Generative AI is a common topic of conversation and discourse at this point in time. With concerns about loss of critical thinking skills, cheating and emotional dependance on AI leaving people divided, I interviewed twelve Lake Land College (LLC) students about their opinions on AI.
Seven out of 12 students cited AI usage, with reasons ranging from help with schoolwork, using it to correct grammar, and one respondent sharing a previous experience of speaking to a Chatbot.
Most respondents answered that AI had an overall negative effect on college students, with six students pressing concerns about people using it to cheat on assignments and using it in place of critical thinking. Other respondents cited concerns about the environment and the overall long-term effect of AI usage on people’s brains.
A study done by the International Energy Agency (IEA) concluded that one ChatGPT prompt consumes ten times more electricity than a Google Search. Another study by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) concludes that “Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people.” This same study cites concerns about the limited amount of freshwater these communities have available to them being funneled into data centers, instead of being used by real people.
Ecological impact aside, several students also cited concerns with people developing attachments to AI. One student gave insight into their previous Chatbot usage to the point of addiction, saying, “There is a certain loneliness involved with starting college, and AI companies, and specifically chatbots, are meant to prey on that. So, I was one of many cases of people getting addicted to that fake form of connection. AI chatbots are meant to be addictive and dopamine inducing, and they are in practice as well.” A study called “Computers in Human Behavior” (Hu et al., 2023) found a positive correlation between dependence on Chatbots and social anxiety. They also cited that people who conversate with AI on the regular have “an average of 23 conversational turns per session … which is higher than the average number in human-to-human interactions.”
College students are also more likely to look down on those who use AI extensively, based on my interactions. One student stated that they think “People sound really dumb when they say ‘I asked AI to do [blank] for me’” with another student saying that dependence on AI can make people “become stupid”. One student said “We as a society should be able to do work and come up with solutions to problems without using AI,” with another arguing that AI usage “promotes laziness and lack of thinking, creativity, and originality.”
A few respondents argued positive effects as well, but nobody argued it exclusively. One student said that AI can help students by “creating study guides, practice tests, directing them to sources, putting together diets and monitoring sleep in order to keep students healthy.”
Due to the small sample size, my results obviously are not all-encompassing of Lake Land students, but I do believe these results are important to consider.
Thank you to Wade Snyder, Sultan Camp, Ann Camren, Peter Rosen, and 8 anonymous participants.
