Artificial intelligence and emerging challenges to academics


SOURCE: ENGLISH.KHABARHUB.COM
SEP 19, 2021

Artificial intelligence usually refers to the branch of computer science which is concerned with building machines capable of performing various human functions and activities. In the recent past, the global community has shown a huge inclination towards AI technologies.

Although its origin can be traced from the Dartmouth conference of 1956, when it originally started garnering the interest of the world, but mainly after the end of the cold war, with the expansion and adoption of liberal ideas throughout the world, it is now undergoing a phase of glory.

Anthony Giddens, an English socialist, mentioned that technology is going to be one important factor in the transformation of the world.

AI was an effort to make the machine think like the human, and perform all the function which normally requires human to do in a better way.

Few years after the birth of AI, in 1959 Arthur Samuel coined the term ‘machine learning’. This was like a means to achieve the end of AI.

The meaning of the term ‘machine learning’ is clear in itself, now that learning activity would be promoted with the help of machines. In the early days, it was never imagined that this conception of machine learning is going to reach that zenith, it is now at.

Today it would be an interesting question which needs to be discussed, about which socialist philosophers of Posthuman tradition were concerned, i.e. Is it now possible to separate humans from machines? Of course, the answer to this is, it is no longer possible because machines have become a vital part of our daily affairs.

Even though in the newly proposed Education policy of 2020, the curriculum is expected to be designed in coordination with AI-based learning to promote world-class education among the citizenry.

AI in academics was earlier introduced in tutorial mode, which was meant for open digital access to the learner community just to supplement offline teaching.

Because the access to the internet and e-gadgets were limited, therefore its growth happened in an incremental manner, with the advancement of technology.

However, in the developing world especially in the least developed countries, mass is yet deprived of access but still, the network of AI-based learning covers a huge population worldwide.

Any information is now just a click away. Solution of everything is available on the internet today. United Nations in its sustainable development goal four aimed at a quality education.

This meant for the inclusion of each and every section of the world in learning activities. In other words, it aims to ensure minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics to each and every individual of the world community beyond their any social, political, religious, and economic background.

This achievement of goal four is also necessary because it is going to act as a supplement for other goals of the sustainable development program.

Countries worldwide working in this regard to ensure maximum inclusion of the global population in learning activities and AI is the most accepted model.

Not only in developed nations but in developing countries too, personalized learning is been promoted intensively, for example, SkoolDesk in Uganda, Siyavula in South Africa and Nigeria, Virtual leaning Africa and TopDog in south Africa and Zaya leaning Labs of India, etc. are committed to promoting the AI-based learning in which both students and teachers are trained in the order at the very root level.

But here it is ironic that these are more private initiatives, not governmental ones. However, in some states of India, the native government use to distribute gadgets such as mobile, laptops in order to promote the same goal but still a chunk of the population is deprived of these gadgets.

The vision of the global inclusion of the population in quality education is yet to cross various hurdles and overcome different challenges in order to ensure quality education throughout the world.

As per the records of 2019, only 24% Indian household has adequate internet connectivity, on the same, the rural area statics are very poor.

Recently, the outbreak of the pandemic has accelerated the path of adoption of digital platforms to deliver education, which is mainly based on AI.

Educational institutions have been moved towards blended learning and encouraging technological savvy to students and teachers as well.

Even though in the newly proposed Education policy of 2020, the curriculum is expected to be designed in coordination with AI-based learning to promote world-class education among the citizenry.

However, recent data has shown that a chunk of the rural population of India remained deprived of education during the pandemic time, due to the shutting of schools, not having access to the internet, and lack of digital literacy.

Apart from these hurdles in the expansion of AI-based education, especially in countries like India, there are many other challenges that need to be addressed.

In past decades software named Automatic article, the generator is excessively being used by learners to get name and fame by publishing various articles, journals, research papers, books, etc. which have created a different kind of challenge for academicians and scientists of AI as well. Even anti-plagiarism tools are not able to detect this.

AI is where promoting inclusion of global citizenry in learning through virtual and personalized learning systems by providing remote access of the resources, on the same; it is giving rise to various other concerns too.

Like mal-practicing, communication gap, alienation from society and nature, lack of emotional intelligence, and social awareness.

In simple term, it seems like a learner who is totally inclined to AI-based learning, remain deprived of humanistic sentiments, undoubtedly, they may get world-class theoretical knowledge but AI is still not capable of providing practical knowledge.

The great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore in his educational philosophy proposed four basic principles namely – humanism, internationalism, naturalism, and idealism which were essential for the growth and development of learners.

But today in the age of AI, these sentiments are missing. Although the world community became close via learning networks and it is undoubtedly supplementing the important modernity theory of Complex Men and Complex time but at the same time, learners are getting detached from the very basic values of education.

The most important concern in this regard is, AI has enhanced mal-practicing in various ways. Such as now learners are becoming more addicted to AI as they try to find a solution to every problem through it.

AI has adversely affected the rational and analytical capability of human beings. It is somewhere challenging academic integrity as well.

There is an urgent need of introducing AI ethics to the curriculum in order to mitigate these malpractices. Besides this, we could not neglect the other challenges which are also emerging as a side effect of AI-based learning, especially declination in emotional intelligence and analytical ability of the learner.

In various studies, it has been seen that AI is now being misused by learners to a large extent; they use AI as a cheating tool.

In past decades software named Automatic article, the generator is excessively being used by learners to get name and fame by publishing various articles, journals, research papers, books, etc. which have created a different kind of challenge for academicians and scientists of AI as well. Even anti-plagiarism tools are not able to detect this.

Anti-Plagiarism tools are meant to mitigate malpractices in academics but sometimes these tools also create problems for genuine researchers and academicians due to lack of technological advancement and extreme rationalism.

Although we cannot deny the relevance of these tools they still need a huge advancement to mitigate modern challenges.

There are certain other factors too which motivate youngsters to get involved in such malpractices because as we see in the curriculum of the various education systems, where they ask for students to submit various projects and dissertations which often seem like a burden to them, and thus they find these malpractices as a better option.

There is an urgent need of introducing AI ethics to the curriculum in order to mitigate these malpractices. Besides this, we could not neglect the other challenges which are also emerging as a side effect of AI-based learning, especially declination in emotional intelligence and analytical ability of the learner.

We need to create a holistic environment in which both classroom teaching and AI-based teaching could grow and supplement the learner together in order to achieve SDG goal four of quality education in a true sense.