Once upon a time, college students turned to their family, friends or professors for advice. Now, some are turning to a new close companion: AI chat platforms that never judge, reply instantly and provide you information pulled from the entire web within seconds — and does not mind being asked for relationship advice at 2 a.m.
As AI becomes more accessible and widely used, it may not come as a surprise to some that a generation raised on technology seeks advice from these platforms. Generation Z, born between the years 1997 and 2012, is the first generation to be fully immersed in digital tools and the internet for most of their lives.
As technology continues to advance, AI has become the new go-to for some people for quick answers — sorry, Google. However, there is still a crowd that questions its reliability and security, as well as the fact that some people are relying on a robot to help them out.
Expressing uncertainty, Anastasia Shivers, a freshman psychology major, avoids the use of AI technology.
“I think that as much as the internet is a good source of information, it’s not always the most reliable,” Shivers says. “Especially for emotions and stuff, it’s not personal — it’s not someone who’s a trained professional and has gone through the training to know how to react and pick up subtle things.”
Yet, there are students like Joanne Ibeziako, a freshman neuroscience major, who is transparent about AI usage.
“I usually always go to my chat for any question I have,” Ibeziako says. “It’s also very supportive because it’s able to just say, ‘Oh, this is how you could do this.’”
With ChatGPT specifically, the platform has a memory feature that allows it to use previous information shared to assist with future conversations. This personalized support enhances new interactions, which leads some people to say their “chat” understands them. This feature can be disabled in settings.
While exploring AI platforms, Ruoming Jin, a professor of computer science, has been working on a research project collaborating with public health and psychology departments.
On one side of this research, they leverage large language models and ChatGPT to examine the emotional well-being and personality of individuals through conversations, as well as dialogues and social media data.
“We are analyzing conversation data to infer personality and also infer the mental health status, whether depression, anxiety, all kinds of issues from conversation,” Jin says.
The research also includes developing personalized LLMs to help replicate virtual patients.
“ChatGPT is probably not equipped to deal with those sophisticated human emotions,” Jin says. “It’s a good device for common knowledge, but for emotional support, as far as we know, there’s only very limited research to understand that aspect.”
R.J. Sarafian, a junior digital media production student, uses AI to provide guidance in new and unfamiliar phases of life.
Claire Duber is the managing editor. Contact her at [email protected].
