either group, Pearson’s r s < .12, p s > .171.

Right after they completed the Identification Test, participants guessed how many text pairs they got right. Both instructors and students significantly underestimated their performance by about 15%, 95% CI: [11%, 18%], t (279) = -8.42, p  < .001. Instructors’ estimated scores were positively correlated with their actual scores, Pearson’s r  = .20, t (135) = 2.42, p  = .017. Students’ estimated scores were not related to their actual scores, r  = .03, p  = .731.

Trial-by-trial performance on AI identification test

Participants’ confidence ratings on individual trials were counted as high if they fell above the midpoint (> 50 on a scale from 0 = not at all confident to 100 = extremely confident). For these within-subjects trial-by-trial analyses, we used Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs, Hox 2010 ) with random intercepts for participants and likelihood ratio tests (difference score reported as D ). Both instructors and students performed better on trials in which they expressed high confidence (instructors: 73%, students: 63%) compared to low confidence (instructors: 65%, students: 56%), D s(1) > 4.59, p s < .032.

Student essay quality

We used two measures to capture the quality of each student-written essay: its assigned grade from 0 to 10 based on the class rubric, and its writing quality score from 0 to 100. Assigned grade was weakly related to instructors’ accuracy, but not to students’ accuracy. The text pairs that instructors got right tended to include student essays that earned slightly lower grades ( M  = 7.89, SD  = 2.22) compared to those they got wrong ( M  = 8.17, SD  = 2.16), D (1) = 3.86, p  = .050. There was no difference for students, D (1) = 2.84, p  = .092. Writing quality score did not differ significantly between correct and incorrect trials for either group, D (1) = 2.12, p  = .146.

AI attitude assessment

Concerns and hopes about chatgpt.

Both instructors and students expressed intermediate levels of concern and optimism. Specifically, on a scale from 0 (“not at all”) to 100 (“extremely”), participants expressed intermediate concern about ChatGPT having negative effects on education ( M instructors = 59.82, M students = 55.97) and intermediate optimism about it having positive benefits ( M instructors = 49.86, M students = 54.08). Attitudes did not differ between instructors and students, t s < 1.43, p s > .154. Participants estimated that just over half of college students (instructors: 57%, students: 54%) would use ChatGPT to write an essay for them and submit it. These estimates also did not differ by group, t (278) = 0.90, p  = .370.

Evaluations of ChatGPT uses

Participants evaluated five different uses of ChatGPT in educational settings on a scale from − 10 (“really bad”) to + 10 (“really good”). Both instructors and students rated it very bad for someone to ask ChatGPT to write an essay for them and submit the direct output, but instructors rated it significantly more negatively (instructors: -8.95, students: -7.74), t (280) = 3.59, p  < .001. Attitudes did not differ between groups for any of the other scenarios (Table  2 ), t s < 1.31, p s > .130.

Exploratory analysis of demographic factors

We also conducted exploratory analyses looking at ChatGPT use and attitudes among different demographic groups (gender, race, and native English speakers). We combined instructors and students because their responses to the Attitude Assessment did not differ. In these exploratory analyses, we found that participants who were not native English speakers were more likely to report using ChatGPT and to view it more positively. Specifically, 69% of non-native English speakers had used ChatGPT before, versus 48% of native English speakers, D (1) = 12.00, p  < .001. Regardless of native language, the more experience someone had with ChatGPT, the more optimism they reported, F (1) = 18.71, p  < .001, r  = .37). Non-native speakers rated the scenario where a student writes an essay and asks ChatGPT to improve its vocabulary slightly positively (1.19) whereas native English speakers rated it slightly negatively (-1.43), F (1) = 11.00, p  = .001. Asian participants expressed higher optimism ( M  = 59.14) than non-Asian participants ( M  = 47.29), F (1) = 10.05, p  = .002. We found no other demographic differences.

