AI Aided Academia
How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Education
Artificial Intelligence is becoming more accessible, and therefore more widely used.
February 13, 2023
Sci-Fi movies of the past tried to warn us, and the time is finally here. Artificial Intelligence is starting to replace people.
Not replacing actual humans, but their ideas at least. Students around the world have been using AI programs, such as ChatGPT, to complete class assignments.
“People could use it for great things, people could use it for terrible things,” said Noah Turner, a senior computer science major. “I’ve heard professors warning about students doing it.”
Educators should quickly become aware of the possibilities that AI presents when it comes to academic integrity.
“On a regular basis, I hear colleges discussing the impact and ramifications of many emerging tools,” said Dr. Jesse Lowe, an assistant professor in UMKC’s Department of Computing Analytics and Mathematics. “I’m not sure anyone is totally aware of the full impact these tools will have, or how widespread they have already become in terms of active use.”
These AIs can even stand up to technically complex testing. Researchers at the University of Minnesota Law School fed ChatGPT a legal exam containing 95 multiple choice questions and 12 essay questions.
The AI passed this test, and across multiple attempts performed at the level of a C+ average student. The bot performed even better when fed an exam from a UMN business course, and achieved a grade average of a B-.
With the bad there must always be the good, and the upside of this technology is that it has many creative capabilities outside of cheating on an English paper.
“Ultimately, we seek things that reduce the barrier of entry into new areas of learning, and I think emerging tools will prove invaluable as they provide highly accessible paths to virtually all types of knowledge,” Lowe said.
MusicLM is an AI created by Google, and it can generate music based on a text description. ChatGPT can also be used to generate computer code. There are videos on YouTube that detail how to create structures in the 3D modeling software called Blender.
Regardless of the intentions of the user it is important to remember that these bots are no more than what they claim to be. Professionals warn that the validity of the information they present is dubious at best.
“Despite the authoritative way many of these systems present information, they do not have any real notion of truth or even belief associated with the information they present,” Lowe said. “AI is ultimately in its infancy in a multitude of ways, and we’ve yet to see what it can ultimately do for us.”
