Saudi Medical Students' Perceptions and Attitudes of Integrating Generative Artificial Intelligence Integration in...

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has catalyzed a transformation in medical education. Understanding learners' perceptions is essential to guide their responsible integration into curricula.

A cross-sectional survey was administered to 1039 undergraduate medical students across Saudi Arabia. A purpose-developed, pilot-tested instrument (Cronbach's α = 0.71 for dichotomous items) assessed students' familiarity with computational language models, perceptions of their educational utility, and attitudes toward technology-enhanced pedagogical approaches. Descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov testing for normality, and multivariable binary logistic regression (two-sided, α = 0.05) were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics v28.0.

Among 1039 participants (64.3% male; median age 22 years [IQR 20-24]), 57.2% (595/1039) reported familiarity with computational language models in medical education, and 70.1% (728/1039; 95% CI: 67.2-72.9) supported curricular integration. A strong majority (86.4%; 898/1039; 95% CI: 84.2-88.4) anticipated impact on the future of medical education. While 73.4% (763/1039; 95% CI: 70.6-76.0) perceived benefit for basic science education, only 41.6% (432/1039; 95% CI: 38.6-44.6) recognized utility in clinical skills training. Only 29.8% (310/1039; 95% CI: 27.0-32.7) considered these tools superior to human instruction. Key concerns included distrust in output reliability (52.6%; 547/1039; 95% CI: 49.5-55.7) and awareness of reference fabrication (64.0%; 665/1039; 95% CI: 61.0-66.9).

Saudi medical students express strong interest in GenAI-particularly for basic sciences and simulation-but perceive it as complementary rather than superior to human instruction. Findings reflect learner perceptions, not measured educational effectiveness. Implementation should prioritize reliability, ethical use, and preservation of humanistic competencies.