Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing education while making finding out more available but likewise stimulating debates on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their knowing experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic integrity, particularly with lots of trainees unable to defend their assignments or offered works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI-generated responses among students recounting a recent experience he had.

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"I provided an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the specific very same answers. These students did not even understand each other, however they all utilized the same AI tool to generate their responses," he said.

He kept in mind that this trend is common among both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is particularly worrying in part-time and range learning programs.

"AI is a severe challenge when it pertains to assignments. Many trainees no longer think critically-they simply go online, produce answers, and submit," he included.

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

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

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

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

Decline of scholastic rigor

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

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about students increasingly depending on ChatGPT, just to deal with addressing fundamental questions when evaluated.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit refined tasks, but when asked fundamental questions, they go blank. It's disappointing since education is about learning, not just passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing variety of top-notch graduates can not be totally attributed to AI but confessed that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A superior trainee is a superior trainee, AI or not, however that doesn't suggest they don't cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he said.

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

Students' viewpoints on use

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

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

However, she remembered an instance when she used AI to send her project, just for her speaker to instantly acknowledge that it was produced by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly believes that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his exceptional grades to actively engaging by asking questions and concentrating on areas that lecturers stress in class, as they are typically shown in examination questions.
"It's all about being present, focusing, and taking advantage of the wealth of understanding shared by my colleagues," he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, lespoetesbizarres.free.fr a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, admits to sometimes copying directly from ChatGPT when facing multiple due dates.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have numerous due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, most times the lecturers don't get to check out them, but AI has actually likewise helped me discover faster."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts think the solution lies in AI literacy; teaching students and speakers how to use AI as a knowing 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 well balanced technique that preserves human involvement while utilizing AI to improve finding out outcomes.
"As we navigate the quickly developing landscape of Expert system (AI), it is important that we prioritise human agency in education. We should ensure that AI improves, instead of replaces, educators' crucial function in shaping young minds," he said

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation specialist, addressed growing concerns regarding making use of expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their potential dangers to the instructional system.

- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, nevertheless, highlighted the requirement for caution in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance among teachers and schools toward including AI tools in learning environments. She determined two main reasons why AI tools are discouraged in instructional settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She described that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, which might not align with the expectations of teachers.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade said, explaining that AI doesn't accommodate specific mentor techniques.

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

"A great deal of individuals require to comprehend, like I stated, this is information that has been trained on. It is not simply 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 documents," she cautioned.

- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early concern in AI advancement referred to as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce details that was not accurate.
"Hallucination indicated that it was drawing out information from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that info from you, it was going to make one up," she explained.

She suggested "grounding" AI by providing it with particular info to avoid such errors.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, particularly when AI presents an opportunity to leapfrog traditional instructional techniques.

- She believes that crucial info helps people keep in mind and prevent making mistakes when faced with difficulties.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform individuals the very same thing over and over again, when they are about to make the mistakes, then they'll keep in mind."

She likewise empasized the need for clear policies and procedures within schools, noting that numerous schools need to deal with the people and procedure elements of this usage.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has turned to in-class tasks and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I generally use projects to ensure students supply original work." However, he acknowledged that handling big classes makes this approach challenging.

"If you set complicated concerns, students won't have the ability to utilize AI to get direct responses," he explained.

He stressed the requirement for universities to train lecturers on crafting examination questions that AI can not quickly fix while acknowledging that some lecturers battle to counter AI abuse due to a lack of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he stated.

- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI advancement with fairness, openness, responsibility, and privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report requires the policy of AI in education, encouraging organizations to examine algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they meet ethical requirements, protect user data, and filter inappropriate content.
- It stresses the requirement to assess the long-lasting effect of AI on crucial abilities like thinking and imagination while producing policies that align with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO suggests executing age restrictions for GenAI use to protect more youthful trainees and safeguard susceptible groups.
- For governments, it encouraged adopting a coordinated nationwide technique to controling GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and lining up regulations with existing information security and privacy laws. It stresses evaluating AI threats, enforcing more stringent guidelines for high-risk applications, and ensuring national data ownership.