Student’s Views on the Challenges and Ethical Issues of Using AI in Academic Writing

Abstract

AI usage had an immediate and growing impact on EFL academic writing habits in the college education environment. The study aimed to examine students' perspectives on the problems and ethical issues arising from the use of AI in EFL academic writing at IAIN Curup, Rejang Lebong. Using a qualitative research design, data were collected from 10 English Tadris Program (TBI) students via semi-structured interviews and analyzed qualitatively through four steps: coding, reduction, display, and interpretation. Findings showed that students thought that AI has numerous benefits to assist their academic writing; i.e., improving grammar accuracy, enhancing idea generation by brainstorming, widening vocabulary choice, providing an initial draft, and helping with writing structure and organization. However, the students also showed significant concerns about overusing the tools; i.e., becoming overdependent, lowering the quality of creativity, developing non-logical reasoning, giving nonspecific answers, and providing inaccurate/false information. Regarding ethical issues, the main problems of using AI tools pointed out by the students were not only plagiarism and cheating, but also ambiguous ownership and non-transparent authorship. The study additionally noted that the tool may considerably boost speed and the quality, but the extensive use will turn into a detrimental obstacle to learners' autonomy, creativity, and independence of thought, especially when learners already have language barriers. Conclusively, it is crucial that students only use AI as supportive tools, not as alternatives to their thoughts and skills, and thus, immediate plans to develop sound institutional policies, provide AI literacy training, and ensure ethical guidelines on AI in EFL academic writing practices are needed.