When students 'make good friends' with AI

Pham Diem My (21 years old, living in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City), currently a second-year student majoring in cultural communication at Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture, has known about the ChatGPT application for nearly two years. She often uses AI in her studies.

AI - a powerful assistant for students

In fact, My used AI to search for content related to subjects, and she also used the ChatGPT application to find ideas for the faculty's Youth Union movements.

"I use AI for all subjects from general to specialized subjects. I prioritize using AI to find content, systematize content, plan campaigns and activities related to the communication major," My shared.

AI helps My understand lessons faster when she uses it to summarize the content of lectures, textbooks, and give the most concise method. But to understand the lesson more deeply, My still needs to learn by herself. Many days, My writes a long communication article but the sentences are not coherent, she asks her to rewrite the paragraph, check the grammar, and improve the expression to make the communication article more logical and coherent.

However, My affirms that she always prioritizes traditional learning methods over using AI, she only combines the use of AI to learn more deeply about knowledge. For example, she reads books, studies textbooks, searches for previously exploited concepts and content (because AI is almost incapable of providing accurate concepts).

My then takes the information she has distilled and commands the AI ​​to find new points and provide examples of content and presentation. Or after completing the basic outline, she uses the AI ​​to develop more ideas and improve the paper, thereby shortening the completion time by one to two days.

This method helps My avoid having to spend a lot of time searching for examples on Google, and at the same time avoids misunderstanding complex concepts in the subject, thereby applying them to exercises more accurately.

"I know how to use AI, prioritize self-exploiting information instead of relying entirely on AI and being passive in the learning and research process," My shared.

In addition to studying, My also uses AI for entertainment purposes, suggesting ideas and photo concepts so that every time she takes a virtual life, she has beautiful and sparkling photos. In addition, when she is happy, she also asks her "friend" AI to predict... the future of her studies, love life and career.

Ho Ngoc Duc uses AI to help answer questions posed by lecturers in class. Photo: NGOC SANG

Student Ho Ngoc Duc affirmed that he only uses AI to support his studies better, not to rely on AI to study for him and to be completely dependent on it.

Learning AI also requires knowing how to select

Meanwhile, Ho Ngoc Duc (20 years old, living in Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak), a first-year veterinary student at Tay Nguyen University, also regularly uses AI to serve his studies.

Duc said he could input a question into AI to get the solution, along with step-by-step instructions, and the answer would be exactly the same as the answer given by the teacher. He believes that AI can help summarize a large amount of material in a short time and support the analysis and evaluation of the problems given by the lecturer very accurately.

"For example, in a veterinary subject, AI can provide overview information as well as popular opinions to help me have a more multi-dimensional and in-depth view," Duc shared.

When doing scientific research, Duc also uses AI support. He uploads PDF files and asks AI to "read" them and summarize the main ideas, helping to synthesize documents more quickly.

In addition, Duc also uses AI as a tool to quickly translate learning materials from English to Vietnamese and vice versa, using AI to correct English grammar and pronunciation errors. Or when needing to read the content of an English lecture from an audio file, Duc uses OtterAi, a software that applies AI to process voice into text.

In less than five minutes, the software can transcribe a 20-minute audio lecture into text.

Minh Hoang learned better thanks to the support of his AI "friend", but he said he did not depend on AI - Photo: NGOC SANG

Nguyen Le Minh Hoang (21 years old, living in Buon Ma Thuot City), a second-year student majoring in food technology at Tay Nguyen University, shared: "AI helps me save a lot of time. When I encounter difficult exercises, I enter ChatGPT or Grammarly to understand how to approach and solve the problem.

But I don't copy verbatim but try to learn from it to improve my thinking. For subjects that require calculation, I will go to ChatGPT to get more exercises to solve more problems. Combined with the theory that the lecturer teaches in class, the lesson becomes much easier to understand."

Interestingly, Hoang also asked AI to explain difficult concepts and terms in science subjects, including philosophy. He carefully took notes by hand while studying to remember better. He then used AI to check the information, find more examples or re-explain it in a more understandable way.

Because the Royal Science major often has to create new designs for confectionery products... he often asks his "friend" AI to design beautiful designs for him.

However, Hoang also admitted that sometimes he is afraid of being lazy to think because he finds ready-made answers from AI, which can affect his ability to think independently. AI can still sometimes give wrong or outdated information. So Hoang often verifies it by comparing it with lectures from lecturers, textbooks or other reputable sources.

Like many young people who are gradually considering AI as their "best friend" in life, Hoang also uses AI to write content for social media posts or presentations, and to plan events or personal work. Occasionally, he also entertains, chats, plays quizzes or seeks creative ideas from AI.

AI should only be seen as a support tool.

Director Vu Nguyen Nam Khue (lecturer of directing, majoring in film and television scriptwriting, Faculty of Literature, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City) said: "I personally encourage students to use AI as a support tool, especially in synthesizing, searching and summarizing information, similar to the way you use Google.

However, AI is not always accurate, so you need to double check information from many different sources to ensure reliability."

AI should be a supplementary tool, not a complete replacement for students' thinking and analytical skills. In general, students are able to adapt quickly to AI. Some students make good use of AI to optimize their studies or find creative ideas.

However, there are also many people who are too dependent on AI. "We should only see AI as a good and powerful support tool, but we need to know how to use it responsibly," Mr. Khue shared.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khi-sinh-vien-ket-ban-tot-voi-ai-20250404103517821.htm