Embracing AI in Education

Welcome to the world of AI, certainly I am here to help you. 

You need not think AI is thinking for you. As you read this sentence, AI programs are busy creating cosmic art, answering emails, preparing tax returns, and even recording metal music. They’re also creating pitch decks, debugging software, designing architectural plans, and offering health advice. Whether all this assistance is helpful for us or not, is still debatable. 

ChatGPT was launched by OpenAI on November 30, 2022. After its launch, it captivated the public so much that it reached 1 million users within five days. Within 2 months, the number of users increased to 100 million, an adoption rate faster than that of Instagram and TikTok, and the number of users continued to grow steadily, eventually reaching the impressive figure of 200 million, making it one of the fastest growing applications in history. It is a generative pre-trained transformer, i.e. a large language model, basically a network of neural connections that allows the program to learn according to the instructions and generate more and more precise answers over time, as Natasha Berg mentions in her TED talk.

This application can respond in more than 100 languages as well provide information on a wide range of topics, as well as understand and respond to natural language. It is trained to generate creative and personalized responses, and can also learn from human interaction to improve language processing capabilities. AI can boost the global economy by more than 15 trillion dollars, as predicted by PwC forecasters. With 45% GPT usage, India tops the list of countries concerning app usage.

Such enormous capabilities of AI make the Tech world enter an Arms Race. Common applications like SnapChat, Duolingo, Instacart, and Quizlet have started to integrate this technology into their pre-existing models. After seeing the increasing popularity of Chat GPT Microsoft got ready to invest 10 billion dollars in Open AI as well as planned to merge generative AI into its office software as well as in the Bing search engine. Similarly, Google launched its chatbot named Bard, which focused on searching for various information. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declared that the Race to harness the power of AI has started as most of the companies are utilizing the benefits it has to offer.

ChatGPT is drastically transforming various sectors with its versatile applications in numerous fields. For instance, in customer services, 30-40% of companies are using this tool in handling queries and automating support. The tool is extensively used by the customer service sector in fraud detection as well as in the marketing and sales departments for content creation and lead management.  In the healthcare sector, it assists in patient communication and medical advice, treating patients, and recording medical history. 

Almost 80% of students are now using AI to perform complex work such as writing articles, poems, essays, translating, summarising, or expanding texts. Due to the efficiency of ChatGPT, it is being widely used by students for academic support and social and personal purposes. However, the growing presence of AI in students’ lives has raised concern and debate among teachers to work towards their educational practices.

Few teachers consider AI as the future of education while others see it as a threat to the development of core competencies and critical thinking skills. As a result, several schools have banned it for students. Natasha Berg mentions that due to extensive dependence on AI, students stopped using their cognitive brain and will as a result lose their critical thinking skills and decision-making power. For instance, if teachers have assigned students to write an essay on ‘Fundamental Rights’ they can now find a perfectly composed essay with just a few clicks, a process that might have earlier nudged them to go through multiple websites and then hours to write their piece. 

John Warner points out that the appearance of ChatGPT is so shocking because it forces us to confront what we value, rather than letting the status quo churn along unexamined. Generative AI is compelling educators to reassess both their teaching content and methods. Teachers are doubting their teaching capabilities and the values that they acquired through traditional educational degrees since they are rendered useless post the development of the application. Banning it from being used by students is not going to solve the problem, but rather utilizing it to its highest potential might help to change the educational landscape.

We have to come to terms with the fact that ChatGPT is slowly becoming a part of our daily life and removing its access from students is not a sensible approach, instead teachers have to explore the uses of this tool for improving learning and teaching methods. Globally more than 96% of students use Chat GPT for schoolwork; among these, 69% use it for writing assistance, and teachers also encourage them to use it. The point of concern here is: Are our educational roots not capable of preparing students for the future? If teachers assure students that whatever they are learning in class will surely benefit them in the future then they will not use shortcuts to complete their work, as mentioned by Natasha Berg.

So it is the responsibility of teachers to use AI thoughtfully and harness its power in delivering material, preparing lesson plans, and assessing students' learning. Teachers can take the initiative to adopt project-based and student-centered learning approaches in class which will help them to work in a team, develop their problem-solving skills, use their analytic power, and direct their energy toward problem-solving approaches. Teachers can use AI effectively in personalized learning, interactive simulations, collaborative projects, and scenario-based learning which can foster deeper understanding and active participation of students.

Math students can create their questions of probability and check the answers using AI, while science students can use it to explain complex scientific theories like gravitation, Newton’s Law, the Circulatory system, and many more. It is up to teachers how effectively they harness the power of AI to enrich the content, rather than simply criticizing its use or advocating for completely banning it.

Other than using it for simplification of concepts, teachers can use it in the classroom to form a better understanding of the teaching and assessment process that they can use to get a better overall output. Every student has different needs, talents, and learning capabilities and AI can allow teachers to assess the submissions to find what better techniques can used to kindle interest and actual learning rather than just forcing them to memorise what is in front of them. It will not only make students actually interested in learning but they will feel the urge to read through books and research papers instead of being dependent on an AI tool. 

In conclusion, we can say that ChatGPT when utilized effectively, can reduce the workload of teachers by providing instant solutions to cumbersome processes. It can also help students by providing immediate feedback, improving research abilities, and solving complex problems. AI is a learning tool just like Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram, it's not a replacement for the power of the human brain.