Think First, AI Later

LINCIE

Immanuel Shadrach, Amity University Haryana; Clara Merheb, Université La Sagesse; Enoch Kolade, Amity University Haryana

Training / education / pedagogy

During a lecture, my classmate had a question regarding what was being taught. Rather than asking the teacher for clarity on the matter, he opted to ask ChatGPT to understand the concept, in spite of the teacher being available for the same. After receiving the response, he did not feel the need to fact-check, which struck me as odd. We aim to explore the dependence students have on GenAI models, focusing on LLMs. We also aim to explore how GenAI can be integrated into the education system.

Education originally involved the exchange of ideas between teachers and students. The emergence of chatbots and LLMs has drastically reduced critical thinking and learning. We are now more focused on reaching optimized solutions as opposed to learning how or why things operate. There is a distinct lack of understanding of core concepts. Learning has evolved from a human-centric model of knowledge transfer to an artificially augmented ecosystem. AI tools are no longer a side-topic, but are extremely embedded in educational domains/landscape, shifting how students learn and how teachers impart knowledge. Teamwork and mutual learning are pretty much non-existent in an educational system guided by AI. Students are engaging in fewer discussions with peers and teachers, reducing social and emotional skill development.

This challenge serves as an interesting opportunity to explore the impact of AI outside the technical learnings of our classroom. We aim to get a better understanding of the dynamics of trust formation in human-AI interactions. The current system doesn't seem to properly integrate GenAI alongside traditional teaching practices. We wish to contribute to AI governance and policy-making in the context of the integration of AI tools with education pedagogy, while ensuring the main focus lies on imparting fair education to students to appropriately prepare them for the future involving AI.