ChatGPT Ends Kenya's 12-Year College Essay Ghostwriting Boom
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 5
ChatGPT Ends Kenya's 12-Year College Essay Ghostwriting Boom
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 5
Summary
$7 for a two-page essay once opened a viable income stream for Kenyan freelancers, but that market has sharply contracted since ChatGPT's 2022 release.
2,500 essays over 12 years was one writer's tally as educated Kenyans filled assignments for overseas students who outsourced coursework, sometimes even sharing school logins.
OpenAI's chatbot changed the economics of that trade: students could generate papers instantly instead of paying human writers in Kenya, undercutting a niche of global online gig work.
The shift highlights how AI is displacing low-profile digital labor in countries such as Kenya, where internet access had created rare earning opportunities for job-hungry graduates.