The majority of students using artificial intelligence (AI) as part of their studies claim to be honest about how they apply it, according to the results of a survey of more than 6,000 students at UK universities.
Of those who said they are incorporating the technology into their degree, 67 per cent said they would not use it to help with “part or all” of an assessment if they had been instructed not to, a study from Edinburgh Napier University has found.
Nonetheless, 5.2 per cent of all habitual users admitted to using generative AI “most of the time” or “always”, even when they knew they were not permitted to.
The results follow a report from plagiarism detection service Turnitin, which suggested American students were depending on AI far more than their Australian or British peers.
Generative AI's ability to produce entire essays has sparked fears of mass cheating and “cognitive offloading”, in which people may cede their own intellectual effort to the technology. Some universities have responded by returning to in-person exams.
