Assessing the usage of ChatGPT on life satisfaction among higher education students: The moderating role of subjective health

Abstract

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a widely used artificial intelligence tool that has recently experienced rapid growth and widespread adoption. ChatGPT enhances digital accessibility, performance in communication, and supports the creation of digital content, which can be a powerful assistive technology for the education industry. However, the role of ChatGPT for higher education students remains a topic of contention. Therefore, this study is undertaken to investigate how ChatGPT usage can enhance information and communication technology (ICT) accessibility and performance by influencing life satisfaction among higher education students by proposing a unique conceptual model. The primary data were collected from 305 respondents, and quantitative methodology was used to analyse the data. The results indicate that interaction with ChatGPT increases freedom and productivity by producing understandable and relevant responses that meet emotional needs, which are positively correlated with happiness. ChatGPT usage provides unique experiences to students that evoke their feelings to strengthen academic engagement, and such feelings positively influence their perceptions and behaviour towards academic buoyancy. However, the concerns about the biased response, limited knowledge, and lack of emotional intelligence of ChatGPT limit trustworthiness and cause disengagement, which have been deemed the most significant weaknesses in improving quality of life.