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Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making finding out more available but also stimulating disputes on its impact.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their learning experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic stability, especially with many trainees not able to safeguard their tasks or provided works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed frustration over the growing reliance on AI-generated actions amongst trainees recounting a recent experience he had.

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"I gave an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the exact very same responses. These students did not even understand each other, but they all used the exact same AI tool to produce their reactions," he said.

He noted that this trend prevails among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is particularly concerning in part-time and range learning programs.

"AI is a serious difficulty when it pertains to projects. Many students no longer believe critically-they just go on the internet, produce answers, and submit," he added.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are likewise accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.

This argument raises critical questions about the role of AI in scholastic stability and student development.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, only one nation had launched guidelines on generative AI as of July 2023.

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million people using the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent out every day all over the world.

Decline of scholastic rigor

University speakers are increasingly concerned about students sending AI-generated assignments without truly understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, niaskywalk.com a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about students increasingly counting on ChatGPT, just to have problem with responding to fundamental concerns when checked.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit refined assignments, however when asked basic concerns, they go blank. It's frustrating due to the fact that education is about learning, not simply passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing number of superior graduates can not be completely credited to AI however confessed that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A first-rate student is a top-notch trainee, AI or not, however that doesn't mean they don't cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, but it is making students dependent and less analytical," he stated.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various concern that some speakers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
"It's not simply students utilizing AI lazily. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course details, marking schemes, and even examination concerns with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn utilize AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine knowing," he lamented.

Students' perspectives on use

Students, on the other hand, say AI has enhanced their learning experience by making academic products more understandable and accessible.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually considerably helped her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI assisted me comprehend things more easily, especially when dealing with complicated topics," she explained.

However, she remembered an instance when she used AI to submit her job, only for her speaker to right away recognize that it was created by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently finished with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his exceptional grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and focusing on areas that lecturers highlight in class, as they are frequently reflected in test questions.
"It's everything about existing, paying attention, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my associates," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to sometimes copying straight from ChatGPT when facing multiple due dates.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have multiple due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the speakers do not get to go through them, but AI has also helped me discover quicker."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts think the option lies in AI literacy; mentor trainees and lecturers how to utilize AI as a learning aid instead of a shortcut.

- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the significance of a balanced method that maintains human participation while harnessing AI to enhance discovering results.
"As we navigate the rapidly progressing landscape of Expert system (AI), it is vital that we prioritise human company in education. We must ensure that AI enhances, rather than replaces, teachers' essential function in shaping young minds," he said

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity change professional, resolved growing concerns regarding making use of synthetic intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible risks to the instructional system.

- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, however, stressed the need for care in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance amongst educators and schools toward integrating AI tools in discovering environments. She determined 2 primary factors why AI tools are discouraged in educational settings: security threats and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, which might not line up with the expectations of educators.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade said, explaining that AI doesn't deal with specific mentor methods.

Plagiarism is another problem, as AI pulls from existing data, typically without appropriate attribution

"A great deal of people need to understand, like I said, this is information that has actually been trained on. It is not just bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing details that some other people are fed into it, which in essence suggests that is another individual's documentation," she warned.

- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI advancement called "hallucination," where AI tools would create information that was not factual.
"Hallucination implied that it was bringing out info from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that details from you, it was going to make one up," she explained.

She recommended "grounding" AI by supplying it with specific details to avoid such errors.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the option, particularly when AI provides a chance to educational techniques.

- She thinks that consistently reinforcing essential info helps individuals keep in mind and avoid making errors when confronted with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell individuals the same thing over and over once again, when they will make the errors, then they'll keep in mind."

She likewise empasized the need for clear policies and treatments within schools, noting that lots of schools need to address the individuals and procedure elements of this usage.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has turned to in-class tasks and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily use assignments to make sure trainees offer initial work." However, he acknowledged that handling big classes makes this approach difficult.

"If you set complex concerns, students will not have the ability to utilize AI to get direct responses," he discussed.

He emphasized the requirement for universities to train speakers on crafting exam questions that AI can not easily solve while acknowledging that some speakers battle to counter AI abuse due to a lack of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he said.

- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, concentrating 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, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they meet ethical standards, protect user data, and filter unsuitable content.
- It stresses the need to evaluate the long-term impact of AI on crucial abilities like believing and shiapedia.1god.org creativity while developing policies that line up with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO suggests carrying out age restrictions for GenAI usage to protect more youthful students and safeguard susceptible groups.
- For governments, it encouraged adopting a coordinated nationwide technique to regulating GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and lining up policies with existing information security and privacy laws. It stresses examining AI dangers, imposing stricter guidelines for high-risk applications, and making sure national data ownership.