This study found that when students misjudge their partners' use of AI tools in collaborative programming projects, their team performance suffers, particularly for less experienced programmers.

In plain terms

Collaborative programming projects are a key part of learning software engineering, but the widespread use of generative AI tools (AI that can create text, code, etc.) by students introduces a new challenge: knowing if and how much your partner is using AI. This research looked at whether students accurately perceive their partners' AI use and how that perception impacts their teamwork. The researchers conducted a study with 103 pairs of students in an introductory software engineering course, tracking their beliefs and project outcomes over time. They found that a greater "misalignment" – or difference – between partners' beliefs about each other's AI use early in the project was associated with lower final project scores. This problem was even more pronounced for students who had less prior programming experience, suggesting they pay a higher cost for these misaligned perceptions. The study suggests that simply working together doesn't always resolve these misperceptions, highlighting a need for better ways to make AI use transparent in student collaborations.