Have LLMs destroyed essay mills? (markcarrigan.net)

Recent trends suggest that large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT and others, may be reshaping the landscape for essay mills, traditional services that provide students with pre-written assignments for a fee. Following new UK legislation making it illegal to offer contract cheating services for financial gain, there is ongoing debate about whether these companies have truly declined. While reports indicate a drop in traffic to essay mills, anecdotal evidence suggests that these services are pivoting to use AI technologies, potentially integrating LLMs to enhance their offerings. This raises questions about how students distinguish between AI-generated content and that produced by human writers. The significance of this shift lies in the evolving economic proposition for students, who can now access essay-quality content through AI tools at little to no cost, undermining the appeal of paying for services that may not have guaranteed better results. The new legislation, although a step towards combating cheating, has yet to show any recorded legal repercussions, raising doubts about its effectiveness in a digital landscape where accessibility to advanced AI writing tools may inadvertently perpetuate the contract cheating market. As anxiety about academic integrity persists, students may paradoxically continue to turn to essay mills, further complicating the future of educational honesty in the age of AI.