IMPENDING DANGER OF OVERDEPENDENCE ON AI IN ACADEMIC RESEARCH: AN APPRAISAL

Abstract

This study critically examined the impending danger of overdependence on artificial intelligence (AI) in academic research among lecturers, postgraduate students, and academic researchers at Rivers State University, Port Harcourt. The technological determinism theory guided the study. Using a survey research design, the study targeted a population of 28,000 postgraduate students and 1,800 academic staff, with a sample of 384 respondents selected based on Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) table for sample size determination. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire focused on AI adoption, its impact on academic integrity and originality, and the ethical and epistemological challenges associated with its use. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including mean scores and standard deviations, and presented in tabular form. Findings revealed a moderate level of AI adoption, with postgraduate students and academic researchers frequently utilizing AI for thesis writing, literature review, editing, and plagiarism checking, while lecturers showed relatively low engagement in preparing teaching and research materials. The study further found that overreliance on AI poses significant threats to academic integrity and originality, fostering plagiarism, diminishing critical thinking, and complicating the detection of AI-generated work. Moreover, respondents highlighted serious ethical and epistemological concerns, including data privacy, intellectual property issues, algorithmic bias, and insufficient institutional guidance for responsible AI use. The study concludes that while AI offers productivity benefits, its unchecked use can undermine scholarly rigor. Consequently, the study recommends continuous AI literacy and training programs, robust academic integrity frameworks, and strategies promoting human–AI collaboration to preserve creativity, ethical and academic credibility.