Abstract:

The generation of students that are currently being educated in undergraduate programs is a generation who has used the Internet since an early age and is very comfortable with the use of technology and social media, having therefore a level of practical knowledge (learning by doing) in the field of technology that surpasses that of previous generations. As Artificial Intelligence is increasingly becoming an integral part of jobs in numerous work fields it is necessary to investigate whether this level of „learned by doing” technological awareness is considered sufficient by the current student generations in order to make them job-ready. Also, it is important to explore how can the educational process help students master the Artificial Intelligence knowledge without making them experts in this technology but enough to help them leverage the opportunities that emerge from this revolution.

Our research on a sample of 288 Romanian young people indicates that the perceived level of knowledge regarding Artificial Intelligence is rather low towards medium, the respondents indicating that they are by no means experts in this technology, with an overwhelming majority of the sample never taking a class in Artificial Intelligence. Nevertheless, the results of the study reveal an increased level of confidence in the power of Artificial Intelligence to help respondents achieve the career of their dreams, with the predominant source of information regarding Artificial Intelligence, fuelling this confidence, being social media and the Internet. Interestingly enough, although Artificial Intelligence is perceived in very positive terms in their daily personal private interactions with it, our respondents display little trust in having Artificial Intelligence in an educational setting, specifically having AI teaching in front of a class of students. Although our Romanian respondents display little concern regarding the possible ramifications of Artificial Intelligence in general, they do consider its impact on private life and data to be a negative consequence.

Keywords:

Artificial Intelligence, generation Z, education, career development.