Is it possible for a university student to write a thesis without a lecturer’s assistance? Can a student do homework without a teacher’s guidance, or a lecturer without consulting a colleague at all in preparing a scientific paper?
For some people, those questions may prompt a “no” response. In fact, those are rhetorical questions that are trying to make a point that, like it or not, the world is leaning toward a future direction marked with the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI). So the answer to those questions is, it is.
The academic world has recently been shocked by the publication of an editorial paper titled Nurse Education in Practice from the prestigious Q1 journal Scopus. The article includes ChatGPT Open AI as the co-author. How can a robot become a writer?
Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, commonly called ChatGPT, is a generative AI-based technology product developed by Elon Musk-funded Open AI. Released in November 2022, the chatbot has the capability of natural language processing (NLP) in providing answers to every question, like a human genius.
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This system is not the same as search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. Google will display answers in the form of links or information originating from the site, whereas ChatGPT can answer them directly without a site link. The way this system works is easy and can be accessed by anyone via the chat.openai.com site. Even though what is circulating is the beta version, its capabilities are amazing.
Being open to the public, ChatGPT is believed to draw many people to access and utilize this AI in the future. Many students will prefer to look for guidance on their homework with the chatbot rather than having to ask their teachers whom they may find grumpy and boring.
Given class assignments, university students may no longer bother having to consult their lecturers whom they might find it difficult to make an appointment with due to their hectic schedule on a daily basis. They turn to the AI tool and tell it to do the task. The answer will instantly come up as we have our order of fried tofu delivered.
Double edged knife
In the era of industrial 4.0 and social 5.0, this kind of technology is a necessity. Proper utilization will make it an effective teaching tool. This technology can be used to accelerate our education. Both students and teachers may find it helpful in learning and practicing language skills through conversational interactions. It can provide personalized feedback in a research as a tool to analyze and understand a problem.
An informatics engineering student who is consulting the AI chatbox on his or her assignment to write a computer program can expect it to perform analysis to understand the algorithms produced by the system. The tool can independently modify the algorithms into more sophisticated variations.
Is it possible for a university student to write a thesis without a lecturer’s assistance?
The tool can also be used to verify the student’s manual work. This not only deepens the student’s understanding of the material, but allows him or her a sense of experience interacting with AI.
A nursing student who is learning about treating patients of different illnesses in healthcare services, may find this AI a helping tool through a simulation on how to build interactions with them. It can also tell the nursing student about how to engage with a doctor. Working in a hospital under dynamic situations, they have sufficient service skills to deal with.
Students who take up the field of data analyst, machine learning or big data may have a great opportunity to get easy jobs upon graduation, because the need for experts in the world of AI will definitely experience a significant increase in the future.
On the other hand, accessibility to this technology is intervening in the classroom-based conventional learning habits. The implication is that students may communicate less often with their teachers or lecturers and end up relying more on chatbots to build knowledge. Long-term bonds between teachers and students are likely to wane.
Even though ChatGPT uses as naturally human language as possible in responding, this technology is still falling short of perfect performance in understanding the intricacies of human perspectives, possibly resulting in inaccurate and distorting responses that students may not realize. This application often provides very good and humanist responses, but unfortunately there is no citation regarding the source of information. The validation becomes biased, making the use of information liable to intellectual plagiarism.
How do we approach it?
Like most breakthroughs, AI technology as part of the internet of things (IoT) family is truly disrupting our era. Therefore, this technology must be approached in a wise manner, without it being restricted or done away altogether. It is hoped that educators and students can synergize in the incorporation of the logic built by AI generative-based technology so that we can benefit from it given the fact it can save time and energy as well as more accurate data verifications compared to a purely human endeavor. In addition, AI is also able to improve security and reduce the risk of human error.
Based on Darwin's theory of evolution, humans will always evolve to survive. Likewise, AI could become more and more developed and make a smarter companion. Don’t let ourselves be overcautious because AI has not taken much of our daily tasks yet, at least in the near future. This is the time for us to continue to innovate in respective fields.
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In the future, we hope that Indonesia will have its own strong AI that adopts our own lifestyle and habits. Under the auspices of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and Technology Assessment and Application Agency (BPPT), a national AI strategy was launched in 2020 involving a number of research and development institutions, government, universities, scientific communities and industry.
Overall, AI generative programs can give encouraging prospects in education with it being potentially utilized as teaching support and a research tool, while assisting students’ skills in creating personalized instruction as well as researchers in their research studies.
Yayu Nidaul Fithriyyah, Lecturer at School of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing at Gadjah Mada University (UGM)
This article was translated by Musthofid.
