Prevalence of AI chatbot usage and factors associated with AI dependency among medical faculty undergraduate students

Background/objectives Artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbots have benefited students in many ways but several issues have arisen with regards to ethical aspects and students’ critical thinking skills. This study aims to provide insights to the prevalence and frequency of AI Chatbot usage among Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (FPER UKM) undergraduate students, and explore the behavioral and psychological factors associated with AI Chatbot use and dependency. Methods This study employed a cross-sectional design. An online survey involving 300 undergraduate students from FPER UKM consisting of medical, nursing and emergency medicine courses was conducted using questionnaires that were adapted and screened from the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) and other literature. All items were rated on a five-point Likert scale with an inclusion of four open-ended questions at the end of the questionnaire for participants to give their opinion on AI chatbot usage. Two main factors contributing to AI dependency, which are academic stress and academic self-efficacy, were measured using the same scale. Data analysis of the collected responses was then done via bivariable correlation and multivariable regression using SPSS version 29. Results Our study included 300 students in FPER UKM which mainly consisted of Malaysian students with only 4 of them being non-Malaysian. It was found that the prevalence of AI Chatbot usage among all undergraduate courses to be 100%. Most of the respondents used AI tools for one to three hours per week with the main purpose of studying or revision. The factors most strongly associated with AI dependency score was weekly usage of more than four hours ( p < 0.001, β = 0.301), followed by academic stress ( p = 0.001, β = 0.188). The final multiple regression model was significantly associated with AI Chatbot dependency ( p < 0.001) with R 2 of 0.182. Conclusion All undergraduate students have used AI Chatbot previously with its main benefit on studying and revision. AI Chatbot dependency is significantly associated with duration of AI Chatbot usage and level of academic stress. Further studies are warranted to classify dependency on AI Chatbot and explore other potential correlates related to over-reliance on AI Chatbot.