ChatGPT

ChatGPT was released by OpenAI in November 2022, and its adoption in education was rapid. However, the tool was banned by several institutions. Students have generally reported positive perceptions, but specific views from educators and students vary widely.^[9] Opinions are especially varied on what constitutes appropriate use of ChatGPT in education. Efforts to ban chatbots like ChatGPT in schools focus on preventing cheating, but enforcement is hampered due to AI detection inaccuracies and widespread accessibility of chatbot technology. Educators have also expressed concern that overreliance on the tool may foster superficial learning habits, erode critical thinking, and propagate misinformation.^[9] Some educators have proposed ways to integrate generative AI into assessments.^[10][11]

Educators

Uses of generative AI chatbots in education have included assessment and feedback, machine translations, proof-reading exam question generation and copy editing, or as virtual assistants.^[20][21]

Emotional AI in education is the study and development of systems that can detect learners' emotions or provide emotional support in learning.^[22]

Broad and unplanned use of AI in education administration may lead to harms such as discrimination through superficial categorization of student records, biases in automated grading toward students whose work fits preplanned algorithmic definitions, and exclusion of students from AI training whose previous experiences have not prepared them with requisite computer literacies.^[23] However, more structured uses have successfully incorporated generative AI into inquiry-based workflows in which University students use AI for exploration and critique while independently verifying claims against scholarly sources and incorporating expert feedback^[24].

Students

A global survey from 2024 found that students primarily use generative AI for brainstorming, summarization, and research assistance, finding it effective for simplifying complex information but less reliable for factual accuracy and classroom learning. While students recognized its potential to enhance AI literacy and digital communication, professors highlighted significant limitations in critical thinking, interpersonal communication, and decision-making skills.^[25] In a global study, approximately 58% of students reported finding the AI tool useful in their daily lives. According to the survey, ChatGPT was particularly beneficial in blended learning environments where a significant portion of learning is conducted online. The majority of students expressed a preference for in-person assistance over AI, describing ChatGPT as a resource for when in-person support was unavailable.^[25]

Proponents of using chatbots in education argue for using it to enhance learning outcomes through personalized approaches.^[26][27][28]

AI chatbots have been used to attempt to improve literacy skills among adolescents and adults learning English as a second language. Chatbots provide feedback on writing and can help improve grammar and vocabulary.^[29] These tools can also support students with disabilities, such as dyslexia, by assisting with spelling and grammar.^[30][31] ChatGPT has the potential to automate routine tasks, enabling students to focus on conceptual work. However, the chatbot perpetuates biases in its training data,^[31] and OpenAI uses students' data to train upcoming models.^[32]

Technology writer Dan Gillmor used ChatGPT in 2022 on a student assignment, and found its generated text was on par with what a good student would deliver and opined that "academia has some very serious issues to confront".^[33]

Geography professor Terence Day assessed in 2023 citations generated by ChatGPT and found them to be fake. Despite this, he writes that "the titles of the fake articles are all directly relevant to the questions and could potentially make excellent papers. The lack of a genuine citation could signal an opportunity for an enterprising author to fill a void." According to Day, it is possible to generate high-quality introductory college courses using ChatGPT; he used it to write materials for "introductory physical geography courses, my second-year course in geographical hydrology, and second-year cartography, geographic information systems, and remote sensing." He concludes that "this approach could have significant relevance for open learning and could potentially affect current textbook publishing models."^[34] ChatGPT was also seen as an opportunity for cheap and individualized tutoring, leading to the creation of specialized chatbots like Khanmigo.^[35]

Schools and educators

Following the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, some schools and large school districts blocked access to the site and issued warnings that the use of such tools would be seen as cheating.^[36]

Governmental and non-governmental organizations such as UNESCO, Article 4 of the European Union's AI Act, and the U.S. Department of Education have published reports advocating for specific AIEd approaches.^[37][38][39] National higher-education bodies have also published guidance on generative AI, including Ireland's Higher Education Authority, which issued a policy framework for higher education teaching and learning in December 2025.^[40] In 2024, UNESCO released updated global guidance for generative AI in education, emphasizing ethical use, teacher training, and data protection to ensure responsible integration of AI tools in learning environments.^[41] According to Taso (2025), policy implementation in higher education is interpreted and enacted differently by various organizations. These decentralized policies can lead to inconsistent enforcement and confusion among students regarding what constitutes acceptable use, with the burden of ethical navigation falling on individual teachers and students.^[42]

AI integration in classrooms has created new forms of invisible labour for educators, who must navigate ambiguous policies, redesign assessments to be AI-resilient, and adjudicate potential academic integrity violations. The use of AI detection tools has also been criticised for creating an adversarial relationship between students and institutions, where students may be falsely accused of misconduct based on probabilistic software.^[42]

