Research by The Manchester Tab reveals how many students in Manchester are using ChatGPT and other AI chat bots to receive mental health and social advice.
The information comes from a series of polls posted on The Manchester Tab’s Instagram Stories, which found that 36 per cent of students who use ChatGPT say they use it ‘every day’, and a further 31 per cent say they use the chat bot ‘at least once a week’.
The reasons students gave for using AI ranged from asking the AI to “write a rap about glaciers” to completing personalized cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) training to train the AI to act as a makeshift therapist.
Patrick, a former multimedia journalism student at Manchester Metropolitan University, said he turned to ChatGPT and the Snapchat AI bot for relationship-based advice during his third year at university.
He recalled waking up after being rejected, “stunned” and emotionally burnt out, realizing that “any hope of finding love that year was fading.”
“I just remember crying,” he said.
Patrick also commented that he didn’t feel like his friends’ advice was helpful enough, and that they kept telling him, “You’ll find someone.” [eventually]“Feeling like his feelings weren’t justified, he turned to chatbot conversations for support. He said both ChatGPT and Snapchat AI did a “good job” in validating his feelings and giving him a different, more effective response than what he was hearing from his colleagues.
“It doesn’t judge me,” he said, adding that it “warrants a just response.”
MMU graduate Patrick Watson uses an AI chatbot for support and advice on personal issues.
“Talking to AI about my problems gave me much-needed hope that I could recover from this situation,” he said.
“Not only did it give me an element of validation of my emotions, but it also gave me instant tips on how to pick myself back up.”
The weekend after Patrick used AI for emotional support for the first time, he returned home and “spent a lot of that time talking about the situation with ChatGPT. [about] Next week. ”
He further added: [referring to socialising with his peers following the rejection] But ChatGPT helped me prepare for that much more than the average person. ”
Patrick also commented that ChatGPT’s response speed is a key factor in its value.
“One of the best things is you don’t have to wait for someone to respond, you get an immediate response,” he said.
It’s not just one student using large-scale language models (LLM) in this way. One of our students, Alice*, told us that she paid for the premium version of ChatGPT and entered a PDF mental health guide into the system. This included a guide on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to train the AI bot to better assist her when she shared her personal concerns.
Alice also told the chat bot that she finds comfort in her diary and tarot, and instructed ChatGPT to give her advice and suggestions based on this.
“I use it almost every day, especially since I can speak out loud and have conversations. [with you]” she said.
Students in Manchester appear to be relying on ChatGPT for advice and information, with one student admitting to asking the bot for “opinions on personal matters”.
The student who responded said he used ChatGPT “to see if I was being unreasonable in the discussion.” Another student used a chatbot to “get out of a failed situation.”
One woman even admitted to using ChatGPT to break up with her ex-boyfriend.
However, not all students agree with this regular use of AI, and there are also growing rifts in its use within academia. According to a poll by The Manchester Tab, 64% of students at Manchester universities use ChatGPT to summarize academic documents.
60% of respondents said they use chatbots to help with college assignments.
The top number of respondents in the survey was 506 students, of whom 303 students admitted to using ChatGPT for assignment assistance.
However, when asked whether they would have a harder time understanding academic papers without using ChatGPT, most students seem to use chat bots out of necessity rather than necessity. Despite this, 22% of students still admitted that they had trouble understanding supplementary readers without using ChatGPT.
One student said he used ChatGPT to help with “the whole thing.” [university] quiz. “
But another student said he would never use Chat GPT again after he incorrectly answered a control “test question” on a university lab test.
This practice is becoming increasingly common, and a BBC article published last spring provided examples of British nationals using ChatGPT for personal advice and comfort.
One woman, Kelly, told the BBC that she treated the AI like an “imaginary friend” who acted as an “external voice of encouragement”.
Kelly added that the chatbot’s constant availability and coping mechanisms helped her get through a dark period in her life.
Professor Hamed Haddadi, who teaches human-centred systems at Imperial College London, expressed concern about the practice.
He likened chatbots to “inexperienced therapists.”
“[Therapists] “We look at a lot of different clues from your clothes, your actions, your actions, your body language, etc. And these things are very difficult to embed in a chatbot,” he said.
Professor Haddadi also added that the verifiability of chatbots is a cause for concern as they are designed to keep humans engaged and behave cooperatively no matter what is said.
Psychologist Ian McCrae has warned BBC News readers not to put their personal health or psychological information into the hands of LLMs.
“Some people put a lot of trust in these [bots] “You don’t necessarily have to earn it,” he said.
Emile, a second year student at the University of Manchester, spoke about the negative effects of using AI in research.
“I think I’ll use Gene.”[erative] “AI in universities makes studying irrelevant,” she said, “going to university is not just about learning the content of a degree, but learning academic skills like writing essays and analyzing sources.” [and] Skim reading.
“I wonder why people pay so much money when they have so little access to real academic resources at their fingertips.”
Another student said using AI for university studies was “absolutely ridiculous”.
The University of Manchester was previously ranked eighth in the UK for student use of AI, behind Wrexham University.
If you feel you have been affected by this story, please always tell someone or contact Samaritans on 116 123.
You can contact Anxiety UK (03444 775 774), Mind (0300 123 3393) and Calm (campaign against living in misery, aimed at men aged 15-35) on 0800 58 58 58.
All students at Manchester Metropolitan University can access our 24/7 confidential health support service by using the code MMUwell at mmu.ac.uk/247support or by calling 08082 389 888.
The Greater Manchester Mental Health Line can be contacted at: 0800 953 0285.
University of Manchester students have access to 24/7 support through Spectrum.life.
*Some names have been changed for anonymity.
