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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more accessible however also triggering disputes on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic stability, especially with numerous students not able to safeguard their projects or offered works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed aggravation over the growing dependence on AI-generated actions among students stating a recent experience he had.

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"I offered a project to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the specific very same responses. These students did not even understand each other, however they all used the same AI tool to produce their reactions," he stated.

He noted that this trend is widespread among both undergraduate and postgraduate students however is specifically concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.

"AI is a severe difficulty when it concerns projects. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they just go online, generate answers, and send," he added.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.

This dispute raises important questions about the role of AI in academic stability and trainee advancement.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, wiki.whenparked.com only one nation had launched regulations on generative AI as of July 2023.

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals using the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent every day all over the world.

Decline of scholastic rigor

University lecturers are significantly worried about trainees submitting AI-generated projects without truly understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees progressively relying on ChatGPT, just to battle with addressing standard questions when evaluated.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit refined tasks, however when asked fundamental questions, they go blank. It's frustrating due to the fact that education is about learning, not simply passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of superior graduates can not be totally associated to AI but admitted that even use these tools.
"A first-rate student is a superior student, AI or not, but that does not mean they do not cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making students dependent and less analytical," he stated.

- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different concern that some speakers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not just students utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course details, marking schemes, and even test concerns with AI without examining them. Students in turn use AI to create responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real knowing," he regreted.

Students' viewpoints on usage

Students, on the other hand, say AI has actually enhanced their learning experience by making academic products more understandable and accessible.

- Eniola Arowosafe, garagesale.es a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has actually substantially assisted her learning by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI helped me understand things more quickly, particularly when handling complicated subjects," she discussed.

However, she remembered a circumstances when she utilized AI to submit her job, only for her speaker to instantly recognize that it was created by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad effect.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently finished with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and focusing on locations that speakers emphasize in class, as they are typically reflected in test questions.
"It's everything about being present, focusing, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my associates," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, orcz.com a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with several deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have multiple due dates, and I know I'm guilty of that, a lot of times the speakers do not get to read through them, however AI has likewise helped me discover faster."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts believe the service depends on AI literacy; mentor students and lecturers how to use AI as a learning aid rather than a faster way.

- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, worrying the significance of a balanced method that keeps human involvement while harnessing AI to enhance finding out results.
"As we navigate the quickly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is important that we prioritise human agency in education. We need to make sure that AI boosts, instead of replaces, teachers' crucial function in forming young minds," he said

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity change professional, resolved growing concerns concerning making use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible threats to the educational system.

- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, highlighted the need for caution in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance among educators and schools towards integrating AI tools in learning environments. She recognized two primary reasons that AI tools are discouraged in instructional settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based upon user interactions, which might not align with the expectations of educators.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade said, describing that AI does not accommodate particular teaching methods.

Plagiarism is another concern, as AI pulls from existing information, typically without appropriate attribution

"A lot of individuals require to understand, like I stated, this is information that has been trained on. It is not simply bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing information that some other people are fed into it, which in essence implies that is another person's documentation," she cautioned.

- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI development referred to as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce details that was not factual.
"Hallucination implied that it was highlighting information from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that information from you, it was going to make one up," she described.

She advised "grounding" AI by providing it with specific information to prevent such mistakes.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the option, especially when AI provides an opportunity to leapfrog standard educational approaches.

- She thinks that regularly reinforcing essential details helps people remember and prevent making errors when faced with challenges.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell people the exact same thing over and over again, when they are about to make the errors, then they'll keep in mind."

She also empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, keeping in mind that numerous schools need to attend to the people and procedure aspects of this usage.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has resorted to in-class tasks and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily use projects to make sure trainees provide initial work." However, he acknowledged that managing large classes makes this method challenging.

"If you set intricate concerns, students won't be able to use AI to get direct responses," he described.

He emphasized the need for universities to train lecturers on crafting exam questions that AI can not easily fix while acknowledging that some lecturers battle to counter AI abuse due to a lack of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he stated.

- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI development with fairness, openness, accountability, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for garagesale.es the regulation of AI in education, encouraging institutions to investigate algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they meet ethical standards, secure user data, and filter unsuitable material.
- It stresses the requirement to assess the long-term effect of AI on crucial skills like believing and imagination while creating policies that line up with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO recommends implementing age restrictions for GenAI usage to secure younger students and secure vulnerable groups.
- For federal governments, it recommended adopting a coordinated national technique to regulating GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and aligning guidelines with existing data defense and personal privacy laws. It highlights examining AI threats, imposing more stringent rules for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing nationwide data ownership.