Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing education while making discovering more available however likewise triggering disputes on its impact.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their learning experience, speakers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic integrity, particularly with lots of students not able to protect their tasks or given works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, yewiki.org a speaker 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 offered an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the precise same answers. These trainees did not even know each other, however they all utilized the same AI tool to generate their reactions,” he stated.

He noted that this pattern is widespread among both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is especially concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.

“AI is a serious difficulty when it comes to assignments. Many students no longer think critically-they just go on the internet, create responses, and send,” he added.

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

This dispute raises crucial concerns about the role of AI in academic stability and student advancement.

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.

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent out every day around the globe.

Decline of academic rigor

University speakers are progressively worried about trainees submitting AI-generated projects without truly comprehending the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about students significantly counting on ChatGPT, just to battle with responding to basic concerns when checked.

“Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit polished projects, but when asked basic questions, they go blank. It’s disappointing since education is about finding out, not simply passing courses,” he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing number of first-rate graduates can not be totally credited to AI but confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
“A first-rate student is a first-class trainee, AI or not, but that doesn’t imply they do not cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, however it is making trainees dependent and less analytical,” he stated.

- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
“It’s not simply trainees utilizing AI lazily. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course describes, marking plans, and even examination questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to generate answers. It’s a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real knowing,” he lamented.

Students’ viewpoints on usage

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

- Eniola Arowosafe, it-viking.ch a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has actually considerably aided her knowing by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of lengthy texts.
“AI helped me understand things more quickly, particularly when handling complicated topics,” she discussed.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she used AI to send her job, just for her lecturer to instantly recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad impact.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a top-notch degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, securely believes that his academic success wasn’t due to any AI tool. He attributes his exceptional grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and concentrating on locations that lecturers stress in class, as they are typically reflected in exam concerns.
“It’s everything about existing, focusing, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates,” he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to sometimes copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with multiple due dates.
“To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have multiple deadlines, and I know I’m guilty of that, most times the lecturers don’t get to review them, but AI has also assisted me discover much faster.”

Balancing AI’s function in education

Experts think the solution lies in AI literacy