Some ideas for using ChatGPT or similar generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots as a resource and learning tool.

You can’t use it at the concorso, so clearly it’s not a good idea to use it if you do the simulazione online. As your teacher I would be marking ChatGPT’s performance, not yours. My job is to give you feedback on what you are able to produce alone. The simulazione is practice for the concorso, not an exam.

On the other hand, ChatGPT is very good if you are looking at essay titles and thinking about how to respond AFTER you have already done some research yourself. Use it as a research tool for ideas, structure and, of course, correct language.

Remember, it’s AI, very intelligent but really only as smart as the question(s) that you ask.

So if you give it an essay title, it will give you an essay, but is the essay it produces good? Well, you can certainly use it to get ideas. I asked:

What is the current situation regarding Italy and illegal immigration?

It gave me a generic essay, interesting but very general. So I had to add more questions about other aspects that I knew about already, in order to improve what it was giving me. I also asked for immigration figures and had to specify which ones (the ones for the cental Mediterranean route).  Do you want to ask it to include the Mattei Plan? The agreement with Albania? Some background – the EU-Turkey agreement of 2016, and the MoU between Italy and Libya of 2017? Or immigration figures over the last ten years? As I said, ChatGPT doesn’t know what you want to include or focus on until you tell it.

If you ask it to give you its sources, so that you can check if they are good, authoritative, up-to-date sources, it will probably only give generic sources, like the Ministero degli Esteri 2025, but without giving links to specific pages. However, if you have done some research, you can instruct ChatGpt to add material from specific sources and give it the links to those sources.

Then you should ask yourself if the tone is right for the concorso. Is it right for a diplomat? e.g. make sure that any potential criticism of the government is referred to others rather than made directly by you – ‘ Some commentators/experts argue that….’ and that you provide some response to it. Is there a good balance?

 Is it serious enough? Does it give some practical examples (for example, regarding the work of the government or the Ministry or the EU)? If not, ask for some, or supply them yourself. Are the examples it gives up-to-date and relevant (pertinenti)?

Eventually it gave me a good, basic essay. From this you can get ideas for, and take notes on, the content (by collating various elements that it has given you and other points that you bring from your own research), the essay structure, a possible thesis and line of argument and, of course, correct vocabulary and language for linking sentences and paragraphs.

You may need to specify that the vocabulary should be formal and academic. And unless you write a memo, you won’t use the section headings,

It’s also a good exercise to check you haven’t missed some basic point as regards the content.

Finally, you can ask ChatGPT to change the form. Let’s say you want a speech, not an essay. So I asked for a speech to a specific audience in a specific place and at a specific time but on the same subject:

Write a speech that you will give at London University in December 2025 as a member of the diplomatic corps working at the Italian Embassy, explaining Italy’s current position and policy on irregular immigration.

So now it had to change the format from an essay to a speech.

Again you can refine your question and add new elements. For instance, do you want to add ‘at the Department of International Relations’ or ‘thank the organizer for inviting you’ or ‘add an icebreaker’ or ‘invite questions’ or ‘make the greetings slightly more formal’ or ‘provide information for your availability for follow-up contact today or later’?

Now you should be able to make notes on the speech structure and language – greetings, introducing yourself (but remember, at the concoro you can’t give your name and surname) and your topic, links and ways to move forward, express balance, get the tone right and come to a conclusion.

So take lots of notes on all the elements that you could use in other speeches.

Using ChatGPT to correct an essay

If you simply copy an essay title and the essay you have written into ChatGPT and ask it to correct it, it will do so, but with a mix of correction types and not really in depth. It doesn’t know what you need, so it has to guess. You should help it to help you.

So ask it for various points separately in a series of analytic questions:

Can you correct and comment on this essay only regarding grammar errors and highlight the errors for me?

Can you correct and comment on this essay only regarding vocbulary errors and highlight the errors for me?

Can you correct and comment on this essay linguistically, suggesting ways to maintain a better formal style?

Can you correct and comment on this essay for content?

Since it is AI it will usually stay near to your content, so you could also ask

Can you suggest any other ideas for content?

Or you can just put in the essay title without your essay and see what points it gives

Can you comment on this essay regarding essay structure, thesis and line of argument?

Can you comment on this essay regarding examples given or evidence presented for points made?

Can comment on this essay regarding paragraphing, the introduction, body and conclusion and suggest changes?

Can you add linking words and expressions to strengthen the cohesion of the text?

Can you comment on this essay for balance and formal academic tone?

Now you should be able to make lots of notes on all the elements above to help you improve your future essays on other topics.