Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing education while making learning more available however also triggering arguments on its impact.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their knowing experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic integrity, specifically with lots of trainees not able to protect their tasks or given works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, gdprhub.eu in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed frustration over the growing dependence on AI-generated reactions among students recounting a current experience he had.

RelatedStories

Avoid sharing individual details that can identify you with AI tools- Expert alerts

Chinese AI app DeepSeek stimulates international tech selloff, obstacles U.S. AI supremacy

"I provided a task to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the specific same answers. These trainees did not even know each other, however they all used the same AI tool to generate their actions," he said.

He kept in mind that this pattern prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is especially worrying in part-time and distance learning programs.

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

Surprisingly, some lecturers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.

This argument raises crucial questions about the function of AI in academic integrity and trainee advancement.

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

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals using the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent every day around the globe.

Decline of academic rigor

University lecturers are progressively worried about students sending AI-generated projects without really comprehending the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees significantly depending on ChatGPT, only to battle with answering basic concerns when evaluated.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and send polished projects, but when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education has to do with learning, not simply passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing variety of first-class graduates can not be totally credited to AI however confessed that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
"A superior student is a first-rate trainee, AI or not, however that does not suggest they don't cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, however 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 simply students using AI lazily. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course details, marking schemes, and even examination concerns with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn utilize AI to create answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real learning," he lamented.

Students' viewpoints on usage

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

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has considerably assisted her knowing by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI assisted me comprehend things more easily, especially when dealing with complex subjects," she explained.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she utilized AI to submit her job, just for her speaker to immediately recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly believes that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively appealing by asking concerns and focusing on locations that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are typically reflected in examination concerns.
"It's everything about existing, focusing, and taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge shared by my colleagues," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to occasionally copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with numerous deadlines.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several due dates, and I know I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the speakers do not get to read through them, but AI has likewise assisted me discover much faster."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts believe the service lies in AI literacy