This chapter explores how artificial intelligence (AI) tools mediate the identity development, emotional labor, and academic adaptation of international students in U.S. higher education. Framed through the lenses of intersectionality, resilience, and self-authorship, the chapter draws on duoethnography to examine how AI is used not merely as a technical aid but as a scaffold for rewriting the self in unfamiliar academic terrain. While AI offers immediate access to academic conventions, its reliance on dominant linguistic norms often flattens cultural expression and obscures opportunities for deeper growth. Through personal narrative, peer reflection, and theoretical analysis, this chapter interrogates what is gained and what is lost when AI supplements or replaces human-centered support systems. It argues that international student engagement with AI reveals a broader story about survival, belonging, and identity negotiation in an increasingly technologized and globalized university landscape.