Abstract: Abstract This opinion piece emerged from research for the book, Story Machines: How Computers Have Become Creative Writers , by Mike Sharples and Rafael Pérez y Pérez, published by Routledge. While thinking of ways to promote the book, I realised that students could employ AI story generators to write essays. That led me to research automated essay writing, write a Twitter thread that has garnered 43,000 engagements, and author a blog article (Sharples, 2022). The current piece is a revised and expanded version of that article.