A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that many younger members of Generation Z, specifically teens aged 13 to 17, are starting to use ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot created by OpenAI, to help them with their schoolwork. However, it seems that these students may not fully understand the potential problems that come with relying on this technology.
In this follow-up survey to a previous one conducted in 2023, about 1,400 teenagers across the United States were asked if they had used ChatGPT for homework or other school-related tasks. The results revealed that 26% of them reported using it, which is double the proportion from two years ago.
When the teens were asked about the acceptability of using ChatGPT for various tasks, more than half (about 54%) believed it was fine to use it for researching new topics. Meanwhile, 29% felt it was okay to use for solving math problems, and 18% thought it was acceptable to rely on ChatGPT for writing essays.
However, the findings could be concerning when we consider the limitations of ChatGPT. For one, it struggles with math and is not always a reliable source of information. A recent study aimed at testing the AI’s knowledge suggested that it only answered questions slightly better than someone making random guesses. The same study pointed out that ChatGPT had particular weaknesses in certain subjects, such as social mobility and the geopolitics of Sub-Saharan Africa. This is noteworthy since Black and Hispanic teens, who may be using the tool more frequently for schoolwork, could be studying materials that ChatGPT doesn’t handle well.
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The impact of ChatGPT on learning results has produced mixed reviews. For example, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that Turkish high school students who used ChatGPT actually performed worse on a math test compared to those who did not use the AI. In another study involving German students, while those using ChatGPT found research resources more easily, they often struggled to effectively combine and understand the information compared to their peers who didn’t use ChatGPT.
In a different survey conducted last year by Pew, a quarter of public K-12 teachers expressed concerns that using AI tools like ChatGPT might do more harm than good in classroom settings. Another survey from the Rand Corporation and the Center for Reinventing Public Education indicated that only 18% of K-12 educators currently use AI in their teaching practices.
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