Abstract
This article investigates the diffusion and adoption of ChatGPT among college students from a multinational convenience sample, informed by the scholarly literature on the diffusion and progressive appropriation of ChatGPT by students and teachers within the education sector and the strategies adopted by academic institutions. We applied a figurational approach to this study, offering two theses that try to understand the societal meaning of ChatGPT diffusion in the educational sector. Operationally, we explored university students’ behavioral intentions, practices of use, and opinions toward ChatGPT in five countries (China, Italy, Kenya, Uruguay, and the United States of America) through an online survey. Results indicated that: (1) students seem to be cautious or resist the hype of generative intelligence; (2) an essential cultural pattern emerges: American and Italian students are more pessimistic toward ChatGPT, whereas Chinese students, sometimes accompanied by Kenyan and Uruguayans students, are more optimistic; (3) men and techno-scientific students are more positive toward ChatGPT than women and socio-humanistic students.
DOI
10.30658/hmc.11.5
Author ORCID Identifier
Leopoldina Fortunati: 0000-0001-9691-6870 
Autumn Edwards: 0000-0002-5963-197X
WeiMing Ye: 0000-0001-6351-3581
Anna Maria Manganelli: 0000-0002-2206-6655
Chad Edwards: 0000-0002-1053-6349
Soledad Caballero: 0000-0002-9301-5329
Lusike Mukhongo: 0000-0002-3454-3893
Giovanni Ferrin: 0000-0001-9106-5763
Recommended Citation
Fortunati, L., Edwards, A., Ye, W., Manganelli, A. M., Edwards, C., Caballero, S., Mukhongo, L., & Ferrin, G. (2025). Making sense of the role of ChatGPT in education: An examination of student views in China, Italy, Kenya, Uruguay, and the US. Human-Machine Communication, 11, 81–105. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.11.5
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