The Use of ChatGPT in Academic Writing: A Blessing or A Curse in Disguise?

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT has left people feeling ambivalent and disagreement among scholars, academicians, educators and the community at large prevails. While the artificial intelligence could potentially revolutionize how research is conducted and how research papers are written, a number of ethical concerns arise. In particular, the world of academia has reservations pertaining to whether this language model will actually do more good than harm, especially as far as academic writing is concerned. This paper argues that the cutting-edge technology is here to stay and the question is not whether to accept it, but rather, how to best utilize it judiciously, cautiously and responsibly to improve research performance by strictly adhering to academic integrity and transparency. Potential benefits and drawbacks of ChatGPT will be critically examined in light of current literature and, when relevant, potential solutions to the drawbacks will also be provided or commented on. Needless to say, the use of artificial intelligence in academic writing is still in its infancy and more discussion and debates pertaining to its use and merit are highly urged. This paper contributes to these on-going debates.