GEORGETOWN, Feb. 15 — The introduction of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot rated “scary good” by Elon Musk, has taken the world by storm as one of the fastest growing apps in history. AI and research company OpenAI was founded on November 30 last year and has been making waves since then, with other companies looking to join the race.

Chatbots, created as AI language processing tools that can generate almost anything from essays to code for websites, could be seen as the bane of the education system.

However, some educators believe this could benefit the entire education system as it could be a tool for both teachers and students.

the future of education

Eric Baran, CEO of Asiatech Education Sdn Bhd, said, “AI will improve students’ learning ability for the better.”

“When students see different shapes and are able to explain and ask questions about the features of those shapes, their thinking skills develop and they begin to reason and formulate optimal solutions to given standard problems. ” he elaborated.

He said the country is moving from an era of industry and operations to an era of innovation and regional commercialization, the beginning of the dramatic changes that future generations will experience.

“It won’t be long before we fully integrate AI into our daily lives,” he said.

Eric said that since the introduction of the Internet, people have relied heavily on the system, so we are currently in a transition period.

He cited similarities between previous Google implementations and the current ChatGPT, saying, “Has Google been a boon or a bane?” he asked.

David Chak, co-founder of Arus Academy, echoed similar sentiments, saying that chatbots are beneficial for students who are independent learners and teachers who prefer to improve their performance in the classroom.

He said, “Independent learners can use ChatGPT to help them understand difficult topics. For example, they can have ChatGPT explain ‘photosynthesis.'”

Similarly, teachers can also use it to find suitable examples and utilize AI technology to generate interesting lesson plans, he said.

Meanwhile, at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) in Kampar, Associate Professor Oy Boon Yaik has already started using ChatGPT in his classes.

“I had the students use it to check the grammar of their papers before handing them in,” he said.

The head of the computer science department at the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology said it was a good tool, especially for students who struggle with writing reports.

“I’m tired of reading poorly written reports, so I want people to use them, but when I grade a report, I’m no longer evaluating the language or grammar, but rather the facts presented in the report. I appreciate it,” he said.

.When to change teachers

Oi said instructors can also easily change the way submitted assignments are graded and how assignment questions are framed.

“Instructors can use this to consider higher-order thinking tasks, such as creating several summaries for one topic, but only one with the correct facts. .You can use these to test students to distinguish which are accurate and which are not.” he said.

Eric said the introduction of AI means that Malaysia’s teaching methods and education system are about to undergo major changes.

He said it’s a time of change and if educators don’t learn to embrace change and technology, any new systems or solutions will only be seen as a threat.

“Our learning methods must complement the use of AI,” he said.

He said maths and science were still being taught without students questioning the reasons and connections between subjects.

“A society that memorizes and regurgitates is a society that has been indoctrinated with commands and input, and is therefore not good enough to think or challenge its reasoning,” he says.

AI like ChatGPT can help solve complex problems at a technical level,” he added.

But he said the human element is still needed to know and choose the correct formula to input into the system.

“We need to change and improve the delivery of content to enable higher levels of teaching, learning and knowledge sharing,” he said.

He said students need to learn approaches that go beyond general intelligence.

“Rather than creating rain clouds in the lab, researchers need to learn the rationale for rain cloud formation,” he said.

When asked about the potential for plagiarism using chatbots, Oi said chatbots also have limitations as the content they generate may be factually inaccurate.

“It’s similar to a calculator, a language model for producing grammatically correct text, but just like using Google to search for an answer, you can use Google to find out if it’s exactly what you want. It needs to be checked by a human to be sure,” he said.

He said students should not rely entirely on chatbots to give answers to homework and assignments because of the low factual accuracy of chatbots.

He said the time has come for lecturers and teachers to pivot and change the way they teach and design assignments.

“We need to design tasks so that the AI ​​can’t come up with an answer, so we can’t ask questions like ‘write a letter’ in an assignment, and instead we need to design higher-order thinking questions,” he said. said.

Eric said that while plagiarism is a normal problem, there are tools to detect plagiarism, such as Turnitin, and there will be AI tools to detect plagiarism in the future.

He also said the time has come for teachers to create more advanced assignments and essay questions.

“Schools need to step back and move forward. That’s going to take time,” he says.

He also said there is a need to emphasize ethical learning to students to minimize cheating and allow students to take ownership of their work.

Chak also agreed that ChatGPT can be misused by students to complete homework.

“However, this does not negate its benefits in education, only that teachers need to be especially careful when spotting such plagiarized works,” he said.

Eric said that because AI is still new, many people do not know how to use it to improve themselves and still have a negative stance towards AI. .

“Give me your time. The industry loves AI. AI was born out of education to make things more efficient, and now it’s about user adoption,” he said.

What ChatGPT says

So what does ChatGPT say about the use of AI technology in education?

This question is sent to the chatbot and its response is:

“On the other hand, AI can provide a wealth of information and educational resources that improve students’ learning experience. For example, AI-powered tutoring systems can provide students with personalized and educational resources to improve their understanding of subject matter. You can provide feedback and practice questions.

“On the other hand, AI technology can also have a negative impact on education if it is used to replace human teachers or to automate critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

“Although AI systems like ChatGPT can provide large amounts of information and assist in the learning process, they cannot replace the human interaction and personal touch that teachers provide.”