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PROVO — A recent study from Authority lists Provo among the top cities for ChatGPT and artificial intelligence tool use.
Google Trends data and more than 450,000 geotagged posts from social media platform X from the last 12 months were sorted to find hot spots for AI-related searches and posts. Researchers scanned for keywords and phrases such as ChatGPT, Chat GPT, Gemini, AI writing, AI writing tools, Copilot AI, AI writing detector, AI content detector and more.
The results revealed what one perhaps could have guessed — AI is big on college campuses.
The Top 10 cities for AI use and interest are all major college towns. West Lafayette, Indiana, home to Purdue University, took the top spot, followed by College Park, Maryland.
Provo, and by extension, Brigham Young University, came in ninth.
"AI assistants are becoming incredibly popular in the workplace," BYU professor David Wingate said. "Of course, we will train our students to be successful with the tools they need in the workplace."
Wingate, who teaches computer science courses with a machine learning emphasis, said he was "a little bit surprised" by BYU's ranking. In his view, local interest in AI could be attributed to many factors.
"Maybe it's the (machine learning) major, maybe it's chatter among the students, maybe it's our research, or maybe it's a combination of all those things," he said.
Wingate also noted BYU's award-winning applied mathematics major, which has a strong machine learning concentration.
"I'm excited," he said. "I think AI can be used to make the world a better place. If we're thoughtful about it, it can bless people."
ChatGPT is quickly becoming an indispensable educational tool, on the same level as Microsoft programs like Word, Excel and Powerpoint, Wingate said. Students will need to have digital literacy with all of these tools to be successful.
Professor-assisted AI use
BYU senior Adam Rice, who studies computational biology, said he uses AI almost every day.
"I use ChatGPT and Gemini all the time for small questions, because it's faster than Googling things," he said. He turns to AI for questions both professional (how do I code this?) and personal (what recipe can I make with these ingredients?).
"I don't just copy and paste — I use it to help get me on my way," Rice said. "I ask it to synthesize and think about possible routes to take, or give me an outline."
In a software design class, Rice said the professor encouraged students to use ChatGPT and similar tools as often as possible.
"A lot of my professors think it's a good tool and think about how they can teach around it instead of just blocking it," he said.
In the computer science department, most professors are either neutral or positive toward ChatGPT, Wingate said.
"There's a cohort of professors who feel like, you know, this is the future, and we're fools not to embrace it," he said.
AI isn't exclusive to computer science courses — BYU English student Mason Scholes has also used ChatGPT in the classroom.
"We've done a lot of assignments with AI," Scholes said. "We'll be encouraged to play around with it … so we can use it to strengthen our writing and make sure we're not introducing new weaknesses."
This hands-on, professor-led AI use has helped him understand which situations call for AI and when he would be better off doing something himself, he said.
This approach aligns with Wingate's perspective: "I think it behooves every department in the university to teach students what the dangers of AI are, so they don't become overly reliant on AI," the professor said.
Many BYU students said they use ChatGPT in moderation. Elena Moran asks the chatbot to look over writing assignments for grammar and punctuation or to explain challenging concepts. Sometimes she uses it to create personal workout plans.
Biology student Jacob Hunter occasionally uses it to brainstorm ideas for his writing class.
Sophomore Grace Call said her philosophy classmates will ask ChatGPT how certain philosophers would respond to novel questions.
"There are all these pro-social applications of AI," Wingate said. "I hope we can remember the really positive possibilities."
Top cities for AI use and interest, according to the Authority study:
- West Lafayette, Indiana (Purdue University)
- College Park, Maryland (University of Maryland)
- Durham, North Carolina (Duke University)
- Bloomington, Indiana (Indiana University)
- College Station, Texas (Texas A&M University)
- Ann Arbor, Michigan (University of Michigan)
- Berkeley, California (University of California, Berkeley)
- Athens, Ohio (Ohio University)
- Provo, Utah (Brigham Young University)
- Gainesville, Florida (University of Florida)
