In the current settings of educational institutions across the world, their mounting costs, and their diminishing guarantee of landing alumni jobs, school have over the years been seen as a barrier-to-entry into a competitive market when it comes to these job opportunities. As a result this phenomenon have drove many students to do whatever they can to bag a degree include hiring of contract ghostwriters, pushing the growth and thriving of a cheating industry.
Students who don’t have the time or desire to do their assignments or essays, opt to hire contract ghostwriters to help them with writing their essays, homework, projects, researches and even exams. Since its creation – November 30, 2022 – by Open AI, an AI and research company, ChatGPT may be the only thing capable of putting a dent in the mammoth cheating industry. Seemingly confirming this trend, one eyebrow-raising survey conducted by Study.com early on in the ChatGPT craze, reported that 89 percent of college students were using ChatGPT for homework, and 50 percent to write essays.
In Kenya, many young people are part of this cheat industry – known in Kenya as Academic writing – and its their source of livelihood earning them from 29 Dollars up to 14,000 US dollars a month depending on an author’s experience, the time of year or how much work they take on. University students in Europe and the US are the most customers paying Kenyans to do their academic work for them. The global market for academic writing is estimated to be worth $1bn (£770m) annually.
Though there has been questions about ChatGPT’s legality and even some countries have outlawed its practice and use, that hasn’t stopped cheating-for-hire from being a stupendously lucrative business. The pandemic solidified its status, during which students depended on these services even more. A study cited by The Walrus found that contract cheating increased nearly tenfold during the lockdown. Many college and university students across the world are now wondering why they should shell out the extra money for a ghostwriter essay when ChatGPT can now do written assignments for free. This approach is in turn affecting and threatening cheating businesses as since its launch there have been a drop in demand for ghostwriters.
Different researches have been carried out and are being carried out to determine the popularity and efficiency of ChatGPT but its safe to say that its usage is growing steadily and this is poising a stiff competition to the old cultural ghostwriting business.