Study 2: ChatGPT

Study 1 provided data on college instructors’ and students’ ability to recognize ChatGPT-generated writing and about their views of the technology. In Study 2, of primary interest was whether ChatGPT itself might perform better at identifying ChatGPT-generated writing. Indeed, the authors have heard discussions of this as a possible solution to recognize AI-generated writing. We addressed this question by repeatedly asking ChatGPT to act as a participant in the AI Identification Task. While doing so, we administered the rest of the assessment given to participants in Study 1. This included our AI Attitude Assessment, which allowed us to examine the extent to which ChatGPT produced attitude responses that were similar to those of the participants in Study 1.

Participants, materials, and procedures

There were no human participants for Study 2. We collected 40 survey responses from ChatGPT, each run in a separate session on the platform ( https://chat.openai.com/ ) between 5/4/2023 and 5/15/2023.

Two research assistants were trained on how to run the survey in the ChatGPT online interface. All prompts from the Study 1 survey were used, with minor modifications to suit the chat format. For example, slider questions were explained in the prompt, so instead of “How confident are you about this answer?” the prompt was “How confident are you about this answer from 0 (not at all confident) to 100 (extremely confident)?”. In pilot testing, we found that ChatGPT sometimes failed to answer the question (e.g., by not providing a number), so we prepared a second prompt for every question that the researcher used whenever the first prompt was not answered (e.g., “Please answer the above question with one number between 0 to 100.”). If ChatGPT still failed on the second prompt, the researcher marked it as a non-response and moved on to the next question in the survey.

Data analysis

Like Study 1, all analyses were done in R Statistical Software (R Core Team 2021 ). Key analyses first used linear regression models and F -tests to compare all three groups (instructors, students, ChatGPT). When these omnibus tests were significant, we followed up with post-hoc pairwise comparisons using Tukey’s method.

AI identification test

Overall accuracy.

ChatGPT generated correct responses on 63% of trials in the AI Identification Test, which was significantly above chance, binomial test p  < .001, 95% CI: [57%, 69%]. Pairwise comparisons found that this performance by ChatGPT was not any different from that of instructors or students, t s(322) < 1.50, p s > .292.

Confidence and estimated performance

Unlike the human participants, ChatGPT produced responses with very high confidence before the task generally ( m  = 71.38, median  = 70) and during individual trials specifically ( m  = 89.82, median  = 95). General confidence ratings before the test were significantly higher from ChatGPT than from the humans (instructors: 34.35, students: 34.83), t s(320) > 9.47, p s < .001. But, as with the human participants, this confidence did not predict performance on the subsequent Identification task, F (1) = 0.94, p  = .339. And like the human participants, ChatGPT’s reported confidence on individual trials did predict performance: ChatGPT produced higher confidence ratings on correct trials ( m  = 91.38) than incorrect trials ( m  = 87.33), D (1) = 8.74, p  = .003.

ChatGPT also produced responses indicating high confidence after the task, typically estimating that it got all six text pairs right ( M  = 91%, median  = 100%). It overestimated performance by about 28%, and a paired t -test confirmed that ChatGPT’s estimated performance was significantly higher than its actual performance, t (36) = 9.66, p  < .001. As inflated as it was, estimated performance still had a small positive correlation with actual performance, Pearson’s r  = .35, t (35) = 2.21, p  = .034.

Essay quality

The quality of the student essays as indexed by their grade and writing quality score did not significantly predict performance, D s < 1.97, p s > .161.

AI attitude Assessment

Concerns and hopes.

ChatGPT usually failed to answer the question, “How concerned are you about ChatGPT having negative effects on education?” from 0 (not at all concerned) to 100 (extremely concerned). Across the 40% of cases where ChatGPT successfully produced an answer, the average concern rating was 64.38, which did not differ significantly from instructors’ or students’ responses, F (2, 294) = 1.20, p  = .304. ChatGPT produced answers much more often for the question, “How optimistic are you about ChatGPT having positive benefits for education?”, answering 88% of the time. The average optimism rating produced by ChatGPT was 73.24, which was significantly higher than that of instructors (49.86) and students (54.08), t s > 4.33, p s < .001. ChatGPT only answered 55% of the time for the question about how many students would use ChatGPT to write an essay for them and submit it, typically generating explanations about its inability to predict human behavior and the fact that it does not condone cheating when it did not give an estimate. When it did provide an estimate ( m  = 10%), it was vastly lower than that of instructors (57%) and students (54%), t s > 7.84, p s < .001.

