Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more accessible but also triggering debates on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their knowing experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic integrity, especially with many trainees unable to defend their projects or offered works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI-generated responses among trainees recounting a current experience he had.

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“I offered a project to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the specific same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, however they all utilized the exact same AI tool to generate their responses,” he said.

He kept in mind that this trend is widespread amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is especially concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.

“AI is a serious difficulty when it pertains to assignments. Many students no longer think critically-they just browse the web, produce answers, and send,” he added.

Surprisingly, some speakers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.

This argument raises vital questions about the function of AI in academic integrity and student development.

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

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people using the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent every day all over the world.

Decline of academic rigor

University speakers are progressively worried about students sending AI-generated projects without truly comprehending the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about students significantly relying on ChatGPT, only to struggle with responding to basic questions when checked.

“Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and send polished tasks, however when asked basic questions, they go blank. It’s disappointing since education is about finding out, not simply passing courses,” he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing number of first-rate graduates can not be totally attributed to AI but confessed that even high-performing students use these tools.
“A first-class trainee is a first-class trainee, AI or not, however that does not indicate they do not cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making students reliant and less analytical,” he said.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
“It’s not just trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course outlines, marking schemes, and even exam questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn use AI to generate responses. It’s a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real learning,” he lamented.

Students’ point of views on usage

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

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has substantially aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
“AI helped me understand things more easily, specifically when dealing with complex topics,” she discussed.

However, she remembered a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her project, just for her speaker to instantly recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad effect.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, securely thinks that his scholastic success wasn’t due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively appealing by asking questions and concentrating on locations that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are typically reflected in test concerns.
“It’s everything about being present, focusing, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my coworkers,” he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to periodically copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with numerous due dates.
“To be honest, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have several deadlines, and I know I’m guilty of that, many times the lecturers do not get to go through them, however AI has likewise assisted me learn much faster.”

Balancing AI’s role in education

Experts believe the option lies in AI literacy