AI Study Buddy? – Using AI Tools in Your Studies
Hannah
Unlock the power of AI for your studies with practical tips, honest pros and cons, and clever ways to boost your learning—while keeping your skills sharp.
“Hey, ChatGPT!
Could you help me write an introduction for a blog article? It’s about studying and AI tools.”
“Hey! I’d be glad to help you.
Imagine having a tutor who can help you understand complex topics, quiz you before a test, and even help organise your study schedule—any time, day or night. That’s no longer science fiction. AI tools are reshaping how we learn, and students who know how to use them are gaining a serious edge.”
“Sounds good, thanks!”
If ChatGPT knew that I only asked it to generate this paragraph for the purposes of this chat-like introduction I had planned out in advance… well, it would probably congratulate me on my creativity.
(“Hey! That sounds like a cool, meta move—using my response as an example of how I help. I’d love to see what you came up with.” Oh look, another meta move about the meta move! I’m so sorry…)
Back to the topic: using AI in your studies.
As ChatGPT generously explained, the possibilities are endless. AI tools offer a variety of different approaches to learning, practically without any extra effort.
We’ll get to some tips and tricks on how to use AI tools to study effectively later on.
First, I want to discuss the most prominent question:
Is it actually good to use AI in your studies?
The Pros and Cons
You’re on the internet; you’ve heard about the AI debate, and like everything else in this world, it’s a nuanced topic. Plenty of uses stand against concerns and massive criticism. Producing pictures, texts, websites, or even videos via prompts becomes a matter of seconds with the help of AI. You only need one tool at hand to revise, reword, translate, structure, and summarise your texts.
In short: AI tools work very efficiently and can save us a lot of time and effort. Therefore, AI has many fans and users.
On the other hand, there are downsides that are more than just inconveniences.
AI takes jobs away from us and opens up difficult copyright debates. The energy costs are enormous, AI bias actively reproduces stereotypes in our society, and the answers large language models present are often full of faulty information.
(Since this list of pros and cons is pretty broad, you can find more information via the links and some further information here: Artificial intelligence: threats and opportunities | Topics | European Parliament.)
When it comes to studying, large language models like ChatGPT offer many shortcuts.
Got a long text to read? AI can summarise it. Need to write a very boring essay within the next two hours? AI’s got your back.
It’s tempting to reduce the effort of homework to a minimum and still have well-worded results at hand. But we both know that the word “tempting” plays an important role here.
Writing an essay yourself teaches you about the topic, about structure, and about writing. Reading that text yourself leaves you with questions to investigate further, with notes, and particularly memorable passages. Doing these tasks yourself leaves you with more new information and skills than any of an AI’s summaries.
Using AI tools to do your homework will likely have results approximately as good as pictures of AI-generated hands. At first glance, the overall picture is fine, but in the details and subject-specific information, things start falling apart.
(I suppose this comparison will only stay accurate for so long, considering the ongoing development of these AIs.)
Tipps and Tricks
Create quizzes
To test your knowledge before an exam, you can upload your notes and texts on a topic, and the AI of your choice will create a quiz for you.
This way, you can recall knowledge with more variety than just reciting your notes again and again.
Flashcards from text
Converting a 40-page text into flashcards takes a lot of time – something valuabke you don’t really have when preparing for several exams at once. But AI can take on that task and even practise these flashcards with you.
Mnemonic tricks and examples
AI can also come up with mnemonics or other memory aids, as well as provide examples to deepen your knowledge of certain subjects and processes.
Create tasks
If you know the rough format of the questions in your exams, AI can also create example tasks for you to solve – whether short yes-or-no questions or longer prompts.
You can even create tasks with a set time limit according to their difficulty.
Study routine and timetables
Since AI is basically just an intricate web of maths, it’s great at calculating study schedules based on the input you give about the time you have. You can tweak these plans in every direction to make them perfectly suited to your life.
This is just a collection of uses I find particularly useful. They all rely on the information you provide in your prompts, so wrong information becomes less likely—but still: always check for yourself what the AI puts together!
The most important thing these tips have in common is that they rely on your groundwork.
AI cannot replace your learning skills but can enhance them.
It’s your brain that’s doing the tasks, and it’s getting better every time. So, don’t let the AI take over your skills!
Further Arguments and Opinions
Opinions about AI tools differ wildly throughout society. While some grandparents have never heard of it, young businesspeople base whole start-ups on the upcoming possibilities. Whether you use AI in your studies and how you do it is a decision influenced by many factors.
Personally, I do use AI tools occasionally. Not because I am convinced that AI does great work or because I want to save time (which I often don’t even do because I get distracted by ChatGPT’s ever-asking and offering responses), but because I want to test out what is possible. What works and what results in complete nonsense?
On the other hand, I am a writer and hobby artist myself, and I can’t stand seeing human creativity be replaced by soulless and solely mathematical tools. If a robot is taking my job, then it should take the job of doing the dishes—not the jobs that are fun!
And yes, AI could write these articles. But would you still enjoy them in the slick and calculated tone of AI, without personal anecdotes and (most importantly) without these outstanding meta moves?
So stay up to date, follow the debates, and use AI in a way that enhances your learning instead of robbing yourself of chances to learn. With great power comes great responsibility, I suppose.
(I was rewatching Spiderman last night… long live the personal anecdotes!)
All photo rights by International Campus GmbH.