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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reinventing education while making discovering more accessible but likewise sparking arguments on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, speakers are raising issues about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic integrity, particularly with many students unable to safeguard their projects or provided works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed frustration over the growing dependence on AI-generated actions amongst trainees recounting a recent experience he had.

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

He noted that this trend is prevalent among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is specifically worrying in part-time and distance knowing programs.

"AI is a serious difficulty when it comes to tasks. Many students no longer believe critically-they just go on the internet, create responses, and submit," he included.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for benefit instead of intellectual rigor.

This debate raises crucial concerns about the role of AI in academic integrity and trainee advancement.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, just one nation had released guidelines on generative AI as of July 2023.

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent out every day all over the world.

Decline of academic rigor

University lecturers are increasingly concerned about trainees sending AI-generated projects without truly comprehending the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about students significantly counting on ChatGPT, just to deal with addressing fundamental concerns when checked.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and send polished projects, however when asked fundamental concerns, they go blank. It's frustrating since education is about discovering, not just passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing variety of first-rate graduates can not be entirely credited to AI but confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.

"A first-class student is a first-class trainee, AI or not, however that does not imply they do not cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, but it is making students dependent and less analytical," he stated.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various issue that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.

"It's not just trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course describes, marking schemes, and even exam questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real learning," he lamented.

Students' perspectives on use

Students, on the other hand, say AI has improved their learning experience by making academic products more easy to understand and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has considerably assisted her learning by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of prolonged texts.

"AI assisted me understand things more easily, particularly when handling complicated subjects," she discussed.

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

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a superior degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly thinks that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his impressive grades to actively engaging by asking questions and concentrating on locations that speakers stress in class, as they are often reflected in exam questions.

"It's everything about being present, focusing, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my coworkers," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying straight from ChatGPT when facing multiple deadlines.

"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several due dates, and I know I'm guilty of that, most times the speakers do not get to go through them, but AI has actually also helped me find out much faster."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts believe the option lies in AI literacy; teaching students and lecturers how to use AI as a learning aid rather than a shortcut.

- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, worrying the significance of a well balanced approach that keeps human involvement while harnessing AI to improve finding out results.

"As we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is crucial that we prioritise human agency in education. We must ensure that AI enhances, instead of changes, teachers' essential role in forming young minds," he said

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation expert, dealt with growing issues concerning the usage of expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective threats to the educational system.

- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, stressed the requirement for care in its use.

- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance among teachers and schools towards including AI tools in learning environments. She identified 2 primary reasons why AI tools are prevented in educational settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She described that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based upon user interactions, which might not line up with the expectations of teachers.

"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, describing that AI doesn't cater to particular teaching approaches.

Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing data, frequently without appropriate attribution

"A great deal of people need to comprehend, like I stated, this is information that has been trained on. It is not just bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing details that some other people are fed into it, which in essence means that is another individual's documentation," she cautioned.

- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI development known as "hallucination," where AI tools would generate details that was not factual.

"Hallucination meant that it was highlighting details from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that info from you, it was going to make one up," she described.

She suggested "grounding" AI by offering it with particular details to prevent such mistakes.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the option, particularly when AI presents a chance to leapfrog conventional instructional techniques.

- She thinks that regularly enhancing essential information assists people keep in mind and avoid making errors when confronted with challenges.

"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform people the exact same thing over and over once again, when they will make the errors, then they'll remember."

She likewise empasized the need for clear policies and procedures within schools, keeping in mind that lots of schools must address the individuals and process aspects of this usage.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has turned to in-class assignments and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.

"Now, I primarily utilize assignments to guarantee students offer original work." However, he acknowledged that managing large classes makes this approach hard.

"If you set complex concerns, trainees won't have the ability to use AI to get direct responses," he described.

He emphasized the need for universities to train lecturers on crafting exam questions that AI can not quickly fix while acknowledging that some speakers battle to counter AI abuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he stated.

- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI development with fairness, openness, responsibility, and personal privacy at its core.

- UNESCO in a report requires the policy of AI in education, recommending institutions to investigate algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they satisfy ethical requirements, secure user information, and filter inappropriate material.

- It stresses the need to assess the long-term effect of AI on critical abilities like thinking and imagination while creating policies that align with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO recommends carrying out age constraints for GenAI use to secure more youthful trainees and protect susceptible groups.
- For federal governments, it encouraged embracing a coordinated nationwide technique to managing GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and lining up regulations with existing information security and personal privacy laws. It emphasizes assessing AI risks, implementing stricter guidelines for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing national information ownership.