Knowledge, awareness, and attitude regarding open AI system-based ChatGPT among students of dental colleges in India: A cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION

A subfield of computer science called Artificial Intelligence (AI) is dedicated to building intelligent machines that behave and think like people. Initially, the Greeks hypothesized about the possibility of building intelligent machines. However, in 1956, in Hanover, USA, the contemporary era of AI got started. Chat generative pre-trained transformer (ChatGPT) is a computer program that uses AI and has been skilled on enormous amounts of data to generate human-like responses to user prompts.

This enhances the computational linguistics, communication skills, and responsiveness of these bots. Using text-based interfaces, methods such as machine learning and deep learning are employed.^[1-4] Since ChatGPT’s initial launch in November 2022, it has become a quick and easy-to-use large language model that may help patients, medical instructors, students, and trainees.^[5-7]

Abdaljaleel et al.^[8] studied factors influencing Arab countries university students’ attitudes and usage of ChatGPT, revealing that positive attitudes were linked to ease of use, perceived usefulness, and low anxiety, with demographic factors influencing adoption. George Pallivathukal et al.^[9] assessed ChatGPT’s use among healthcare students in Malaysia, finding that Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery and final-year healthcare students used it more, with higher knowledge and positive attitudes correlating with increased usage. Roganovic^[10] in Siberia investigated how familiarity with ChatGPT’s features influenced dentistry students’ learning outcomes and expectations, showing that reading its features improved quiz performance even without direct use. The above studies collectively emphasize the potential and limits of ChatGPT in education, highlighting the necessity for careful integration and verification of AI content.

Despite the increasing global significance of ChatGPT, there is a paucity of research focused on dental education in Asian nations, notably in Gujarat, India. Consequently, this study was conducted to evaluate dentistry students’ comprehension, attitudes, and awareness of ChatGPT.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS

Out of 1571 responses obtained, 1 participant disagreed to participate; thus, 1570 participants completed the survey. Participants’ age varied between 17 and 32 years, with the most responses from the 22-year-old age group (21.9%), 21-year age group (17.6%), 23-year age group (14.7%), 20-year age group (14.2%), and 19-year age group (7.1%). Other age groups had responses below 7%, indicating fewer than 100 participants. The least represented age group was between 30 and 32 years. In gender distribution, female participants outnumbered male participants by 38%. When looking at the academic year, participants from 4^th-year undergraduates (31%) were in the majority, while the least were 2^nd- and 3^rd-year postgraduates (2%). Regarding institutional responses, College of Dental Sciences, Amargadh had the highest number of responses (14%), whereas Vaidik Dental College, Science had the least (2%).

Knowledge Assessment Regarding OpenAI-Based ChatGPT Among Dentistry Students in Gujarat, India majority of participants (86%) had knowledge about ChatGPT being a text search engine, 70% knew it was created on AI, and 59% recognized its abbreviation. Awareness of ChatGPT’s URL and its free-to-use feature was reported by 63% and 65%, respectively.

Awareness assessment regarding OpenAI-Based ChatGPT Among Dentistry students in Gujarat, India [Table 1] 64% were aware of ChatGPT’s ability to make creative content, 61% recognized its use of reinforcement learning, while 58% knew about its limited knowledge beyond 2021.

Attitude assessment regarding OpenAI-Based ChatGPT among dentistry students in Gujarat, India [Table 2] attitudes revealed that 63% believed ChatGPT could revolutionize education but expected increased gadget use, 59% found it to be a valuable tool for dentistry professionals and were aware ChatGPT provides specialty-based but believed it would affect textbook learning, and 57% felt confident using it for clinical or educational purposes. Furthermore, 58% thought that it could improve dental diagnosis accuracy.

DISCUSSION

When the study began, ChatGPT could only search text, but now it can generate images. This is consistent with Belaldavar and Angadi,^[11] who examined dentistry students and professionals’ knowledge and attitudes toward ChatGPT’s use in dentistry. About 90% of respondents were aware of ChatGPT’s applications in dentistry and were willing to use it to improve efficiency.

