Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more accessible however likewise triggering debates on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their knowing experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic stability, particularly with numerous trainees not able to safeguard their projects or offered works.

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

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"I offered an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the exact same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, however they all used the same AI tool to generate their responses," he said.

He kept in mind that this trend prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is specifically worrying in part-time and range learning programs.

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

Surprisingly, some lecturers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for convenience rather than intellectual rigor.

This argument raises critical concerns about the function of AI in academic integrity and student development.

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

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot each week and wiki.monnaie-libre.fr 1 billion messages sent every day all over the world.

Decline of academic rigor

University speakers are progressively concerned about students sending AI-generated projects without really understanding the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about students increasingly depending on ChatGPT, koha-community.cz only to have problem with responding to basic concerns when tested.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and send refined projects, however when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education has to do with finding out, not simply passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of first-rate graduates can not be completely associated to AI however admitted that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
"A top-notch trainee is a superior trainee, AI or not, however that doesn't suggest they do not cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, but it is making students reliant and less analytical," he said.

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

Students' viewpoints on usage

Students, on the other hand, forum.batman.gainedge.org say AI has enhanced their learning experience by making scholastic products more understandable and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, surgiteams.com shared how AI has substantially assisted her knowing by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more quickly, specifically when dealing with complex subjects," she discussed.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she used AI to submit her task, only for her lecturer to immediately recognize that it was created by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad impact.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently graduated with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly believes that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his impressive grades to actively appealing by asking questions and focusing on locations that speakers emphasize in class, forum.altaycoins.com as they are often reflected in test questions.
"It's everything about existing, paying attention, and taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge shared by my coworkers," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to sometimes copying directly from ChatGPT when facing several deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the lecturers don't get to read through them, however AI has likewise helped me discover faster."

Balancing AI's function in education

Experts think the option lies in AI literacy; teaching students and lecturers how to utilize AI as a knowing help instead of a shortcut.

- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, gratisafhalen.be stressing the significance of a balanced technique that keeps human participation while harnessing AI to improve discovering outcomes.
"As we browse the quickly progressing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is vital that we prioritise human agency in education. We need to ensure that AI improves, rather than replaces, educators' vital role in shaping young minds," he stated

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity change specialist, resolved growing concerns regarding the usage of synthetic intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective threats to the educational system.

- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, however, stressed the need for care in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance amongst teachers and akropolistravel.com schools toward integrating AI tools in learning environments. She identified two primary reasons why AI tools are prevented in instructional settings: security threats and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based upon user interactions, which might not align with the expectations of educators.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade said, discussing that AI doesn't cater to specific mentor methods.

Plagiarism is another problem, as AI pulls from existing data, frequently without proper attribution

"A lot of individuals need to understand, like I stated, this is information that has been trained on. It is not just bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing information that some other individuals are fed into it, which in essence means that is another individual's documents," she warned.

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

She recommended "grounding" AI by providing it with specific information to avoid such mistakes.

AI in Education

Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the solution, especially when AI provides a chance to leapfrog standard educational approaches.

- She believes that consistently enhancing essential information assists people remember and avoid making errors when faced with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform individuals the exact same thing over and over again, when they will make the errors, then they'll keep in mind."

She also empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, keeping in mind that lots of schools need to address the individuals and procedure elements of this use.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually turned to in-class projects and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I generally utilize assignments to ensure students offer original work." However, he acknowledged that handling big classes makes this technique tough.

"If you set intricate concerns, students will not have the ability to use AI to get direct responses," he described.

He stressed the requirement for universities to train speakers on crafting test questions that AI can not quickly fix while acknowledging that some lecturers struggle to counter AI misuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he said.

- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, concentrating on ethical AI development with fairness, openness, responsibility, and privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report requires the regulation of AI in education, encouraging organizations to audit algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they satisfy ethical standards, secure user information, and filter inappropriate content.
- It stresses the requirement to assess the long-lasting impact of AI on critical skills like believing and imagination while developing policies that align with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO suggests carrying out age constraints for GenAI usage to safeguard younger students and secure susceptible groups.
- For federal governments, it advised adopting a coordinated national technique to managing GenAI, including establishing oversight bodies and aligning regulations with existing data security and personal privacy laws. It stresses examining AI dangers, enforcing more stringent rules for high-risk applications, and ensuring nationwide data ownership.