The Power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Academics: Are We Losing It!

Recently, I wrote a random article from scratch and decided to use one of the free AI detection tools out of curiosity. To my surprise, the tool indicated that there was a possibility that 46% of the content in the article was AI-generated.

Due to disbelief, I decided to use two more tools I found online: one showed that AI-generated a possible 30% of the content, while the other showed that the content was purely human and reported 0% AI-generated.

These different results made me question the authenticity and power of Artificial Intelligence, and I wondered, are we losing our humanity by putting too much trust in these tools?

In this blog, I will discuss the essentials of Artificial Intelligence, including its advantages, disadvantages, and proper use in academics.

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

AI is machine learning tools that emulate human brains or reasoning to perform various tasks. Ordinarily, these tools use specific algorithms and models to analyze high volumes of data and create patterns to perform desired tasks or generate accurate outcomes.

Due to its ability to perform various tasks, The tools have gained significant acceptance across fields, making its most recent entry into the academic field.

How Does AI Really Work?

Artificial intelligence tools process natural language to create human-like content. This allows these tools to respond to questions and generate various written content as the user directs. This means the user must enter specific instructions so the tool can respond according to the prompt. Often, the tools search for information on the internet without introducing new ideas. This makes machine learning tools very useful when researching a particular topic of interest.  

The Use of AI in Academics

The emergence of tools like ChatGPT, Quillbot, Ask Writer, Ask AI, PaperWriter.ai, and EssayWriters.ai, among others, have permeated the academic world, making machine learning popular in this field. Students rapidly utilize these tools to research, write assignments, and improve their writing skills. Educators are also increasingly integrating these tools for various tasks. As a result, their use in academics cannot be ignored or underestimated.

Ideally, the rapid integration of AI into academia stems from its advantages;

1. The tools allow users to access and retrieve the information they need for writing or research quickly and easily.
2. From the above advantage, the tools save students and researchers time and effort by helping them create different academic documents, analyze content, or identify key points.
3. These tools can improve student performance by evaluating progress and offering immediate feedback to help students improve their academic work.
4. The tools can also provide students with practical guidelines to approach their class work, enabling them to produce high-quality essays that align with instructions.
5. Leveraging these tools can also offer students personalized studying, allowing them to gain knowledge at their own pace.

Despite its potential to improve students’ performance, overreliance on these tools in education can result in significant disadvantages in the long run;

1. The use of artificial intelligence can reduce interpersonal skills among students. This is because when students rely on these tools to do their class work and projects, they are less likely to engage their instructors or peers to gain a deeper understanding of the content.  
2. Overreliance on machine learning can create bias among students. This comes when students doing their work from scratch are graded using the same criteria as those using these technologies. Typically, those using these tools may have an advantage over those relying on their understanding.
3. Overreliance on machine learning tools can also increase privacy issues as these tools acquire significant data from students when signing up.
4. Overly using artificial intelligence tools also increases the risk of technology addiction for both students and educators/instructors.
5. Overreliance on these tools reduces students’ creativity.
6. Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT may have limited information as they cannot access research or articles written after 2021.
7. Artificial intelligence tools can be costly as they require subscription and frequent upgrades.
8. Overreliance on these tools, at least from personal experience, can result in distrust. This is because instructors can use these tools to evaluate a student’s work and penalize them without taking time to review the work.  
9. Artificial intelligence also requires human intervention to edit and format papers to desirable outcomes, which may be time-consuming as you have little knowledge of the produced content.

What Next?

The above discussion shows that machine learning has advanced in academics, with students and instructors using these tools to perform different tasks. Even though artificial intelligence (AI) tools have demonstrated substantial advantages for students and instructors, they also pose significant disadvantages that you must consider when leveraging them.

This brings me to the main reason for writing this article. From my recent experience, where my original work was flagged by an AI-tool for using another AI-tool, I realized that these tools may not be as accurate as we all assume. Yes, they use advanced algorithms and access high data to generate outcomes, but man also develops them. The frequent upgrades and available options show that these tools are not 100% accurate.

The tools also do not have human touch and may ignore many things. In this regard, I implore instructors not to rely on these tools to assess students’ work. At the same time, students should only use the tools as guides or for research instead of relying on them for doing class work and assignments.  

In essence, we must remain proactive when using machine learning tools. We should only use them to improve our academic outcomes while preserving our authentic perspectives on different subjects. Again, instructors should use artificial intelligence only when necessary, without forgetting their unique roles in promoting student development.  

Related Reading: Explore these stress-free essay writing techniques.

Related Reading: Why your essay may fail to bypass AI Detection