EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF AI-POWERED WRITING TOOLS ON INDEPENDENT WRITING SKILLS OF HEALTH SCIENCE GRADUATES

The level of reliance on AI-Powered Writing Tools (AI-PWT) profoundly impacts the independent writing skill of English as Second Language (ESL) learners. The present study explores the familiarity and utility of two different types of AI-Powered Writing Tools (Independent Writing with AI editing assistance; Generative writing with AI assistance) among ESL health science graduates and to understand the role of these tools in shaping their independent writing skills. Method: The study adopted a survey technique to understand the knowledge, attitude and utility of AI-powered writing tools among 309 Health Science graduates from a South Indian private Medical University. Result: The findings showed the overall frequency distribution of the participants' level of knowledge had a higher score range of 14-20 in 213 (68.9%) samples. Although 215 (70%) were familiar on using AI-PWT to improve vocabulary and grammar, around 17-19 % were uncertain about receiving real-time writing feedback to optimize the content. 199 (64%) expressed a positive perspective in using AI-PWT. Around 214 (69.3 %) took assistance from AI-PWT for generative writing purposes than revising the independently written content. In practice, only 64 (20.7 %) received feedback to refine the vocabulary and 60 (19.4%) to revise grammar, indicating an inclination for more generative writing with AI utility than Independent Writing with editing assistance. Conclusion: AI-Powered Writing Tools are well-recognised and powerful writing assistance to help students with their academic writing. However, relying on these tools only for generative purposes could significantly affect independent writing. The study insists on the need for teacher-guided assistance to train students to adopt the right tool that could best serve as a collaborative writing assistant adhering to the ethics.