There was a time where people stressed similar concerns with technological advancements of the past that proved to be integral to our current modes of living. The internet too faced similar scrutiny as AI, opening up whole new ways that academics fear-mongered would prevent student learning and thwart the development of problem-solving and decision-making faculties that come with doing homework.
These baseless claims couldn’t undermine the inevitable though and the same rule can be applied to the potential of AI. In many cases, the opposite is proving true. AI-powered tools aren’t isolating us or making us dependent, their solving isolation and dependency.
Often times, interventions in technological change have the opposite of the intended effects. Academics that seek to eradicate the application of AI on campus have created climates of suspicion on campus using AI detection tools and have stimulated the rise of undetectable AI using natural language processing to create AI-generated content that is uncannily human.
If academia were to change course and take the position of more progressive institutions like Cornell, they would be able to harness the most optimized AI capabilities and student competencies to make sure the institution and the students are maximully prepared for the new AI-driven world.
How AI Will Change Academia
To thwart AI plagiarism, schools will undoubtably ask students to do more in-class assignments where everything from brainstorming to citation occurs in-class. Testing will also shift to prevent AI usage with oral testing making a comeback.
The ways academia will change to ensure students avoid using AI for schoolwork are far less interesting than the ways academia could harness AI to enhance every student’s learning experience. AI can be used for personalization of curriculum making it possible for a teacher to teach every student the same course while attending to every need on an individualized basis. If one student speaks less English than another, the class can be taught to each differently using AI that won’t stretch the teacher too thin.
AI technologies can be harnessed by teachers to make everything from grading, to generating syllabi and assignments easier. Academia will evolve from the top down, from admissions which can use AI for targeted enrollment, or simply to streamline workflow of every position in the field.
Students can use AI in a variety of ways beyond simply generating their homework for them. Personalized learning can occur in and out of the classroom, with students being led through their homework to teach them how to be better writers while they go through their writing process. There are a variety of AI writing assistants that can take on this role. Undetectable chatbots like StealthGPT can show students optimal humanized essay writing in real time which they can then emulate for their assignments. Students can also use these chatbots for reading summaries and discussions that help them understand a text that they might find difficult.
Forbes just came out with a piece elaborating on these AI predictions and providing readers with a deeper dive into what we should expect from AI’s role in academia.
Why Academia Needs AI
Academia has been in dire need of change for decades now. Technological advancements could have been the only way Academia could return to its enlightenment era values and away from ideological subversion that places political agendas over learning outcomes. AI has the potential to reinvigorate higher education to stimulate enrollment for every group of people that seem to be graduating less and less each year.
As the world begins integrating AI everywhere, Academia can’t be expected to make a line in the sand and stand on outdated values. The ethical considerations for restricting AI seem more reprehensible than for embracing it in that case.
In a world where people are constantly unable to agree upon the truth, where many have termed our age to be “post-truth” academia needs to give students the tools to best determine what is real for themselves and those tools will be AI driven.
Ensuring students have the best learning experiences possible, in and outside the classroom, requires the use of AI in every education sector. Even student healthcare will require AI so students can have their needs met on demand in real time.
Policymakers need to stop the fear-mongering and let students learn new skills that will one day be requirements to optimal performance. When university AI initiatives look more like Cornell’s, then every institution will be elevated.
Outdated notions of having to sacrifice student development of critical thinking for AI competency must be thrown out. The future must be embraced fearlessly and universities need to lead by example.
Conclusion
Pandora’s Box has been opened and the AI revolution has only just begun. Academia is only beginning to be reshaped by artificial intelligence but as new AI models are innovated, whole new methods of improving learning outcomes will be created. We can all look forward to a time when no student is left behind. Where those that struggle do not fear asking as many questions as they need to catch up with the material. Where students are given everything they need to live their best life in the classroom and outside the classroom while developing every faculty academics fear is in jeopardy.
The importance of AI in academia cannot be stressed enough. It’s the one place where making life easier matters most. Not because students need to be coddled academically, but because we need to be doing everything we can to make younger generations more educated than previous ones.
Students that had trouble learning before just had the tough luck of not have the right resources available to catch them up. Artificial intelligence will level that playing field, so everyone will come learn at their own pace but also finish with the rest of their class competent in a new field of study.
Humans are flawed. None of us can give everyone in our lives what they need from us. With AI though, students can get everything they need from their classes and teachers can get everything they need from their students and their institution.
FAQ
How Many Students Are Using AI For Homework?
It’s reported by the digital education council that 86% of students are using AI in their schoolwork. This constitutes the majority and a significant increase from previous reports from only a year ago. One can also expect the percentage to be underreported as it only represents those that honestly answered the survey for a question that had ethical implications for being truthful.
What AI Tools are being Used in Academia?
Academics use AI tools for grading, reviewing documents, generating syllabi, homework and more. They could be using any chatbot like Openai’s ChatGPT for these services. They also use AI detection tools like Turnitin, Originality.AI, or GPTZero to check student submissions for plagiarism.
What do Students Use AI For?
Students use chatbots as well but are more likely to use undetectable AI to submit assignments which use nlp’s to create humanized text that doesn’t have the detectable watermarks of AI writing.
Students are using generative AI for anything that requires content, from homework to social media. They’re also using AI for mental healthcare, job searching and navigating their educational experience to make for the best life experience.
