Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry: Discussions at Large

In a 2024 winter survey series, the Dental Library's staff hosted focus group luncheons for every class of the PDM student body, as well as faculty and staff. Discussions focused on a collection of topics related to library services, with additional questions on matters such as academic uses for AI and opinions on the usage of AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT.

• 1st Year Dental Students:

  • See AI chatbots as a method to simplify questions, or quickly consolidate one direct answer.
  • Noted that citations are not given automatically by ChatGPT regarding reported information, but it can be requested in the chat. 
    • This request does not guarantee that the citations then posed by the chatbot are truthful.
  • Direct line of communication:
    • No waiting for responses from peers or faculty.
    • Feelings of anxiety towards "wasting" time of professors in meetings or lectures
  • ChatGPT has been used sitting in lectures to quickly redefine the professor's description, sometimes as far as translating the exact lecture transcript.

• 2nd Year Dental Students:

  • A smaller amount of students acknowledging a use of AI when studying, but the group had a 2-3 ratio of students who have used ChatGPT at all versus those who do not use the bot.
  • Chatbot usage for studying includes generating mock-up exam questions for practice, or experimenting with image analysis capabilities.
  • By their second year, students seem far more comfortable towards approaching professors with questions and cite no need to go to the internet when the provider of the original context is available.

• 3rd and 4th Year Dental Students:

  • Some students are scared to use ChatGPT for academic reasons, but use it a lot for recreation (making workout plans, designing event posters, etc.) 
  • Drafting resumes 
  • Used to clear both sides of a debate on academic question 
  • Two students cited using non-chat services to experiment with generated partials, with one experience being decent while the other noted mistakes.

• PASS (PDM International Students)

  • Frequent chatbot usage for recreational means (one example being writing dating app profiles).
  • AI used for proofreading English when it is not the writer's native language (finding more professional terminology to meet the writer's needs).

• PDM Faculty & Staff

  • Most present used ChatGPT, specifically, in casual or experimental measures, but the majority is wary towards too much engagement with AI at this present time.
  • The process of vetting a program and asking the bot enough questions to receive a more accurate answer is time-intensive in its own way, distracting from time that could be spent finding the answer in the traditional methods.