Surge in reliance to the AI tool begs question on the balance between the benefits of technology and the potential pitfalls of dependency
Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 13
Since late 2022, a noticeable trend has emerged in academic circles of students increasingly turning to ChatGPT, a powerful language model, for assistance in completing their projects and assignments.
ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched on November 30, 2022. It uses natural language processing to create humanlike conversational dialogue, text or videos. The language model can respond to questions and compose various written content, including articles, social media posts, essays, code and emails.
By January 2023, ChatGPT had become the fastest-growing consumer software application in history, gaining over 100 million users.
However, this surge in reliance has led educators to question the balance between the benefits of technology and the potential pitfalls of dependency. There is even a debate in universities on whether this AI chatbot can be defined as a research tool- or a cheating engine.
While this innovative tool offers valuable support, educators are expressing concerns about its impact on educational integrity, ethics, and the development of students’ independent learning skills.
There is a growing apprehension that students can become passive consumers of information rather than active participants in the learning process. Some educators feel that this dependency may hinder the development of essential skills such as research, analysis, and original thought.
Speaking to The Morung Express, Moarenla, an Assistant Professor in a leading Government college, says ChatGPT can be a useful tool for students, but it should not replace the process of engaging with academic material, thinking critically, and formulating original ideas.
“I think ChatGPT is a great tool for collecting data or information. But it should be used responsibly. I have observed that students are making great use of this technology for writing assignments. It becomes an issue or a concern when they turn in assignments which they have literally copy pasted straight out from ChatGPT,” she reveals.
Educational integrity is an area of concern, as some students use ChatGPT to generate content assignment which is looked at as a potential consequence of growing reliance on automated assistance.
According to Moarenla, it becomes challenging for a teacher when it comes to awarding marks for work where the student has not made much of an effort and has directly copy pasted from ChatGPT. “This is when the issue of integrity and ethics comes in. As educators, I feel we need to keep a close watch over students and create awareness over its usage,” she says.
Dr Resenmenla Longchar, Assistant Professor, Department of History, ICFAI University, Sovima believes that the current relevance of AI tools like ChatGPT is undeniable. She says it has significantly revolutionized the landscape of learning in the present age with its accessibility, efficient information gathering, versatile applications to name a few of its perks.
However, she points out that generated AI cannot match the analytical acumen of the human mind in critical thinking and discussion based on particular results or observations and therefore one must be well informed about the flaws and biasness of the AI generated content.
Citing instances, Dr Resenmenla explains how in language and writing front, loss of original thinking, easier approach to copy and paste mechanism in general and academic writings have become very prevalent and has landed many students and scholars culpable to plagiarism.
Dr Imtimangyang Ozukum, Guest Faculty at Kohima Science College agrees that ChatGPT certainly is of great help to many but given that it is still new to many with massive disruptive potential, “We are yet to realize its true impact.”
Use of ChatGPT currently escapes deeper scrutiny owing to ambiguity in public perception about its nature, potential and impact, observes Dr Imtimangyang, while also raising the question of academic integrity and ethics with “boundary between human and AI becoming increasingly indiscernible.”
To address these concerns, educators The Morung Express interacted with suggests that a balanced approach to integrating ChatGPT into the educational landscape with ethical use of technology by incorporating guidelines ought to be discussed.
“We need to strike a balance between leveraging the benefits of technology and ensuring that students are actively engaging with their studies, says Dr Imtimangyang.
He recommends potential guidelines or code of standard like sensitizing people about its potential and impact, sensitizing on ethical use and detection of AI generated text using software etc.
“Integrity and ethics cannot be completely monitored, much less enforced, especially with AI. Its use/misuse can only be moderated and regulated but not eliminated just like a paid/ghost writer cannot be done away with,” he further emphasizes.
