How are UK students using AI? (yougov.co.uk)

A YouGov survey of more than 1,000 UK undergraduates finds AI is now mainstream in campus life: 66% say they use AI for study (33% weekly), and 74% use it for any purpose. ChatGPT dominates (74% of AI-using students), with Google’s Gemini (11%) and GitHub Copilot (8%) trailing. Universities vary in their response—18% actively discourage AI, 45% set boundaries but don’t teach practical skills, and only 11% actively encourage ethical use—leaving many students feeling guidance is incomplete. The survey also quantifies academic‑integrity risks and student attitudes: 5% of AI-using students say they entirely submitted unedited AI‑generated graded work (3% of all students), 12% edited AI‑generated graded work before submission (8% overall), and 20% used AI to create sections of graded work (13% overall) — together about 23% of AI users (15% of all students) used AI material in part or whole. Two thirds expect AI-only submissions could be detected, though only 24% think detection is “very likely.” Students report benefits—30% say marks improved and 44% say AI increased their learning—but 47% often notice hallucinations, underscoring risks of error propagation. The findings signal an urgent need for universities to redesign assessment, teach AI literacy (including hallucination mitigation), and update academic‑integrity policies to reflect widespread, imperfectly understood AI use.