Evaluation of ChatGPT uses

ChatGPT produced ratings of the ChatGPT use scenarios that on average were rank-ordered the same as the human ratings, with direct copying rated the most negatively and generating practice problems rated the most positively (see Fig.  2 ).

Average ratings of ChatGPT uses, from − 10 = really bad to + 10 = really good. Human responses included for comparison (instructors in dark gray and students in light gray bars)

Compared to humans’ ratings, ratings produced by ChatGPT were significantly more positive in most scenarios, t s > 3.09, p s < .006, with two exceptions. There was no significant difference between groups in the “format” scenario (using ChatGPT to format an essay in another style such as APA), F (2,318) = 2.46, p  = .087. And for the “direct” scenario, ChatGPT tended to rate direct copying more negatively than students ( t [319] = 4.08, p  < .001) but not instructors (t[319] = 1.57, p  = .261), perhaps because ratings from ChatGPT and instructors were already so close to the most negative possible rating.

In 1950, Alan Turing said he hoped that one day machines would be able to compete with people in all intellectual fields (Turing 1950 ; see Köbis and Mossink 2021 ). Today, by many measures, the large-language model, ChatGPT, appears to be getting close to achieving this end. In doing so, it is raising questions about the impact this AI and its successors will have on individuals and the institutions that shape the societies in which we live. One important set of questions revolves around its use in higher education, which is the focus of the present research.

Empirical contributions

Detecting ai-generated text.

Our central research question focused on whether instructors can identify ChatGPT-generated writing, since an inability to do so could threaten the ability of institutions of higher learning to promote learning and assess competence. To address this question, we developed an AI Identification Test in which the goal was to try to distinguish between psychology essays written by college students on exams versus essays generated by ChatGPT in response to the same prompts. We found that although college instructors performed substantially better than chance, they still found the assessment to be challenging, scoring an average of only 70%. This relatively poor performance suggests that college instructors have substantial difficulty detecting ChatGPT-generated writing. Interestingly, this performance by the college instructors was the same average performance as Waltzer et al. ( 2023a ) observed among high school instructors (70%) on a similar test involving English literature essays, suggesting the results are generalizable across the student populations and essay types. We also gave the assessment to college students (Study 1) and to ChatGPT (Study 2) for comparison. On average, students (60%) and ChatGPT (63%) performed even worse than instructors, although the difference only reached statistical significance when comparing students and instructors.

We found that instructors and students who went into the study believing they would be very good at distinguishing between essays written by college students versus essays generated by ChatGPT were in fact no better at doing so than participants who lacked such confidence. However, we did find that item-level confidence did predict performance: when participants rated their confidence after each specific pair (i.e., “How confident are you about this answer?”), they did perform significantly better on items they reported higher confidence on. These same patterns were observed when analyzing the confidence ratings from ChatGPT, though ChatGPT produced much higher confidence ratings than instructors or students, reporting overconfidence while instructors and students reported underconfidence.

Attitudes toward AI in education

Instructors and students both thought it was very bad for students to turn in an assignment generated by ChatGPT as their own, and these ratings were especially negative for instructors. Overall, instructors and students looked similar to one another in their evaluations of other uses of ChatGPT in education. For example, both rated submitting an edited version of a ChatGPT-generated essay in a class as bad, but less bad than submitting an unedited version. Interestingly, the rank orderings in evaluations of ChatGPT uses were the same when the responses were generated by ChatGPT as when they were generated by instructors or students. However, ChatGPT produced more favorable ratings of several uses compared to instructors and students (e.g., using the AI tool to enhance the vocabulary in an essay). Overall, both instructors and students reported being about as optimistic as they were concerned about AI in education. Interestingly, ChatGPT produced responses indicative of much more optimism than both human groups of participants.

