First published in The Hindu, 4 Aug 2024

When ChatGPT debuted in November 2022, it created a brouhaha. How were educators to make out if a student wrote a term paper or whether ChaptGPT spewed it out? Banning its use in educational institutions would prove futile as students would find ways to access the software otherwise. Some professors tried to co-opt ChatGPT into their assignments, asking students to evaluate the bot’s response to a question, for example. As its use proliferated, the nefarious side of generative AI was also revealed as it fabricated claims and exhibited “hallucinations.” The wunderkind of AI wasn’t so wonderful after all. Like most technologies, AI too is knife-edged, with a plethora of benefits and drawbacks.

In an article in Financial Times, dated 29 May 2024, Nicholas Fearn cites a research study done by an edtech company that found that around 60% of high-school students confess that they took help from ChatGPT for assignments ranging from writing essays to solving math problems to translating text from one language to another. Some students admit to getting the bot to write an entire essay, especially when the deadline was looming near. These students are aware that this behaviour constitutes cheating but they haven’t yet been pulled up by their teachers.

Great potential

But not all students are using AI to beat the system. Some students interviewed by Fearn use ChatGPT as an aid or instructional tool. For example, one student uses ChatGPT to research a topic more deeply and to get suggestions for further reading. The same student also uses AI to check his workings on math problems.

An article in Forbes, dated 21 February 2023, by Olufemi Shonubi, discusses the pros and cons of using AI in education. To optimize learning and student outcomes, personalized lessons can allow each student to progress at their own pace and harness their unique interests. By providing instant feedback, students also get a better grip of their errors and how to avoid them.

AI can also support the learning of students with special needs. Features like text to speech and vice versa, spell and grammar checks and software that corrects student’s oral reading in real time can enhance student learning and engagement.

When AI has immense potential as a teaching and learning tool, how can educators incorporate it while limiting its abuses? Fearn interviews John Morganelli Jr, director of college admissions, Ivy Tutors Network, who avers that educators may give greater weightage to “real-time assessments” that may include interviews and in-person testing.

Flip side

While AI platforms can facilitate learning, another question that dogs the educational establishment is whether AI can replace human teachers. Regardless of how ‘smart’ and efficient AI-powered tools may be, they cannot and should not supplant human teachers entirely. The COVID experiment revealed that children do not thrive if they stare at screens all day. We cannot downplay the importance of human contact, interaction and emotionality in the learning process.

Though AI can provide “personalized learning and instant feedback,” argues Shonubi, bots cannot provide a rounded education that also addresses our socioemotional needs. As AI grows more sophisticated in its ability to deliver apt and engrossing lessons, teachers may find their role morphing into a coach or mentor rather than an instructor. 

Another important point that Shonubi raises is the question of privacy. While AI may “collect and store sensitive personal data,” is it fair on young learners to create a digital trail that can tail them for life? Who owns this information? Surely, we cannot allow for-profit edtech companies alone to decide how this information is stored and secured.

Educators and parents need to take a more active role in determining AI’s role in education. Given that our children’s learning and future are at stake, we need a diverse array of voices to speak up and be heard.

(The writer is the author of Zero Limits: Things Every 20-Something Should Know. She blogs 

at www.arunasankaranarayanan.com)