The near-ubiquitous use of artificial intelligence in universities is generating new sources of stress, as students worry over the potential ramifications of both using and not using the technology.
A survey of more than 1,200 Australian students has uncovered a hierarchy of concerns about AI, including negative cognitive impacts, breaches of privacy, unfair competition for grades and groundless accusations of cheating.
The survey by data analytics company YouGov also revealed ambiguous attitudes about AI’s impacts on careers, with many respondents considering it both a threat to job security and a prerequisite for employability.
Such misgivings have not stymied uptake of the technology, with 84 per cent of Australian students now using AI tools at least occasionally, up from 74 per cent when similar research was conducted a year earlier.
The findings come from the Australian segment of a global study commissioned by student support company Studiosity. Like their UK counterparts, Australian respondents were particularly worried about being wrongly flagged for misconduct. Fifty-two per cent nominated “being accused of cheating when I did nothing wrong” among their top three fears about the technology.