Many instructors commented on the challenges ChatGPT poses for educators. One noted that “… ChatGPT makes it harder for us to rely on homework assignments to help students to learn. It will also likely be much harder to rely on grading to signal how likely it is for a student to be good at a skill or how creative they are.” Some suggested possible solutions such as coupling writing with oral exams. Others suggested that they would appreciate guidance. For example, one said, “I have told students not to use it, but I feel like I should not be like that. I think some of my reluctance to allow usage comes from not having good guidelines.”

And like the instructors, some students also suggested that they want guidance, such as knowing whether using ChatGPT to convert a document to MLA format would count as a violation of academic integrity. They also highlighted many of the same problems as instructors and noted beneficial ways students are finding to use it. One student noted that, “I think ChatGPT definitely has the potential to be abused in an educational setting, but I think at its core it can be a very useful tool for students. For example, I’ve heard of one student giving ChatGPT a rubric for an assignment and asking it to grade their own essay based on the rubric in order to improve their writing on their own.”

Theoretical contributions and practical implications

Our findings underscore the fact that AI chatbots have the potential to produce confident-sounding responses that are misleading (Chen et al. 2023 ; Goodwins 2022 ; Salvi et al. 2024 ). Interestingly, the underconfidence reported by instructors and students stands in contrast to some findings that people often expressed overconfidence in their abilities to detect AI (e.g., deepfake videos, Köbis et al. 2021 ). Although general confidence before the task did not predict performance, specific confidence on each item of the task did predict performance. Taken together, our findings are consistent with other work suggesting confidence effects are context-dependent and can differ depending on whether they are assessed at the item level or more generally (Gigerenzer et al. 1991 ).

The fact that college instructors have substantial difficulty differentiating between ChatGPT-generated writing and the writing of college students provides evidence that ChatGPT poses a significant threat to academic integrity. Ignoring this threat is also likely to undermine central aspects of the mission of higher education in ways that undermine the value of assessments and disincentivize the kinds of cognitive engagement that promote deep learning (Chi and Wylie 2014 ). We are skeptical of answers that point to the use of AI detection tools to address this issue given that they will always be imperfect and false accusations have potential to cause serious harm (Dalalah and Dalalah 2023 ; Fowler 2023 ; Svrluga, 2023 ). Rather, we think that the solution will have to involve developing and disseminating best practices regarding creating assessments and incentivizing cognitive engagement in ways that help students learn to use AI as problem-solving tools.

Limitations and future directions

Why instructors perform better than students at detecting AI-generated text is unclear. Although we did not find any effect of content-relevant expertise, it still may be the case that experience with evaluating student writing matters, and instructors presumably have more such experience. For example, one non-psychology instructor who got 100% of the pairs correct said, “Experience with grading lower division undergraduate papers indicates that students do not always fully answer the prompt, if the example text did not appear to meet all of the requirements of the prompt or did not provide sufficient information, I tended to assume an actual student wrote it.” To address this possibility, it will be important to compare adults who do have teaching experience with those who do not.

It is somewhat surprising that experience with ChatGPT did not affect the performance of instructors or students on the AI Identification Test. One contributing factor may be that people pick up on some false heuristics from reading the text it generates (see Jakesch et al. 2023 ). It is possible that giving people practice at distinguishing the different forms of writing with feedback could lead to better performance.

