The Perceived Awareness, Attitudes, Benefits, and Threats of AI Tools among Senior High School Students

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved into algorithms and intelligent machines capable of adapting to various contexts, leading to widespread use across different fields, including academics. Understanding AI's integration and application in education is crucial given its benefits and threats. This study aims to determine the perceived awareness, attitude, benefits, and threats of AI tools among senior high schools and their implications for responsible AI use and integration into education. Using a qualitative and quantitative descriptive-comparative design, it analyzes and compares the awareness, attitude, benefits, and threat levels of AI tools. Senior high school students generally have high levels of awareness and perceived threats of AI tools, but maintain a positive attitude towards them. The study found no significant differences among most variables except for attitudes and threats when grouped by strand and sex. The most beneficial feature identified by students is AI's time-saving ability, highlighting its significance for academic institutions. These findings suggest the need for programs promoting proper AI use, such as symposiums and seminars to spread awareness about AI's benefits and threats. Although insightful, the study is limited to senior high school students; thus, other populations should be considered to increase generalizability.