Personal and academic use of artificial intelligence in university students: an exploratory study

This paper analyzes the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the university context, with the aim of exploring the personal and academic use of AI among university students. The study was empirical, cross-sectional, with a quantitative approach and a correlational design. As part of the research, fieldwork was conducted in the city of Chihuahua, Mexico, with a random sample of 1 187 students from public and private universities. The results showed that variables such as gender, semester, field of study, and type of university do not influence AI usage. Among the findings, the widespread knowledge and use of ChatGPT (OpenAI) for both personal and academic purposes stands out, as well as the evident familiarity with and use of other AI applications, including Bing, You, Gamma, Dall-E, Perplexity, Pi, and Murf. It was observed that, despite the widespread use of AI tools for academic tasks, access to these tools is limited for most students, as they are not yet available to them in a formal capacity through their universities.