Why confidence was predictive of accuracy at the item level is still not clear. One possibility is that there are some specific and valid cues many people were using. One likely cue is grammar. We revised grammar errors in student essays that were picked up by a standard spell checker in which the corrections were obvious. However, we left ungrammatical writing that didn’t have obvious corrections (e.g., “That is being said, to be able to understand the concepts and materials being learned, and be able to produce comprehension.“). Many instructors noted that they used grammatical errors as cues that writing was generated by students. As one instructor remarked, “Undergraduates often have slight errors in grammar and tense or plurality agreement, and I have heard the chat bot works very well as an editor.” Similarly, another noted, “I looked for more complete, grammatical sentences. In my experience, Chat-GPT doesn’t use fragment sentences and is grammatically correct. Students are more likely to use incomplete sentences or have grammatical errors.” This raises methodological questions about what is the best comparison between AI and human writing. For example, it is unclear which grammatical mistakes should be corrected in student writing. Also of interest will be to examine the detectability of writing that is generated by AI and later edited by students, since many students will undoubtedly use AI in this way to complete their course assignments.

We also found that student-written essays that earned higher grades (based on the scoring rubric for their class exam) were harder for instructors to differentiate from ChatGPT writing. This does not appear to be a simple effect of writing quality given that a separate measure of writing quality that did not account for content accuracy was not predictive. According to the class instructor, the higher-scoring essays tended to include more specific details, and this might have been what made them less distinguishable. Relatedly, it may be that the higher-scoring essays were harder to distinguish because they appeared to be generated by more competent-sounding writers, and it was clear from instructor comments that they generally viewed ChatGPT as highly competent.

The results of the present research validate concerns that have been raised about college instructors having difficulty distinguishing writing generated by ChatGPT from the writing of their students, and document that this is also true when students try to detect writing generated by ChatGPT. The results indicate that this issue is particularly pronounced when instructors evaluate high-scoring student essays. The results also indicate that ChatGPT itself performs no better than instructors at detecting ChatGPT-generated writing even though ChatGPT-reported confidence is much higher. These findings highlight the importance of examining current teaching and assessment practices and the potential challenges AI chatbots pose for academic integrity and ethics in education (Cotton et al. 2023 ; Eke 2023 ; Susnjak 2022 ). Further, the results show that both instructors and students have a mixture of apprehension and optimism about the use of AI in education, and that many are looking for guidance about how to ethically use it in ways that promote learning. Taken together, our findings underscore some of the challenges that need to be carefully navigated in order to minimize the risks and maximize the benefits of AI in education.

Data availability

Supplementary materials, including data, analysis, and survey items, are available on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/2c54a/ .

Abbreviations

Artificial Intelligence

Confidence Interval

Generalized Linear Mixed Model

Generative Pre-trained Transformer

Standard Deviation

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Acknowledgements

We thank Daniel Chen and Riley L. Cox for assistance with study design, stimulus preparation, and pilot testing. We also thank Emma C. Miller for grading the essays and Brian J. Compton for comments on the manuscript.

This work was partly supported by a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for T. Waltzer (NSF SPRF-FR# 2104610).

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Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, 92093-0109, USA

Tal Waltzer, Celeste Pilegard & Gail D. Heyman

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All authors collaborated in the conceptualization and design of the research. C. Pilegard facilitated recruitment and coding for real class assignments used in the study. T. Waltzer led data collection and analysis. G. Heyman and T. Waltzer wrote and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tal Waltzer .

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Waltzer, T., Pilegard, C. & Heyman, G.D. Can you spot the bot? Identifying AI-generated writing in college essays. Int J Educ Integr 20 , 11 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-024-00158-3

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Received : 16 February 2024

Accepted : 11 June 2024

Published : 08 July 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-024-00158-3

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Cute Visuals Can Distract Students From a Lesson: 3 Tips for Teachers

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Christina Scheffel still feels sheepish about the time she was cactus slap happy.

During the pandemic, Scheffel tried to inject some sunshine into her class at a time when she and her students really needed it, she said in a session at the International Society for Technology in Education’s annual conference here.

So when she created informational slides to accompany a lesson, she went all in on adorable cacti.

