Argue Like You Mean It — With Evidence

Write an argumentative essay on whether art created by AI should be eligible for copyright protection. Consider: what defines authorship, how current copyright law addresses creative tools, whether the person writing the prompt is the "creator," and what protecting (or not protecting) AI art means for human artists' livelihoods.

Should digital literacy — including media evaluation, data privacy, algorithmic awareness, and AI literacy — be a required subject in all schools, on par with math and English? Argue your position with evidence about misinformation, digital manipulation, and workforce readiness.

Should people have the legal right to demand that search engines remove outdated or embarrassing information about them? Argue your position considering personal privacy, public interest, free speech, press freedom, and the practical challenges of enforcing such a right.

Should there be a legal minimum age for smartphone ownership, similar to driving or drinking age? Argue for or against a ban on personal smartphones for children under 14, addressing mental health data, safety considerations, parental rights, enforcement challenges, and the digital divide.

Tech companies profit billions from user data collected through "free" services. Should users be compensated financially for their data? Argue your position considering data valuation, platform business models, digital inequality, and whether payment would legitimize surveillance.

Argue for or against tuition-free public college education. Address: funding mechanisms (who pays?), the value of a degree in the current economy, impact on private universities, international comparisons, and whether free college would actually increase equity or primarily benefit the middle class.

Argue for or against replacing traditional letter grades with narrative evaluations, portfolio assessments, or competency-based systems. Consider: what grades actually measure, how they affect motivation, whether they prepare students for the real world, and what alternatives would look like at scale.

Should students be required (or strongly incentivized) to take a gap year between high school and college? Argue your position using evidence about academic readiness, maturity, career clarity, dropout rates, and the economic implications for students who can't afford a year without income.

At what age (if ever) should students have full control over what they study? Argue for or against student-directed learning, addressing developmental readiness, the value of a shared knowledge base, motivation research, and examples from unschooling or democratic free schools.

Should homework be eliminated, reduced, or redesigned? Argue your position using research on homework's actual impact on learning (it varies dramatically by age), its effect on family time and equity, and what alternatives (if any) would replace the learning it's supposed to provide.

Some argue that privacy as traditionally understood is already gone, and society should adapt rather than fight to restore it. Others argue privacy is a fundamental right worth protecting at any cost. Take a position and defend it, addressing surveillance technology, social media culture, government access, corporate data collection, and the actual benefits (if any) of reduced privacy.

Is the existence of billionaires a sign of a healthy economy and innovation incentive, or evidence of a broken system that concentrates wealth while others lack basic needs? Argue your position with evidence about wealth creation, taxation, philanthropy versus systemic change, innovation incentives, and global poverty data.

Should governments provide a universal basic income (UBI) — a regular cash payment to every citizen, no strings attached? Argue for or against using evidence from pilot programs (Finland, Stockton, Kenya), labor market research, inflation concerns, and philosophical arguments about human motivation and dignity.

Over 20 countries require citizens to vote. Should your country adopt mandatory voting? Argue your position addressing democratic participation, individual freedom, the quality of forced votes, the impact on political polarization, and what mandatory voting has actually produced in countries like Australia and Belgium.

Should society actively promote lab-grown meat as a replacement for traditional animal agriculture? Argue your position considering environmental impact, animal welfare, food safety, cultural significance of traditional farming, economic disruption, and whether "natural" food has inherent value.