From “AI is Supi” to “Democracy is in Danger”: Users’ Perceptions About AI

Abstract

Educational institutions worldwide have introduced courses, training, guidelines, and similar documentation which range from allowing unlimited use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based products to their complete ban in specific settings. Tangentially, and with the spread of chatbots and similar software programs for fast producing textual and other types of information, there are also increasing concerns regarding how and what students actually learn or should, as well as whether outsourcing reading comprehension, academic writing, critical thinking, and other cognitive skills, once paramount in educational contexts, are enhanced or atrophied with the help of AI, and how academic integrity might be devalued as a result of the latter. Tangentially, because the harms are often acknowledged but the use of AI is simultaneously promoted, which is known as responsible realism and is a form of ethics washing. This paper presents part of an empirical, exploratory study whose goals include the analysis of users’ perceptions about the use of AI and their awareness of possible harms. To gather opinions on these and related topics, a survey was conducted to which a total of 535 university members participated. All responses were scrutinized using qualitative content analysis. This allowed for the extraction of categories that depict the whole spectrum of their stances regarding AI. The results contribute to understanding users’ awareness, opinions, concerns, and needs regarding the use of this technology. They also help in uncovering common tropes that might be preventing university members from assessing generative AI harms critically.