Abstract

This study critically investigates the engagement of Chinese international students towards AI-driven educational technologies, which are now strategically promoted in social media platforms such as Douyin (TikTok China) as easy access to graduation. Drawing from the interviews of 25 students and content analysis of 40 high-engagement ads, the findings reveal that AI tools such as wearable translators and tutoring apps do not merely provide academic aids but they are culturally marketed, emotionally framed, and ethically normalized especially within China's digital ecosystem. This phenomenon has paved way for students to experience cognitive offloading, moral disengagement, and intercultural disconnection, where the concept of "effortless learning"is eagerly propagated against the needed skills of critical thinking and academic integrity. Theories such as postdigital pedagogy, moral disengagement theory, and media dependency theory were evaluated and integrated to determine how the student expectations are shaped by algorithmic influences even before they set forth entering an international classroom. This present research hence, call for appropriate actions from the academe and policy makers to facilitate reforms in AI education and literacy as well as to create a more culturally-referenced and human-centered approaches to AI adoption and use. By identifying how students make use of digital tools before entering an international degree program, this will allow universities and relevant stakeholders to consider AI adoption not just a technological trend but a cultural phenomenon that needs to be further regulated and monitored.