A recent feature in the The Guardian by journalist Jeremy Ettinghausen explores how three undergraduate students at an unnamed UK university used a shared ChatGPT Plus account over 18 months. In total, the students logged nearly 12,000 prompts. While half of the queries supported academic work—including a 103-prompt essay exchange—others addressed mental health, identity, job applications, and everyday dilemmas. Prompts ranged from “What’s a good internship cover letter?” to “Why are brown jeans not common?” Reflecting on these prompts, the author discusses his concerns about misinformation, over-reliance on AI responses, and the erosion of human interaction. Despite institutional policies on ethical AI use, Ettinghausen observes that students rarely disclose their usage. As such, the author suggests that AI’s role in student life is expanding rapidly while remaining largely invisible to educators and administrators.
