The double-edged sword of artificial intelligence: Gifted college students’ use of ChatGPT in academic writing

Oct 15, 2026

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Artificial intelligence-powered large language models have reshaped academic writing by expanding opportunities for brainstorming, drafting, and revision. This study investigates how academically gifted college students use ChatGPT for academic writing, focusing on the purposes and stages of tool use. Nine gifted students in a freshman English course in Türkiye contributed ChatGPT conversations analyzed through content analysis, based on 52 chat prompts and a structured focus group. Results map when and why ChatGPT is deployed across planning, drafting, and revision, revealing both contributions and risks that inform AI literacy and higher-education assessment design.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Introduction

AI and Academic Writing

OPEN ACCESS Research Article Contemporary Educational Technology, 2026, 18(2), ep637 ISSN: 1309-517X (Online) The double-edged sword of artificial intelligence: Gifted college students’ use of ChatGPT in academic writing Burçin Hasanbaşoğlu 1 0000-0002-1000-9450 Mustafa Baloglu 2* 0000-0003-1874-9004 1 Department of Modern Languages, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, TURKEY 2 Department of Special and Gifted Education, College of Education, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES * Corresponding author: [baloglu@hotmail.com](baloglu@hotmail.com) Citation: Hasanbaşoğlu, B., & Baloglu, M. (2026) . The double-edged sword of artificial intelligence: Gifted college students’use of ChatGPT in academic writing. Contemporary Educational Technology, 18(2), ep637 . [https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/17984](https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/17984) ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT | Received: 29 Aug 2025
Accepted: 1 Jan 2026 | The introduction of artificial intelligence-powered large language models has revolutionized academic writing and transformed conventional practices into richer experiences, which has opened new avenues for brainstorming, drafting, and revising written work. This study examined how academically gifted college students used ChatGPT in academic writing. The participants were nine academically gifted students enrolled in a freshman English course at a tier-one public university in Türkiye. To examine the purposes and stages of use, we subjected students’ ChatGPT conversations to content analysis. Drawing on 52 chat prompts and a structured focus group, we mapped when and why gifted students deployed ChatGPT across planning, drafting, and revision. The findings identified several potential contributions (i.e., efficiency, adaptability, and incidental learning) and risks (i.e., integrity, reliability, originality, and dependence) of using the large language model tools, informing AI literacy, and assessment design in higher education.
Keywords: ChatGPT, academically gifted, academic writing, college students, gifted | | --- | --- | | INTRODUCTION | | Society 5.0, first introduced in 2016, envisions a human-centered future driven by globalization and the lightning-fast development of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and the Internet of things, and has already been transforming our ways of life (Pan et al., 2023) . Promising to resolve societal challenges by incorporating the advancements of the 4th Industrial Revolution into every facet of life, this perspective dedicates itself to“the various needs of people, regardless of region, age, sex, language, etc. by providing necessary items and services”(Fukuyama, 2018, p. 48). A notable example of this vision is undoubtedly ChatGPT, a generative (Gen) large language model and an AI-powered chatbot that has become the fastest-growing technology in history. The groundbreaking arrival of ChatGPT has rapidly garnered attention for its remarkable capabilities in many disciplines, including education (Hongxia & Razali, 2025; Siegle, 2023) . AI-driven solutions implemented in educational settings have already demonstrated promise in innovating education, including in writing practices (Deep et al., 2025). AI-powered writing aids such as ChatGPT have the potential to improve students’ writing abilities, productivity, and confidence (Aljuaid, 2024) by offering the ability to brainstorm ideas, generate content, organize arguments, and revise drafts. Such tools might also be rewarding for gifted students (Guilbault et al., 2025); however, research concerning their use in gifted education remains scarce. Academic writing focuses on various competencies such as generating ideas, organising arguments, reviewing literature, using proper citations, following academic style, upholding academic integrity, practicing critical thinking, and many more (Aljuaid, 2024), which might be challenging for even the most talented students.

FAQs

How was ChatGPT usage analyzed in the study?

The study examined ChatGPT conversations using content analysis based on 52 chat prompts and a structured focus group.

Which stages of writing were investigated for ChatGPT use?

Usage was mapped across planning, drafting, and revision stages of academic writing.

What benefits and risks did the findings identify?

Potential contributions included efficiency, adaptability, and incidental learning, while risks involved integrity, reliability, originality, and dependence.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by jayni