Opinion
Many articles about AI in education, include the words ‘it’s not just about cheating, it’s also about …’
My view is that cheating is the most urgent issue. Fortunately, most, if not all, academics are intent on preventing cheating, and are moving to secure assessments, often via invigilated exams, but also via other AI-proof activities, and some are exploring technological fixes.
No one wants to mark essays written by AI. Neither staff nor students want a culture of suspicion. Nor do they want reputations and the value of degrees to suffer.
The advent of AI really is disrupting things. Challenges for students include: uncertainty and reduced motivation (do I really need to learn things that AI can or will do better?), cognitive offloading (I got AI to make a summary, so I think I’ve mastered it now), a failure to develop stamina (why do I need to wade through all this?), anxiety about future employment (what’s the point if a robot takes my job?), and suspicion (everyone else is enhancing their work through AI, so I have to too).
Academics are also being challenged, having to decide anew which topics and activities they should prioritise in the age of AI, in addition to reworking assessments.
On top of this, AI capability keeps advancing, making decisions harder.
Ouch.
Remaining motivated to learn may be the primary underlying challenge.
There is nothing new about the importance of motivating students and convincing everyone that doing the hard yards of learning is worthwhile, and that learning is sometimes its own reward. Now that AI shortcuts are ubiquitous, it is just harder.
We have to keep pushing learning, because scaffolding fundamental knowledge in your head, understanding concepts via first principles, and gradually climbing up to ever more sophisticated understanding, underpins critical thinking.
Sometimes people say – it is no longer about learning facts, it is about critical thinking, but you simply can’t think critically (or sense check AI for hallucinations on the run) without having core knowledge and foundational concepts in your head.
My hunch is that the students that continue to learn from first principles will continue to be those who can harness future AI models most effectively to address new intellectual challenges.
This is not the first time that advances in information technology have caused disruption.
The translation of the bible into English triggered social revolutions. The printing press accelerated upheaval. Cameras, when they were invented, put painters out of business, and now art galleries are dominated by large installations, rather than portraits in oil on canvas. Calculators made it less important to know how to do long division. Google and Wikipedia put established encyclopedias out of business, the internet undermined the newspaper industry, and video killed the radio star.
Each time we’ve just had to keep swimming.
And those who read the most, learn the most, and explore the most, are those who keep pushing the frontiers of thought, scholarship, and innovation forward. And have also had a lot of fun doing it.
Knowing things is not only advantageous in terms of critical thinking, it makes conversations more interesting. Having knowledge in your head also helps build your own confidence. And it builds esteem amongst your peers, whether it is knowledge of your professional discipline, or information about footballers or local wildlife. Knowing things is fun, and even in anti-intellectual places or eras it tends to be respected.
No one really likes bullshitters.
AI is certainly causing a lot of problems and some distractions, but it is also ushering in an age of lifelong learning that will hopefully be free for everyone.
In the modern world one’s ability to learn might only be limited by one’s ability to ask questions, and one’s endurance. Those who are, and remain curious, will be exploring the world of knowledge at every available moment, just as many of us used to get lost following trails of information in libraries or looking up reference after reference in journals.
It is often said that young people today don’t read enough but perhaps they read more than ever – just in snacks as Instagram reels or memes scroll by.
AI will disrupt some lower tier educational businesses as the price of knowledge falls to near zero. But it won’t diminish the importance of deep learning and the role of universities in supporting student development, peer engagement, networking, and building confidence, and in offering choice, guidance, and mentoring.
Despite one information technology disruption after another, and calls to ‘rethink’, neither school nor universities have changed very much for hundreds of years. The reason is simple, human biology has not changed, and the importance of critical thinking on one’s feet in conversation has not changed.
So, perhaps paradoxically I think the answer to AI is not to re-imagine education but rather to have confidence that learning new things has been and always will be a core part of being human. There will be disruption and it is too early to tell whether the impacts will be good or bad, but learning will always remain important for Homo sapiens.
Professor Merlin Crossley is DVC (Academic Quality) at UNSW