CHATGPT IN UNIVERSITY CLASSROOMS: WHY ADOPT IT AND NOT FEAR IT?

Abstract

Background The last decade has been marked by profound technological advancements. Productive sectors of various kinds have experienced, at different levels, the eventual benefits brought by these technologies. The development of "smart" polymeric materials, superconductors, and some special metallic alloys are some examples directed towards manufacturing itself. However, there was an almost silent and equally impactful advancement: Artificial Intelligence. This technology, based largely on programming, was able to spread rapidly and, in a few years, promote a real change in the management of organizations, companies, and institutions worldwide. With the launch of ChatGPT, universities became seemingly vulnerable to this tool and any other that could produce content. Purpose This work aimed to show the potential of this tool for the student body of the Mechanical Engineering Course. Method To this end, personalized directed studies were created that encouraged the use of AI to solve questionnaires. Based on rounds of questions, the studies differed between those that had more generic questions and those that had specific questions, based on previously selected literature. At the end, the students were invited to answer a questionnaire about their perceptions regarding the level of detail and accuracy of the answers given by both the AI and the students themselves, without consulting ChatGPT. Conclusions Although newer generations of students are already familiar with technology and use generative language tools in their studies, the majority still believe that it, on its own, is insufficient.