The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on the Academic Ability of College Students: Evidence from a Survey of 10 Universities

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-988-9_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Generative Artificial Intelligence; Academic Ability; Critical Thinking

Abstract

With the prominent integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) into education, examining its effects on students’ academic performance is essential. However, previous research has largely overlooked the context of undergraduates in Chinese elite universities, leaving a notable gap. This study explores how GAI usage frequency influences undergraduates’ academic ability in such universities-an ability that includes knowledge integration ability and academic innovation ability-and investigates the mediating role of critical thinking. It conducts a survey among 800 undergraduates from 10 elite Chinese universities and analyzes data through multiple linear regression and mediation analysis. Findings reveal that GAI use frequency shows a significantly positive correlation with both knowledge integration and academic innovation. Critical thinking partially mediates these relationships, with indirect effects constituting approximately 60% to 63% of the total effects. In summary, GAI positively impacts these undergraduates’ academic ability, and critical thinking serves as an important mediator. Thus, universities should guide proper GAI use and strengthen critical thinking cultivation to leverage its academic benefits.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhe Wang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/15
TI  - The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on the Academic Ability of College Students: Evidence from a Survey of 10 Universities
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Education, Language and Art (ICELA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 40
EP  - 50
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-988-9_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-988-9_6
ID  - Wang2026
ER  -