Generative AI's rise has stirred concerns in academia, particularly regarding its potential to weaken critical thinking and facilitate cheating among students. A focus group conducted with 95 University of Pittsburgh students revealed that AI is influencing their emotional experiences and interpersonal dynamics in learning environments. Many students reported using AI tools like ChatGPT for support under pressure. While AI is often not the first resource students turn to, its use can reshape relationships with peers and instructors. The presence of AI in academic settings is fostering both assistance in learning and new complexities in trust and communication.
Many students described positive experiences using AI to help them study or answer questions, or give them feedback on papers. Some even described using AI instead of a professor, tutor or teaching assistant.
Most students don't start a project using AI, but many are willing to turn to it at some point, especially when faced with a time crunch or task insecurity.
While AI products are affecting how students learn, their emergence is also changing relationships with professors and with one another in the learning environment.
Whether students and faculty are actively using AI or not, it is having significant interpersonal, emotional effects on learning and trust in the classroom.
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