Reliance on artificial intelligence in completing academic tasks among fourth-grade students at a public elementary school in Bantul

The ease of access to digital technology within the family environment triggers changes in learning behavior that threaten the independent learning of students at the elementary education level. This research aims to profoundly understand the pure lived experiences, the direction of thoughts, and the essence of meaning of the phenomenon of artificial intelligence dependence among fourth-grade students at a Public Elementary School in Bantul through the application of the suspension of prejudice (epoche). Employing a qualitative approach with Edmund Husserl's Transcendental Phenomenology design, data were collected through in-depth interviews, observations, and documentation studies involving four students, one classroom teacher, and four parents. The results of the study indicate that smart applications are no longer utilized as assistive tools, but rather trigger cognitive offloading in the completion of academic tasks when students transfer the burden of direct thinking to machines for the sake of time efficiency and grade security. This condition creates an illusion of academic competence and elicits a moral justification that copying instant answers is not a form of cheating. The essence of this phenomenon is rooted in the desynchronization of supervisory regulations between the school and permissive parenting styles at home. These findings recommend a modification of teacher assignment models based on direct practice and the urgency of critical dialogue with parents.