The Interesting Way Students are Using Generative AI (And It’s Not to Cheat)

ChatGPT wrote this article (not really)

It’s no secret by now how much artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm.

We’d bet that you know at least one person who uses an AI tool at least once a week or even once a day.

In the student world though, there’s been a lot spoken and written about how AI could enable students like you to cheat. And sure, there are a few bad eggs out there using AI to cheat, but we’ve got a new report that suggests the majority are doing otherwise.

We asked 560 young people aged 14 to 27 years old if they use AI and how they are using it in our new report, Young People’s Perception and Use of Generative AI.

The report confirmed what we already knew: students use AI. At the time of the survey, nine in ten young people had used Generative AI (like ChatGPT) compared to 65 per cent in 2023.

But are they cheating?

We asked the Gen Zs, “have you ever used Generative AI tools for help with an assignment that would be considered plagiarism?”

And a whopping 70 per cent of respondents said they haven’t and wouldn’t in the future. Only 11 per cent said they had used AI to plagiarise and would do it again.

Importantly, more than four out of five students (82 per cent) reported that they would not use GenAI to plagiarise in the future regardless of how they’ve used these tools before.

And it’s clear Gen Z students have stuck to their word because this data is almost identical to the 2023 results, where 83 per cent of students said that they would not use GenAI to plagiarise in the future.

So what are they using AI for?

Three in five respondents said they used AI to study or help with their homework.

And it wasn’t to cheat or plagiarise but instead they said they used AI like they would use Google. 

Don’t get us wrong, AI has a time and a place (e.g. we would not advise using AI in place of a therapist or doctor – or to cheat).

But it’s become less of a ‘question and answer’ model and is being used more as a tool to, brainstorm and clarify ideas. Which if you have a 3000 word assignment looming, this kinda would be helpful.

One respondent in our report said, “I use them for ideas or for evidence that I couldn’t find by googling or researching or would at least take hours, I never directly copy and paste and usually just use it for ideas or information that I would be able to find publicly but would take me significantly more time.”

Another told us, “I use it for when I am stuck with ideas or don’t understand the information given from Google, so I use AI to simplify and explain instead.”

Interestingly enough, in 2023, Kevin Roose from The New York Times wrote that we should learn new tech like ChatGPT and students will “need to know their way around these tools – their strengths and weaknesses, their hallmarks and blind spots – in order to work alongside them.”

Coincidence? We think not.

If you wanna know more, download our report to find out how Gen Z have been using Generative AI.