Concern about the dangers of artificial intelligence is growing stronger every day, generating visions of “The Terminator” and an AI takeover of the world. AI has been around since the 1950s but recently we see an infusion of AI technologies in our daily lives – think about your smart thermostat, home assistants like Alexa or your cleaning robot. However, the launch of AI systems capable of generating content, like ChatGPT and DALL-E, has ramped up discussions in universities across the country.
ChatGPT and other AI tools should not be your enemy, they can be used to radically improve our ability to solve problems and advance knowledge.
Enrico Pontelli, dean of the College of Arts and Science.
While there are good reasons to be cautious, I believe it’s important to realize the good we can provide for our students by teaching them to use AI tools properly. In the academic world, we see how students may use products like ChatGPT to cheat. My response is ‘Yes, that is a concern,’ but it’s not any different than plagiarizing homework or an assignment. Just as we do not accept plagiarism (and students can pay a hefty price if caught), we can place similar guardrails on the use of AI technology.
Instead of fighting the use of AI, we need to educate students on the responsible and ethical use of AI and enable them to leverage the power of this tool to break new boundaries. This will not be a simple task – it will require a profound transformation of pedagogy, away from some of the more mechanical tasks and with a greater emphasis on discovery and creativity. We should make AI our friend.
Critics argue that reliance on AI may undermine critical thinking, but when used judiciously, it can enhance these skills. ChatGPT can encourage students to ask probing questions, challenge assumptions and seek deeper understanding. By guiding them through the process of questioning and exploration, AI becomes a partner in nurturing analytical thinking. Effective use of ChatGPT requires the ability to pose the “right questions” to produce usable content. It’s no surprise, we are seeing first job announcements seeking “Prompt Engineers.”
ChatGPT is known to suffer from “hallucinations” – answers that are simply false. That’s why we must teach students how to ask the right kinds of questions and to think about solutions. ChatGPT and similar tools can provide outstanding capabilities to organize information searches, generate ideas to be explored, assist in language learning and support students’ different learning needs.
With the advent of AI, teaching to the test will become obsolete. And when we can no longer rely on standardized tests, our systems will have to change. We must teach students how to think, how to learn and that’s much harder than memorizing answers for multiple choice tests.
AI is not going away. The World Economic Forum, for example, began a training initiative in 2020 to reskill one billion people worldwide by 2030 to “future proof” them against careers expected to be replaced by automation.
Despite these predictions, we shouldn’t be afraid of AI. As academics, we have an obligation to adapt our pedagogy to this new world. The most crucial aspect is to embed ethics into it by teaching students the proper use of AI. We should make a commitment now to develop curriculum that incorporates AI into every discipline that we teach.
In conclusion, the integration of ChatGPT and generative AI opens a new era in education, offering unprecedented opportunities for personalized learning, interactivity and skill development. Rather than resisting these technological advancements, let us embrace them with open arms, recognizing their potential to revolutionize education and prepare students for the challenges of the future.
AI is inevitable so we should begin introducing students to the ethical use of AI as soon as possible. AI is just a tool, but it’s an important tool we must embrace. The time is now.
Enrico Pontelli is the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University. He can be reached at arts_sci@nmsu.edu.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Time to embrace AI in college classrooms
