article · Nigerian Postgraduate Medical Journal
A cross-sectional online survey of 1003 medical students and lecturers across ten Nigerian universities assessed perceptions, risks, and benefits of artificial intelligence. While both groups showed an average level of knowledge, students scored significantly higher than lecturers. Social media was the most frequent point of initial exposure, and general attitudes toward artificial intelligence were favourable, with grammar checkers and ChatGPT identified as the most common tools. Although students were more likely to have used these technologies, fewer than five percent of all respondents had received formal artificial intelligence training. Excitement about the technology slightly exceeded apprehension, but students expressed significantly higher concern than lecturers regarding potential risks. These concerns included the dehumanisation of healthcare, physician redundancy, the degradation of clinical skills, and potential harm to patients, reflecting a mixture of fascination and apprehension.
Understanding how future doctors and medical educators perceive artificial intelligence is vital for integrating these technologies into healthcare. While interest and adoption of tools like ChatGPT are growing, low levels of formal training combined with strong apprehensions about patient safety and workforce redundancy highlight the need to address educational gaps and ethical concerns within medical curricula.
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Background: The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) has been compared to that of the Internet and printing, evoking both apprehension and anticipation in an uncertain world. Objective: This study aimed to explore the perceptions of medical students and faculty members from ten universities across Nigeria regarding AI. Methods: Using Google Forms and WhatsApp, a cross-sectional online survey was administered to clinical year medical students and their lecturers from ten medical schools representing all the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Results: The survey received 1003 responses, of which 708 (70.7%) were from students and 294 (29.3%) were from lecturers. Both groups displayed an average level of knowledge, with students (Median:4, range -5 to 12) significantly outperforming lecturers (Median:3, range -5 to 15). Social media (61.2%) was the most common form of first contact with AI. Participants demonstrated a favourable attitude towards AI, with a median score of 6.8 out of 10. Grammar checkers (62.3%) were the most commonly reported AI tool used, while ChatGPT (43.6%) was the most frequently mentioned dedicated AI tool. Students were significantly more likely than lecturers to have used AI tools in the past but <5% of both groups had received prior AI training. Excitement about the potential of AI slightly outweighed concerns regarding future risks. A significantly higher proportion of students compared to lecturers believed that AI could dehumanise health care (70.6% vs. 60.8%), render physicians redundant (57.6% vs. 34.7%), diminish physicians' skills (79.3% vs. 71.3%) and ultimately harm patients (28.6% vs. 20.6%). Conclusion: The simultaneous fascination and apprehension with AI observed among both lecturers and students in our study mirrors the global trend. This finding was particularly evident in students who, despite possessing greater knowledge of AI compared to their lecturers, did not exhibit a corresponding reduction in their fear of AI.
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DOI: 10.4103/npmj.npmj_186_23
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