Impact of technology literacy, information literacy, and user satisfaction on the adoption of GAI-ChatGPT for learning, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge dissemination among Chinese students

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI), particularly ChatGPT tool, is significantly transforming both higher-educational settings and everyday life, making technology literacy (TL) and information literacy (IL) an essential competency in today's digital era. In the rapidly evolving field of GAI education, understanding how students’ existing TL, IL, and satisfaction influence their adoption of ChatGPT is essential. Yet the role of these individual constructs in shaping ChatGPT adoption for learning, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge dissemination remains inadequately investigated. In response, this research integrates Cognitive Load Theory as fundamental for TL & IL, and satisfaction into the traditional Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework to probe and validate its applicability in inducing students’ adoption intention of ChatGPT for learning, knowledge acquisition, and dissemination. Data were acquired from 620 university students in China via a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS. The study discovered that the core UTAUT constructs (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions) significantly enhance student satisfaction with ChatGPT, while social influence and satisfaction robustly drive their adoption. Furthermore, TL and IL directly affect satisfaction and adoption, as well as moderate the association between satisfaction and the intention to adopt ChatGPT. These findings offer valuable theoretical contributions (extended UTAUT with TL, IL, and satisfaction as moderating constructs resulting in the validated UTAUT-TLILS model, where PE, EE, and FC along with TL and IL accounted for 59.8% variance in satisfaction) and practical implications (highlights the need for universities and institutions to strategically make TL and IL courses mandatory by integrating it in educational curriculum systems, teaching and relevant subject settings) for the effective utilization of ChatGPT among students.