Dive Brief:

• The number of teens who use ChatGPT to do their schoolwork doubled between 2023 and 2024, rising from 13% to 26%, according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center. 
• Students' general awareness of the artificial intelligence tool also increased. Overall, 79% of teens say they have heard of the chatbot, up from 67% in 2023, and the share who say they have heard “a lot” about it rose from 23% in 2023 to 32% today.
• At 31% each, Black and Hispanic teens were more likely than White teens — at 22% — to say they have used ChatGPT for their schoolwork. This represents a shift from 2023, when 11% of Hispanic and White teens said they have used ChatGPT for schoolwork compared to 13% of Black students.

Dive Insight:

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that uses natural language processing to create human-like conversational dialogue. The 2-year-old chatbot can respond to questions and compose various written content, including emails, essays and social media posts.

A report from the civil rights nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology shows that the percentage of teachers utilizing AI also increased in the 2023-2024 school year. In particular, educators were found to use AI for plagiarism detection or to spot trends in student progress.

While some educators are concerned about AI as a plagiarism tool, some schools across the country have been incorporating AI chatbots as a supplemental reading tool. AI bots like Amira, Early Bird and Bamboo Learning assist teachers with reading instruction by providing 1-to-1 instruction to students and to help teachers pinpoint areas for improvement.

The perception among teens of acceptable ChatGPT use also depends on the type of schoolwork. According to the Pew Research report, 54% of teens say it's OK to use ChatGPT for researching new topics, but only 18% say it's acceptable to use for essays. Perception is more split when it comes to math, with 29% saying it’s acceptable to use for solving problems and 28% saying it's not acceptable.

The report also found that grade level impacts students’ usage of ChatGPT. Older students are more likely to use the chatbot, with 31% of 11th and 12th graders saying they use the tool for their schoolwork compared to 20% of 7th and 8th graders who say they do.