AI-Assisted Writing and the Originality Problem: Evidence from Universities in the United Kingdom and Irish Universities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jssr.v6i2.736Keywords:
ChatGPT, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Academic Writing, Creative Confidence, Originality, Ideational Convergence, Higher Education, Northern IrelandAbstract
This study investigated how university students use ChatGPT and how they perceive its relationship with idea generation, originality and intellectual ownership. A cross-sectional online survey was completed by 120 undergraduate and postgraduate students from Ulster University and Queen's University Belfast. The non-probability quota sample included 60 students from each institution, 62 women and 58 men. Descriptive statistics were used to report patterns of use and responses to individual five-point Likert items. Exploratory t-tests and one-way analyses of variance were used for selected group comparisons, while short written responses were used to clarify the survey patterns. ChatGPT use was common: 116 participants (96.7 per cent) had used it at least once and 108 (90.0 per cent) had used it during the previous month. Participants valued time saving (91.7 per cent agreement), help with idea generation (86.7 per cent) and help with complex concepts (86.7 per cent). The results also showed reservations. 65% per cent reported greater difficulty generating ideas without ChatGPT after regular use, 43.3 per cent expressed a sense of ownership over AI-assisted work and 68.3 per cent felt that their ideas had become more similar to those of peers who used the tool. These results concern reported perceptions rather than observed changes in creativity or measured textual similarity. They show that practical gains can coexist with uncertainty about independence, authorship and distinctiveness. Teaching and assessment should therefore make room for unaided ideation, transparent use of AI and student explanation of how an argument or idea developed.
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