Modern Social Science Research

The deep integration of artificial intelligence and college students has not only drawn widespread attention but also exerted a profound influence on college students’ learning effectiveness, digital media literacy, and the talent cultivation system of institutions. However, academic research on large sample student groups is still inadequate. This study conducted a comprehensive survey of over 1,000 students, and meanwhile, carried out participatory observation and semi-structured interviews on some samples to construct a group profile of GAI usage among college students. It also delved deeply into the influencing mechanisms and characteristics behind their usage behaviors. It’s found that students’ usage behavior is correlated with their learning efficiency needs, professional task adaptation, the guiding role from teachers, and the motivation for personal ability expansion. Moreover, it shows features such as extending from “learning needs” to “life companionship”, professional background influencing usage behavior, tendency to cross-use tools, blind spots in cognition and communication, and differentiation in regional and payment preferences. There still exist challenges such as weak ethical awareness and blind optimism. The research also proposes corresponding countermeasures from four dimensions: universities, teachers, technology and students, which is conducive to improving the research framework and providing practical paths for technology to empower higher education.

College student; Artificial intelligence; Influencing factors; Countermeasure