Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing education while making learning more accessible but likewise stimulating arguments on its impact.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic stability, particularly with lots of students unable to protect their tasks or provided works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed aggravation over the growing dependence on AI-generated reactions among students stating a recent experience he had.

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"I provided an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the precise same responses. These trainees did not even know each other, but they all utilized the same AI tool to create their responses," he stated.

He noted that this trend is common amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is specifically concerning in part-time and distance knowing programs.

"AI is a severe difficulty when it concerns projects. Many students no longer think critically-they just go on the internet, generate answers, and submit," he included.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for benefit instead of intellectual rigor.

This dispute raises important questions about the role of AI in academic stability and student development.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million month-to-month active users in January 2023, only one nation had launched regulations on generative AI since July 2023.

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million people using the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent out every day around the globe.

Decline of scholastic rigor

University speakers are progressively concerned about trainees sending AI-generated assignments without really understanding the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about students increasingly depending on ChatGPT, just to fight with addressing basic questions when tested.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek projects, but when asked basic concerns, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education has to do with finding out, not simply passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be totally credited to AI but admitted that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A superior trainee is a superior student, AI or not, but that doesn't mean they do not cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, however it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he stated.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
"It's not simply trainees using AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course describes, marking plans, and even examination concerns with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine learning," he regreted.

Students' viewpoints on use

Students, on the other hand, state AI has enhanced their knowing experience by making scholastic materials more easy to understand and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has considerably assisted her knowing by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more quickly, especially when handling complicated subjects," she described.

However, she recalled an instance when she utilized AI to send her task, only for her lecturer to right away acknowledge that it was generated by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad effect.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently graduated with a superior degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his exceptional grades to actively appealing by asking concerns and focusing on areas that lecturers stress in class, as they are frequently reflected in examination concerns.
"It's everything about existing, taking note, and using the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying directly from ChatGPT when facing multiple due dates.
"To be honest, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have numerous deadlines, and I know I'm guilty of that, a lot of times the lecturers do not get to check out them, however AI has actually also assisted me learn faster."

Balancing AI's function in education

Experts think the solution depends on AI literacy; teaching trainees and lecturers how to use AI as a learning aid rather than a shortcut.

- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, worrying the value of a balanced approach that keeps human involvement while utilizing AI to improve finding out results.
"As we browse the quickly progressing landscape of Expert system (AI), it is important that we prioritise human company in education. We should ensure that AI boosts, rather than changes, teachers' vital role in forming young minds," he said

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity change expert, addressed growing issues concerning the usage of synthetic intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible risks to the academic system.

- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, emphasized the requirement for caution in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance among educators and schools towards integrating AI tools in discovering environments. She recognized two primary reasons why AI tools are discouraged in educational settings: security threats and plagiarism. She explained that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, which might not line up with the expectations of teachers.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade said, describing that AI doesn't accommodate particular mentor approaches.

Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing information, setiathome.berkeley.edu often without appropriate attribution

"A lot of people require to understand, like I said, this is data that has actually been trained on. It is not just bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing details that some other individuals are fed into it, which in essence indicates that is another person's documentation," she cautioned.

- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI advancement called "hallucination," where AI tools would create info that was not accurate.
"Hallucination suggested that it was highlighting details from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that details from you, it was going to make one up," she explained.

She advised "grounding" AI by it with particular information to avoid such mistakes.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the option, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de particularly when AI provides a chance to leapfrog conventional educational methods.

- She believes that consistently strengthening key details assists individuals keep in mind and prevent making mistakes when faced with difficulties.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform people the same thing over and over again, when they are about to make the mistakes, then they'll remember."

She also empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, keeping in mind that many schools should address individuals and process aspects of this use.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually resorted to in-class projects and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily utilize assignments to guarantee trainees offer original work." However, he acknowledged that managing large classes makes this technique challenging.

"If you set complicated questions, trainees won't be able to utilize AI to get direct responses," he discussed.

He highlighted the requirement for universities to train speakers on crafting test concerns that AI can not quickly solve while acknowledging that some speakers struggle to counter AI misuse due to a lack of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he stated.

- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI advancement with fairness, transparency, responsibility, and privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the regulation of AI in education, encouraging organizations to investigate algorithms, information, and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they satisfy ethical standards, safeguard user information, and filter improper content.
- It stresses the requirement to assess the long-lasting impact of AI on important skills like believing and macphersonwiki.mywikis.wiki creativity while producing policies that align with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO recommends carrying out age limitations for GenAI use to secure more youthful students and protect vulnerable groups.
- For governments, it advised adopting a collaborated national method to controling GenAI, including establishing oversight bodies and aligning regulations with existing data security and privacy laws. It highlights examining AI risks, imposing more stringent rules for high-risk applications, and ensuring nationwide data ownership.