AI and the future of education
How will AI transform the future of education?
Since November 22nd, 2022, chatGPT has been terrorizing humanity with its large language model and the tantalizing offering of generative AI.
According to Andrew Ng, computer scientist and AI expert, there are three categories of tasks in which LLMs can truly benefit us: writing, reading and chatting.
Students can benefit from LLMs by using them for
1) Writing – brainstorming an essay
2) Reading –
3) Chatting – asking questions about a topic that is complex and is difficult to Google simply
However, it’s critically important to fact-check every sinlge thing that an AI or LLM product returns to you, as the chances of hallucination (or wildly “creative” – read “false”) responses still runs high. Consider recent gaffes by Google’s Bard/Gemini, and you will see what I mean.
Some colleges, like the University of Georgia, recently announced that they would abandon the use of the point system that they formerly used to rank students.
I do believe that the use of AI will transform the educational landscape, as colleges and universities begin implementing more and more safeguards against the use of AI in written responses.
More schools will abandon test-optional policies, as the COVID era has more or less ended and schools will need a more reliable, standardized gauge of students’ ability that does not permit the use of LLMs or other generative AI tools to “fake” intelligence.
How are colleges using AI to transform education? I believe that their main goal will be to reduce cost, even as they seek to boost revenue. If you’ve been watching this space for a while, as I have, you’ll know that since COVID (and even slightly before), colleges have been experiencing a cash crunch…some have even been forced to consolidate. So those on the administrative side of higher education will be incentivized to quickly and efficiently integrate AI into their business/operational model. Those who do not will be at a tremendous disadvantage.
AI and the use of chatbots like ChatGPT in completing academic work will make it harder for university officials to track cheating and plagiarism. I firmly believe that students who continually use generative AI and chatbots to complete their work will see their own creative and analytical abilities decline if they do not challenge themselves to craft their own work. While we don’t mean to suggest that students should deny themselves the benefits of new technology, we warn against becoming so reliant on these tools that they couldn’t actually complete the work themselves.
Use generative AI to make yourself a better student, not to make yourself a thoughtless drone. Although educators will struggle to determine how extensively AI is being used by students, the most clever learners will use AI to become more knowledgeable, rather than to substitute the work that they themselves should be doing.