VICE-CHANCELLOR’S FORUMS
AI AND CHATGPT IN HIGHER EDUCATION – GUARDRAILS, NOT BANS
With the eruption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, higher education experts are concerned about where these tools fit in the academic space. As such, a Vice-Chancellor’s Forum focused on “Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Blessing or Curse for Higher Education”. Held on May 9, 2023, it placed education experts on a panel to discuss the unfolding issues. Pro Vice-Chancellor, Board for Undergraduate Studies, Professor C. Justin Robinson, organiser and moderator for the forum, opened the session introducing the topic on behalf of Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles. The consensus of the panel was that it is neither blessing nor curse. Instead, as observed by panel member, Ms. Patti West-Smith, Director, Customer Engagement Team, Turnitin, it provides the opportunity to “improve the quality of work for educators and meaningfully impact the learning outcomes for students”. The panel cautioned that AI tools are dependent on information produced by others and as such are inherently biased. They also discussed the extreme option of banning AI from higher education on the grounds that the tools could constitute cheating and encourage unoriginal thinking, but the experts were unified in their position that with the technology already in use and expected to continue, the idea of banning AI tools likely comes from a place of fear. Instead, it should instead be used strategically to empower students to think originally and critically, and they should be given guardrails around how these tools could be used effectively and ethically.
24
Made with FlippingBook Online document maker