This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: College students say they use AI mostly for learning and don't use it to cut corners but think that their peers do, according to the inaugural Dartmouth AI Survey, a new multiyear survey on how AI is shaping students' learning and career readiness. The findings were announced Oct. 30 at Dartmouth's AI at 70: What Must Remain Human? conference marking the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence that launched the field of AI.
Bruce Sacerdote '90, the Richard S. Braddock 1963 Professor in Economics, who is leading the survey research, and Peter Chin, a professor of engineering at Thayer School of Engineering and AI at 70 conference chair, discussed the results at a panel session at the conference. More than 1,500 Dartmouth students and 1,000 college students across the United States were surveyed between June and September.
Overall, college students report that they use AI to learn, but the survey found an interesting gap: Students think their peers are using it much more than they themselves do. For example, 11% reported AI use to solve problem sets while 49% think their peers are doing so, and 8% reported copying and pasting text with little editing while they think that 50% of their peers do that. The results also reveal how AI is affecting homework and learning, and how prepared students feel to use AI when they arrive at college.
They also shed light on students' views that AI skills will be critical for them to enter the job market when they graduate: Dartmouth students differed a little in some of the responses compared with students nationally. Approximately 17% of Dartmouth undergraduates report that they use AI to draft essays while they think that 63% of their peers do. And nearly all students recognize the risks AI poses to learning, with 92% of Dartmouth students saying that AI can hurt writing skills as compared to 84% of students nationally.
Among Dartmouth students, 74% believe AI skills will be critical to their careers as compared to 55% nationally. And the survey also found that differences by field of study were two times larger than differences by class year. Seventy percent of Dartmouth students in sciences say AI deepens understanding, compared with 67% in social sciences and 48% in arts and humanities.
They also believe AI skills to be critical for their future careers, but they don't believe in a "jobpocalypse," with 84% of students at Dartmouth saying AI is changing jobs in their field but not necessarily eliminating them. "Students have told us they want to use AI to learn and prepare for their future careers, but at the same time, they assume the people around them are cutting corners. This shapes how they feel about fairness and how they work to keep up.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
