Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming education while making finding out more available however also triggering debates on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, lecturers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic integrity, especially with lots of students not able to protect their projects or offered works.

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

RelatedStories

Avoid sharing individual info that can recognize you with AI tools- Expert warns

Chinese AI app DeepSeek triggers international tech selloff, challenges U.S. AI supremacy

“I gave a project to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the precise very same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, but they all used the same AI tool to generate their actions,” he said.

He noted that this trend is widespread among both undergraduate and postgraduate students however is particularly worrying in part-time and range learning programs.

“AI is a serious challenge when it concerns projects. Many students no longer think critically-they just browse the web, create responses, and submit,” he included.

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

This debate raises critical questions about the function of AI in academic stability and student development.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million month-to-month active users in January 2023, only one country had actually launched policies on generative AI since July 2023.

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

Decline of scholastic rigor

University lecturers are increasingly concerned about trainees submitting AI-generated assignments without truly understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about students increasingly relying on ChatGPT, only to battle with addressing standard questions when evaluated.

“Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and send polished assignments, but when asked basic concerns, they go blank. It’s disappointing due to the fact that education is about learning, not just passing courses,” he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be completely associated to AI however admitted that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
“A top-notch student is a superior student, AI or not, but that does not suggest they don’t cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, but it is making trainees dependent and less analytical,” he said.

- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, yewiki.org raised a various issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
“It’s not just trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course outlines, marking schemes, and even exam questions with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn utilize AI to produce answers. It’s a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine learning,” he regreted.

Students’ perspectives on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually improved their knowing experience by making academic materials more easy to understand and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has actually substantially assisted her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of prolonged texts.
“AI assisted me understand things more easily, especially when handling intricate subjects,” she described.

However, she remembered an instance when she utilized AI to submit her job, just for her speaker to immediately acknowledge that it was generated by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad impact.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a top-notch 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 impressive grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and concentrating on areas that speakers stress in class, as they are frequently shown in test questions.
“It’s everything about being present, focusing, and tapping into the wealth of understanding shared by my colleagues,” he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to sometimes copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with several due dates.
“To be honest, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have several due dates, and I understand I’m guilty of that, the majority of times the lecturers don’t get to review them, however AI has likewise assisted me discover quicker.”

Balancing AI’s function in education

Experts think the solution depends on AI literacy