“We are talking cactus border, cactus font, cactus numbers, cactus arrows, every single cactus emoji that I could find I put somewhere on these slides,” recalled Scheffel, who served as an instructional technology coach for the Indian River School District in Delaware last school year. “My students had a good laugh, and I thought everything was great.”

That feeling lasted until a subsequent lesson when Scheffel tried to get the class to recall a concept she had introduced on “cactus day.”

They looked at her blankly. Then one student said, “‘all I remember from the last lesson were the cactuses on the slides,’” Scheffel recalled.

Scheffel realized that she had gotten so caught up in injecting some fun and whimsy into her visuals that she had forgotten the important part: Making sure students understood and retained the information.

“When it comes to designing learning materials, whether they are slides, worksheets, or whatever else, it is easier than ever to make them look good,” Scheffel said. “You can hop on Canva. Grab a template. Slap a bitmoji on it. What’s that? It’s October? Slap a seasonal bitmoji on it!”

But that may be counterproductive, she warned. “Sometimes, things that are cute unintentionally make our lessons less accessible.”

Scheffel and her colleague, Jeff Kilner, an instructional technology specialist in Indian River, offered several tips for creating visuals that compliment a lesson rather than detract from it.

Their recommendations were informed by the principles of Universal Design for Learning , a strategy that encompasses a wide set of teaching techniques. UDL’s main principal is allowing multiple ways for teachers to present information and for students to engage in lessons and demonstrate what they know.

Here are three key steps they suggest:

1. Present information in a way that’s easy for students to process

Extra visuals or text may be fun, but they can add to students’ cognitive load, or the amount of information they can process at one time, the Indian Hill team explained.

To reduce that cognitive load, educators should rethink extraneous and potentially distracting content, like Scheffel’s cactus border.

For Kilner, that’s meant reluctantly jettisoning some his favorite classroom decor, including heavy metal band tour posters and World Wrestling Entertainment tchotchkes.

“If our learning resources include unnecessary things, we are asking students to take that extra processing step and therefore we are increasing their cognitive load,” Scheffel said.

2. Give students multiple options to learn the same concepts

The popular idea of learning styles—audio, visual, tactile—has been debunked . But everyone still has preferences, Kilner said. For instance, he’s a fan of hard copy books over e-books and handwritten notes over typing. Podcasts are his favorite type of multimedia.

“When you’re thinking about the content and the media and the things you’re presenting to your learners, be extremely intentional,” Kilner said. “A diverse representation of [options] will help all learners in your class be able to access” the lesson.

Scheffel uses this strategy in sharing new technologies with teachers. She may write out directions for using a tool or give her colleagues the option of using an immersive reader—a tool included with some learning management systems—to hear the directions read out loud. She can also put the steps for tackling a particular task in a short visual presentation and record simple directions over it.

That allows students—or teachers—to process information according to their preferences, she said. And if they don’t understand a concept after seeing or hearing it explained one way, they can try another.

It may not always be easy for educators to create multiple presentation styles, Scheffel acknowledged, though technology—such as the audio feature in an immersive reader—can help.

But Scheffel cautions: “Let’s be realistic for a minute. This takes time. And time is a luxury that we do not always have.”

3. Keep cuteness in its proper place

Scheffel found another use for those adorable cacti emojis. She now uses them—or similarly playful visuals—to check how students are feeling at the beginning of class. They can choose the smiling cactus on a happy day, the sunglass-sporting cactus on a day they are feeling relaxed, or the head-exploding cactus when they’re overwhelmed.

Scheffel makes an extra effort to connect with students who pick an angry or sad cactus.

And if most of the class goes with the sleepy cactus on a particular day, she knows she “might not want to start the lesson by having students quietly read an annotated article,” she said. “I might want to get their blood moving a little bit.”

In this case, the fun emojis weren’t an inappropriate diversion, Scheffel said.

“The cute decorative item was not distracting because I’m not trying to teach a concept here,” she said. “Instead, this was a place for me to bring a little joy into the classroom.”

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