AI can write your master’s thesis. Now what?

The central point I want to drive home in this article is that AI has what it takes to produce a passable research thesis. This statement does not stand on speculation or hearsay; I have put ChatGPT to the test and asked her to produce the introductory chapter of such a thesis. If fully developed, the prompts I have fed ChatGPT with will generate a thesis that fulfills the academic research requirements for passing the MA degree in the social sciences.

Master’s thesis cover page: courtesy of AI-powered Microsoft PowerPoint

In what follows, I will go through the steps I have followed to generate the introductory chapter for a hot topic at the intersection of education and AI. Then I will discuss the implications of such an affordance for this central academic research writing component.

Technical procedure

The title of the thesis I wanted to develop is this: Online Learning in the Age of AI: Challenges and Promises. The introductory chapter I have generated through AI’s ChatGPT comes in 14 double-spaced pages and 3,574 words with a reference list. Click on QR code below to access the full chapter.