Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more available however also triggering debates on its effect.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their learning experience, lecturers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic stability, specifically with numerous students not able to safeguard their projects or offered works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed frustration over the growing dependence on AI-generated reactions amongst students stating a current experience he had.

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"I offered an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the exact same answers. These students did not even know each other, but they all utilized the same AI tool to create their responses," he stated.

He kept in mind that this pattern is prevalent among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is specifically concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.

"AI is a major difficulty when it comes to assignments. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they simply go on the internet, produce responses, and send," he added.

Surprisingly, some speakers are also accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.

This debate raises vital questions about the role of AI in academic integrity and trainee development.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million month-to-month active users in January 2023, only one country had launched policies on generative AI as of July 2023.

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

Decline of academic rigor

University speakers are progressively concerned about trainees sending AI-generated assignments without truly comprehending the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about students progressively relying on ChatGPT, just to fight with addressing standard questions when evaluated.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek tasks, but when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's frustrating because education has to do with discovering, not just passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing variety of top-notch graduates can not be entirely associated to AI but confessed that even high-performing students use these tools.


"A first-class trainee is a top-notch student, AI or not, but that does not indicate they do not cheat. The advantages of AI might be peripheral, but it is making students reliant and less analytical," he said.

- 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 students utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course details, marking plans, and even examination concerns with AI without examining them. Students in turn use AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real knowing," he regreted.

Students' perspectives on usage

Students, on the other hand, say AI has actually improved their knowing experience by making academic products more understandable and available.

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


"AI assisted me understand things more easily, particularly when dealing with complicated subjects," she described.

However, she recalled an instance when she utilized AI to submit her job, only for her lecturer to instantly acknowledge that it was produced by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad impact.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a top-notch degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively appealing by asking questions and focusing on locations that lecturers highlight in class, as they are often reflected in examination concerns.


"It's everything about existing, paying attention, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to periodically copying directly from ChatGPT when facing numerous deadlines.


"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have multiple deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the speakers don't get to review them, however AI has actually also helped me learn faster."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts think the service depends on AI literacy; teaching students and speakers how to use AI as a knowing aid rather than a faster way.

- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the importance of a balanced method that maintains human involvement while utilizing AI to improve discovering outcomes.


"As we navigate the quickly developing landscape of Expert system (AI), it is crucial that we prioritise human company in education. We need to guarantee that AI boosts, instead of changes, teachers' vital function in forming young minds," he said

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation specialist, addressed growing issues relating to using expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective risks to the instructional system.

- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, emphasized the requirement for care in its usage.

- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance amongst teachers and oke.zone schools toward including AI tools in finding out environments. She recognized 2 primary reasons that AI tools are discouraged in instructional settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, which may not align with the expectations of teachers.


"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, describing that AI doesn't accommodate particular mentor approaches.

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

"A great deal of individuals require to comprehend, like I said, 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 implies that is another individual's documents," she warned.

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


"Hallucination suggested that it was bringing out info from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that information from you, it was going to make one up," she described.

She suggested "grounding" AI by supplying it with specific info to avoid such mistakes.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, particularly when AI provides an opportunity to leapfrog conventional educational methods.

- She thinks that regularly enhancing crucial info assists individuals remember and prevent making errors when faced with obstacles.


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

She also empasized the need for clear policies and procedures within schools, noting that many schools need to attend to the individuals and process elements of this use.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually resorted to in-class assignments and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.


"Now, I mainly use assignments to ensure students provide original work." However, he acknowledged that handling big classes makes this approach challenging.

"If you set intricate concerns, trainees will not be able to use AI to get direct responses," he discussed.

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

- Nigeria released 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 regulation of AI in education, recommending organizations to audit algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they fulfill ethical standards, protect user information, and filter improper material.

- It worries the need to evaluate the long-lasting effect of AI on important abilities like thinking and creativity while creating policies that line up with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO advises carrying out age constraints for akropolistravel.com GenAI usage to secure younger trainees and safeguard susceptible groups.
- For federal governments, it recommended adopting a collaborated nationwide method to regulating GenAI, consisting of establishing oversight bodies and lining up guidelines with existing information defense and personal privacy laws. It highlights examining AI dangers, implementing more stringent guidelines for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing national information ownership.