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Students don鈥檛 have the same incentives to talk to their professors 鈥� or even their classmates 鈥� anymore. Chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have given them a new path to self-sufficiency. Instead of asking a professor for help on a paper topic, students can go to a chatbot. Instead of forming a study group, students can ask AI for help. These chatbots give them quick responses, on their own timeline.

For students juggling school, work and family responsibilities, that ease can seem like a lifesaver. And maybe turning to a chatbot for homework help here and there isn鈥檛 such a big deal in isolation. But every time a student decides to ask a question of a chatbot instead of a professor or peer or tutor, that鈥檚 one fewer opportunity to build or strengthen a relationship, and the human connections students make on campus are among the most important benefits of college.

Julia Freeland-Fisher studies how technology can help or hinder student success at the . She said the consequences of turning to chatbots for help can compound.

鈥淥ver time, that means students have fewer and fewer people in their corner who can help them in other moments of struggle, who can help them in ways a bot might not be capable of,鈥� she said.

As colleges further embed ChatGPT and other chatbots into campus life, Freeland-Fisher warns lost relationships may become a devastating unintended consequence.

Asking for help

Christian Alba said he has never turned in an AI-written assignment. Alba, 20, attends College of the Canyons, a large community college north of Los Angeles, where he is studying business and history. And while he hasn鈥檛 asked ChatGPT to write any papers for him, he has turned to the technology when a blank page and a blinking cursor seemed overwhelming. He has asked for an outline. He has asked for ideas to get him started on an introduction. He has asked for advice about what to prioritize first.

鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of hard to just start something fresh off your mind,鈥� Alba said. 鈥淚 won鈥檛 lie. It鈥檚 a helpful tool.鈥� Alba has wondered, though, whether turning to ChatGPT with these sorts of questions represents an overreliance on AI. But Alba, like many others in higher education, worries primarily about AI use as it relates to academic integrity, not social capital. And that鈥檚 a problem.

Jean Rhodes, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, has spent decades studying the way college students seek help on campus and how the relationships formed during those interactions end up benefitting the students long-term. Rhodes doesn鈥檛 begrudge students integrating chatbots into their workflows, as many of their professors have, but she worries that students will get inferior answers to even simple-sounding questions, like, 鈥渉ow do I change my major?鈥�

A chatbot might point a student to the registrar鈥檚 office, Rhodes said, but had a student asked the question of an advisor, that person may have asked important follow-up questions 鈥� why the student wants the change, for example, which could lead to a deeper conversation about a student鈥檚 goals and roadblocks.

鈥淲e understand the broader context of students鈥� lives,鈥� Rhodes said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e smart but they鈥檙e not wise, these tools.鈥�

Rhodes and one of her former doctoral students, Sarah Schwartz, created a program called Connected Scholars to help students understand why it鈥檚 valuable to talk to professors and have mentors. The program helped them hone their networking skills and understand what people get out of their networks over the course of their lives 鈥� namely, social capital.

Connected Scholars is offered as a semester-long course at U Mass Boston, and a forthcoming paper examines outcomes over the last decade, finding students who take the course are three times more likely to graduate. Over time, Rhodes and her colleagues discovered that the key to the program鈥檚 success is getting students past an aversion to asking others for help.

Students will make a plethora of excuses to avoid asking for help, Rhodes said, ticking off a list of them: 鈥溾�業 don鈥檛 want to stand out,鈥� 鈥業 don鈥檛 want people to realize I don鈥檛 fit in here,鈥� 鈥楳y culture values independence,鈥� 鈥業 shouldn鈥檛 reach out,鈥� 鈥業鈥檒l get anxious,鈥� 鈥楾his person won鈥檛 respond.鈥� If you can get past that and get them to recognize the value of reaching out, it鈥檚 pretty amazing what happens.鈥�

Connections are key

Seeking human help doesn鈥檛 only leave students with the resolution to a single problem, it gives them a connection to another person. And that person, down the line could become a friend, a mentor or a business partner 鈥� a 鈥渟trong tie,鈥� as social scientists describe their centrality to a person鈥檚 network. They could also become a 鈥渨eak tie鈥� who a student may not see often, but could, importantly, still offer or crucial one day.

Daniel Chambliss, a retired sociologist from Hamilton College, emphasized the value of relationships in his 2014 book, 鈥淗ow College Works,鈥� co-authored with Christopher Takacs. Over the course of their research, the pair found that the key to a successful college experience boiled down to relationships, specifically two or three close friends and one or two trusted adults. Hamilton College goes out of its way to make sure students can form those relationships, structuring work-study to get students into campus offices and around faculty and staff, making room for students of varying athletic abilities on sports teams, and more.

Chambliss worries that AI-driven chatbots make it too easy to avoid interactions that can lead to important relationships. 鈥淲e鈥檙e suffering epidemic levels of loneliness in America,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really major problem, historically speaking. It鈥檚 very unusual, and it鈥檚 profoundly bad for people.鈥�

As students increasingly turn to artificial intelligence for help and even casual conversation, Chambliss predicted it will make people even more isolated: 鈥淚t鈥檚 one more place where they won鈥檛 have a personal relationship.鈥�

In fact, by researchers at the MIT Media Lab and OpenAI found that the most frequent users of ChatGPT 鈥� power users 鈥� were more likely to be lonely and isolated from human interaction.

鈥淲hat scares me about that is that Big Tech would like all of us to be power users,鈥� said Freeland-Fisher. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 in the fabric of the business model of a technology company.鈥�

Yesenia Pacheco is preparing to re-enroll in Long Beach City College for her final semester after more than a year off. Last time she was on campus, ChatGPT existed, but it wasn鈥檛 widely used. Now she knows she鈥檚 returning to a college where ChatGPT is deeply embedded in students鈥� as well as faculty and staff鈥檚 lives, but Pacheco expects she鈥檒l go back to her old habits 鈥� going to her professors鈥� office hours and sticking around after class to ask them questions. She sees the value.

She understands why others might not. Today鈥檚 high schoolers, she has noticed, are not used to talking to adults or building mentor-style relationships. At 24, she knows why they matter.

鈥淎 chatbot,鈥� she said, 鈥渋sn鈥檛 going to give you a letter of recommendation.鈥�

This article was and was republished under the license.

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