Finding an exact answer to a question, writing an essay, checking text for errors – all of this does not require a lot of time and effort. With the onset of the AI era, the boom of which came in 2022 and continues to this day, a certain “automation” of processes has appeared not only in large industries but also in educational processes.
Human nature is always inclined to fear the advent of the new. It is known that this feeling serves to protect us from certain threats.
Therefore, the question arises – should we be afraid of the changes that artificial intelligence brings to education, and avoid them, or is it better to utilize it and steer it in the correct direction? Which of the options will turn out to be a winning one?
Some Historical Aspects
Looking back at the history of human technological development, it is hard to deny the impact of technology on education.
The emergence of the first personal computer, which became commercially successful in 1975, and then the development of new technologies in electronics, which provoked a surge in the production of modern PCs after 2000, caused the use of PCs to become a daily routine.
To master such a basic routine, an important school subject as computer science appeared. Undoubtedly, the advent of artificial intelligence will provoke similar changes over time.
How to use AI in education?
Now both students and educators actively use services with artificial intelligence, which significantly improves the learning process and makes it more dynamic. For example, GPT-4 has a function of highlighting the main theses from PDF files. This undoubtedly helps in writing short notes for getting acquainted with a topic as quickly as possible.
An instrument like SciSpace, which sets the main goal to help scientists in the simplest way to find, understand and study any scientific article, cannot be ignored. This saves precious time we spend on the banal search for scientific sources and allows you to go directly to critical analysis.
AI Tools
There are already artificial intelligence systems that can replace some of the tasks typically done by teachers. These AI tools can create personalized learning plans for individual students based on their progress.
For example, platforms like Carnegie Learning use AI to simulate human mentors and support students during their learning journey. In addition, there are specific applications designed to assist teachers in creating engaging lessons, newsletters, and professional emails.
A reflection of the effectiveness of using artificial intelligence is the fact that the governments of certain countries encourage its use for science. For example, Scholarcy is an approved assistive technology through the UK DSA scheme. The main tasks of this tool are identifying the most relevant documents for research and formatting a summary of a certain scientific work.
Some Challenges
Optimisation and acceleration of academic work are undoubtedly part of the positive changes that AI development has brought us. But what about looking into the negative consequences of this technological revolution? As for the banal, this is the likelihood and accuracy of the information that artificial intelligence owns.
For example, the chat GPT itself has a note: “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important information.”. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of quick information, we can forget about verification and fully trust artificial intelligence without the necessary criticality.
ChatGPT does not filter the sources used for truthfulness. Sometimes it can give absurd answers. Or present misinformation as facts.
Misuse
Moreover, one can add the misuse of artificial intelligence in an unethical way, thus violating academic discipline. Among the trivial consequences that we trace today is the plagiarism process, which has become much simpler.
One big problem is, for example, the use of artificial intelligence not as an auxiliary tool, but as the basis of their academic written work, and presenting such generated text as their own. While some students are seeking university essay help, others just submit AI generated assignments.
This provokes major problems because artificial intelligence does not distinguish disinformation and can write works based on such a format of information.
What Educational Institutions Think About It?
This trend has already been noticed by scientific circles and there are now mechanisms for recognising text written by artificial intelligence. However, following this tendency, certain applications are being developed that can transform the text written by artificial intelligence in such a way that the checking program does not notice it.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that a UNESCO survey, found that less than 10% had developed institutional policy and/or official guidelines regarding the use of generative AI programs. “The survey results show that we are still very much in the wilderness when it comes to newly powerful generative AI and education,” said Sobhi Tawil, the UNESCO Director for the Future of Learning and Innovation.
Thus, most schools and universities do not have an established artificial intelligence policy, although estimates suggest that ChatGPT has over 100 million users worldwide and, by many indicators, is the fastest-growing digital program of all time, outpacing the rapid growth of social media programs such as Instagram, Snapchat, and others.
Using such a popular resource without established rules can provoke unwanted consequences in the education system. UNESCO encourages schools and universities to be proactive in giving directions and helping students and teachers better understand these technologies and the consequences of their use.
More Challenges to Come?
One of the challenges posed by the use of artificial intelligence is also the current inequality in access to education. Artificial intelligence must be human-oriented. Therefore, it is worth developing mechanisms so that artificial intelligence does not expand technological gaps within and between countries.
Regarding future variations of events and the impact of artificial intelligence on society. As one of the experts who commented on artificial intelligence in the film “Could AI threaten democracy? | People & Power Documentary”: “AI is a liar’s technological dream”.
Indeed, a lot of disinformation is now being created with the help of artificial intelligence, which is becoming harder to distinguish from reality. Especially at the early stages of education, it is worth warning children and informing them about the threats of this type for the development of critical and analytical thinking.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, it cannot be determined whether artificial intelligence brings us more benefits or threats.
Undoubtedly, the “automation” of learning has facilitated the learning process for both teachers and research staff. The time for conducting certain information searches has been reduced, which is undoubtedly an important consequence in a world where time and speed are infinitely valued in academic circles.
However, the lack of developed rules for using artificial intelligence services can provoke situations of academic misconduct. It is important for educational institutions to inform not only about the possibilities of using new technologies but also about the threats they pose.
The state and government need to demand funding and the opening of certain programs to ensure balanced access to new technologies (including artificial intelligence). The main rule to follow is “Artificial intelligence should be human-oriented”.
