Teachers have been rubbing their hands in recent years over ChatGPT, which can help students cheat on their homework. Generative AI could write a college essay or solve a math problem in just a fraction of the time, making it a tempting shortcut. Professors – whether right or wrong –accused their students to use ChatGPT to complete their tasks.
The educational company Chegg estimated that 40% of students worldwide have used generative AI in their higher education studies, with half of this group using a tool like ChatGPT at least once a day.
But education experts speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference in Singapore on Wednesday believe that nearly two years after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, generative AI can now benefit teachers and is no longer a shortcut for students.
When ChatGPT came out, the “knee-jerk” reaction of teachers was fear that students would start plagiarizing their work, said Sonita Jeyapathy, co-director of the Centre for Pro Bono & Clinical Legal Education at the National University of Singapore. But instead, “we realised that we [Gen AI] as well as.”
Teachers are asking AI developers for help with lesson planning, student motivation and professional development, notes Khairul Anwar, founder of Malaysian edtech startup Pandai.
AI developers are also developing apps to help students learn. Pandai has developed a chatbot that helps students with their homework – but doesn’t do it for them.
“It’s not designed to give you the answers directly, but to give you step-by-step solutions. Asking the students themselves: What do you understand now and what do you think is the next step?” said Anwar.
But chatbots are just the tip of the iceberg.
“There’s a lot more going on in the AI space than just large language models,” said Tim Baldwin, rector of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. He gave the example of an AI that can be trained to understand how a student learns and then adapt the curriculum to their strengths, expanding access to a personalized tutoring experience for those who traditionally couldn’t afford it.
The panelists agreed that AI fraud is not a new phenomenon.
Jeyapathy said it is natural for students to want to find an easier way to get a better grade. She said a student’s motivation and the values of an educational institution have a greater influence on the decision to cheat than access to a particular AI tool.
Anwar suggested that teachers and institutions need to better emphasize the value of education, rather than promoting learning as a means to material prosperity. When education is described as a path to a job, a big house and an expensive car, then “the message is that this is just a transaction, [and] of course students will cheat.”
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