About 32 percent of university students polled in Japan said they have used artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, with many saying it enhances their thinking abilities, according to a recent survey by a Japanese research group.
ChatGPT was used the most by students in the departments of science, technology and agriculture, at 45.5 percent overall, and far more by men, at 44.8 percent, than women, at 27.1 percent, the online survey found.
Carried out between May 24 and June 2, the survey received responses from 4,000 students enrolled in universities across the nation. It was conducted amid growing worries that use of ChatGPT could hurt students' critical thinking skills and creativity.
ChatGPT was used by 33.0 percent of students overall in the departments of humanities, social science and education, and by 21.2 percent in the departments of medicine, dentistry and pharmacology.
Some 14 percent of the respondents have used ChatGPT to write reports and other coursework, with 91.8 percent checking to make sure that the text generated is correct or making other adjustments, the survey showed.
Asked whether using ChatGPT was a positive or negative influence on their thinking abilities, a total of 70.7 percent said it was positive or somewhat so, while 15.4 percent said it was negative or somewhat so.
Allowed to state their opinions on ChatGPT in a comments section, some said use of the AI tool should be banned for coursework submissions to ensure fair evaluations while others were against a blanket prohibition.
Fujio Omori, a professor at Tohoku University specializing in education policy and a member of the research group, said the survey showed students were generally verifying the information ChatGPT provided them and continuing to think for themselves.
But given concerns that students could simply copy and paste text generated by ChatGPT for their coursework, Omori added that universities should consider moving away from solely evaluating students on their work done outside classroom "while exploring ways to effectively use ChatGPT."
ChatGPT, a generative AI tool developed by U.S. tech firm OpenAI, is trained using massive amounts of data from the internet, enabling it to process and simulate human-like conversations with users. It gives responses based on users' instructions and questions.
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