AIEd advocates say that efforts should be made towards increasing global accessibility and training educators to serve underprivileged areas.^[2][43]

According to NPR in a poll conducted with Ipsos in 2026, of 545 K-12 educators in the US, "nearly 3-in-4 believe AI has bigger implications for education than past innovations like the internet or computers."^[44] Around half of educators said they had used AI for work tasks. More than half said that students did not use AI in the classroom at all. Around half said it interfered with students ability to learn critical thinking skills, and that it was a shortcut for students to avoid work. Almost 80% of respondents said that schools should include teaching responsible AI usage as part of their curricula.^[44]

Adoption into assignments

Andrew Maynard of Arizona State University, and Jules White of Vanderbilt University, both futures studies professors, have developed university courses specifically for prompt engineering generative AI chatbots.^[45] Although many schools have banned the use of ChatGPT, some professors have instead incorporated ChatGPT into assignments, saying that it is not feasible or practical to ban students from using it. One said that ChatGPT improved his students' work by assisting in the generation of ideas.^[46]

Students

Reliance on generative AI has been linked with reduced academic self-esteem and performance, and heightened learned helplessness.^[47] Algorithm errors and hallucinations are common flaws in AI agents, making them less trustworthy and reliable.^[2][48]

According to a 2025 survey from Inside Higher Ed, 85% of higher education students use generative AI technology in some way, with 25% using AI to complete assignments for them. The most common reason cited for using AI to cheat was pressure to get high grades. 97% of students wanted some form of action from schools on the threat to academic integrity caused by AI, with the most popular options being clearer policies and more education about ethical uses of AI.^[49]

In September 2025, The Atlantic published an op-ed from a high school senior arguing that the normalization of AI cheating was eroding critical thinking, academic integrity, creativity, and the shared student experience.^[50]

Academic integrity

ChatGPT's capability to generate assignments has prompted concerns about academic integrity, particularly in essay writing, with critics foreseeing potential misuse and devaluation of traditional writing skills.^[57][58][59] A survey conducted between March and April 2023 revealed 58% of American students acknowledged using ChatGPT, with 38% admitting use without teacher consent, highlighting challenges in enforcing bans.^[60][61] Students have shown strongly differing opinions on the extent to which the use of ChatGPT should be viewed as misconduct.^[62][63] Kevin Roose stated that ChatGPT's prohibition was impractical to enforce. Students can access the internet outside of schools, effectively rendering a ban obsolete; he further suggested that teachers allow it openly for some assignments similar to calculators, and that teaching with the AI is the best approach.^[26]

A professor at Texas A&M University misused ChatGPT to check student assignments for verifying whether an assignment utilized the large language model. ChatGPT claimed all the students used it, and so the professor gave a failing grade to all of his students. In fact, ChatGPT is unable to reliably verify whether it was used to write a piece of text. A post to a Reddit community dedicated to ChatGPT received widespread attention with many attacking the professor for a lack of familiarity towards the chatbot.^[64][65]

Universities have stated serious concerns with the integrity of their curriculum due to students using ChatGPT and other AI tools. Baylor University asked students to submit handwritten essays in order to uphold academic integrity. The oral exam has also been used as an example of an instruction method which could circumvent the assignment and test students' knowledge more effectively on a 1:1 basis.^[27]

Business

OpenAI launched "ChatGPT Edu" in May 2024.^[66]

The education technology company Chegg, which was a website dedicated to helping students with assignments using a database of collected worksheets and assignments, became one of the most prominent business victims to ChatGPT, with its stock price nearly being cut in half after a quarterly earnings call in May 2023.^[67][68]

Repeals

Some schools in the United States for the 2023–24 school year announced a repeal of their bans for ChatGPT. In May 2023, New York City repealed its ban on ChatGPT.^[74] Davis Banks, the head of New York City's public schools at the time, explained that the initial decision to ban the tool was driven by a "knee-jerk fear [that] overlooked the potential of generative AI to support students and teachers". He also recognized that AI would inevitably be a part of students' future workplaces and argued that teaching them to use it ethically would be more beneficial than imposing a blanket ban. With the ban lifted, educators in New York City now have the opportunity to use ChatGPT for various educational purposes, including teaching about AI prejudice and creating lessons. To assist in this transition, the city's Department of Education committed to providing educators with "resources, real-life examples of successful AI implementation in schools, and an AI toolkit".^[11]

Another district, Walla Walla Public Schools, located in rural Washington, also lifted its ban on ChatGPT starting in the 2023–24 school year. To support this transition, the district hosted a daylong workshop that focused on the positive learning benefits of AI in the classroom. The event was attended by around 100 local educators.^[10]