ChatGPT was AI-driven, but many participants were ignorant or uncertain, perhaps due to limited exposure to recent advances and a lack of comprehension of its technology. Sallam^[12] found promising perspectives and valid concerns in ChatGPT Utility in Healthcare Education, Research, and Practice. ChatGPT, a natural language processing chatbot driven by generative AI, can help find scholarly papers, summarize their findings, and identify uncertainties. However, these summaries may not critically assess study differences.

Five days after inception, ChatGPT had 1 million subscribers. Few respondents were aware that ChatGPT creates responses based on reinforcement learning from human feedback, probably due to not asking enough questions. Kavadella et al.^[13] found that question framing greatly affects ChatGPT’s value and quality in undergraduate dentistry education. Students found that ChatGPT initially provided limited insights, but refining their queries and asking follow-up questions enabled the model to produce more extensive responses.

Due to its simplicity of use, accuracy, and breadth of information, many saw ChatGPT as a breakthrough education tool. Note that Belaldavar and Angadi^[11] found that most dentistry students and professionals recognized ChatGPT’s significance in teaching and moderate potential in dentistry. Students use it to get immediate answers, simplify dental ideas, and break down difficult procedures. According to Belaldavar and Angadi,^[11] more than 89% of dental students and professionals believed ChatGPT could support research by helping with data collection and analysis, literature review, and manuscript writing. It helps researchers and scientists find academic articles, summarize findings, identify research gaps, organize work, suggest citations and titles, and draft papers. Some respondents indicated trust in using ChatGPT in clinical and educational settings, demonstrating its expanding popularity in healthcare and academia.

As AI adoption grows, early AI education in medical curricula will prepare future doctors to use these tools. According to Alkhaaldi et al.^[14], medical students’ experiences and perspectives of ChatGPT and AI will improve competency and empower future doctors to lead, assess, and ensure the ethical integration of AI in clinical practice and medical teaching.

Tan et al.^[15] on ChatGPT in medicine stated that ChatGPT has significant promise for addressing medical resource distribution discrepancies, but its full integration into clinical practice is still underway. Due to the reliance on technology for knowledge, many respondents believe ChatGPT will influence textbook study. Due to their preference for current technology, more participants thought ChatGPT would enhance their gadget time. OpenAI business model is complex, unique, and yet very logical.^[16] AI and machine learning are mammoth undertakings that require a massive commitment of time, metadata, resources, and workforce.^[17]

The only thing we now have to do is to take advantage of how our tasks become easier, be cautious regarding the misuse of AI by fraudsters, and plan to modify our future plans, taking into consideration how AI has the potential to disrupt every aspect of our lives,^[18,19] Developments are moving forward at rocket speed in several specific directions regarding AI.^[20,21]

The limitations of our study where we employed an older ChatGPT version. Since our goal was to assess dentistry college students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitude, the free version was sufficient, but the new edition with dental photos would be useful to study. We only examined the attitudes of dentistry students in one state; a real-world learning scenario with medical, dental, and other healthcare students from a variety of states should be conducted to gain a broader perspective.

CONCLUSION

Based on outcomes obtained, the conclusion drawn were students demonstrated understanding of ChatGPT, with 86% identifying it as an AI-based text search engine, 70% recognizing its AI framework, and 59% were aware of its abbreviation and thought that ChatGPT could be a valuable tool in the dental profession, but would affect learning from textbooks. 57% recognized that a ChatGPT-based system is for clinical and educational purposes. In addition, a majority were mindful of its knowledge limitations post-2021. Notably, 64% acknowledged its creative capabilities, while 61% understood its learning process through reinforcement learning. 63% recognized ChatGPT can be revolutionary in the education system, but would increase the gadget time, which is not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. 58% reflects that ChatGPT can improve the accuracy and efficiency of dental diagnosis and treatment planning.