Academics should not fear AI chatbots, they aren’t advanced enough.
Credit: PxHere, Mohamed Hasan
The University of Strathclyde students claim academics should not worry about the prospect of artificially intelligent chatbots being used for academic assignments.
Their views come amidst media reports that chatbots such as ChatGPT have been able to produce essays based on text prompts.
"I don't think teachers should be worried about this (essay-writing chatbots)" Gundu Shetty, a first-year Master's student in Business Analysis and Consulting, said.
Shetty added “students came here to learn; that is the entire point of learning,”
Shetty noted how his use of chatbots did not apply to academic work: "Basically, I use it for customer service from Amazon"
Gokul Kishore, a Business Analysis and Consulting masters student, also discussed their use of chatbot technology"I have used it once before in class work; I asked basic questions sometimes and for coding as well."
Kyle Prothero, a math, statistics, and economics student, downplayed the capability of AI chatbots as a tool for academic assistance:
"It can do a lot of things, but it is not that advanced to write a student’s essay.”
It is a technology that has caught the eye of leading companies; Microsoft reportedly plans to acquire ChatGPT for $10 billion, and Google recently launched their own chatbot, BARD.
Prothero’s comments come amidst reports that the plagiarism detection software Turnitin will be able to detect AI-generated assignments, raising ideas that AI chatbots lack the capability of creating assignments passable as a student’s ‘own work.’
First-year Business Analysis student, Nikitha, claimed not to have used chatbots for essay writing but highlighted chatbots' as a potential shortcut for assignment writing. “You can get work done quickly and do things at the last minute by using AI chatbots,” she said.
Concerns From Students and Academics
Colin Dwayne, a Business Analysis and Consulting student noted: “I feel there should be some concern, as students might find ways to misuse it and make it do their work for them”
Elsewhere, academics have raised their concerns about the impact of AI on academic work. Professor Ethan Mollick of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business tweeted "AI has basically ruined schoolwork."
Martyn Ware, the Head of Policy, Analysis, and Standards at the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), communicated the organisation’s current stance towards chatbot technology. The current stance held by the Scottish educational body towards Chatbot technology; “We have been monitoring emerging AI tools and the threats and opportunities they present for some time.”
“We will continue to update our guidance and monitor developments with AI and in particular the opportunities and threats it presents for our current approaches to qualifications and assessments,” Ware told Breakthrough Press.