Expert System (AI) is reinventing education while making discovering more accessible but likewise stimulating disputes on its impact.

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

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

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“I offered an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the specific very same answers. These trainees did not even know each other, however they all utilized the same AI tool to produce their actions,” he stated.

He noted that this pattern prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is specifically worrying in part-time and range learning programs.

“AI is a major challenge when it comes to projects. Many students no longer believe critically-they just go on the internet, produce responses, and send,” he added.

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

This dispute raises important concerns about the role of AI in academic integrity and trainee development.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million month-to-month active users in January 2023, only one country had released guidelines on generative AI as of July 2023.

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people utilizing the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent out every day worldwide.

Decline of scholastic rigor

University lecturers are significantly worried about trainees sending AI-generated assignments without truly comprehending the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his concerns to Nairametrics about students significantly depending on ChatGPT, just to fight with answering standard questions when tested.

“Many students copy from ChatGPT and send refined tasks, but when asked basic concerns, they go blank. It’s frustrating since education is about finding out, not simply passing courses,” he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be entirely attributed to AI but admitted that even high-performing students use these tools.
“A superior student is a first-class student, AI or not, however that does not suggest they don’t cheat. The advantages of AI might be peripheral, however it is making students reliant and less analytical,” he stated.

- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
“It’s not just trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course outlines, marking schemes, and even test questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to produce responses. It’s a cycle of laziness and it is killing genuine knowing,” he regreted.

Students’ perspectives on use

Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually enhanced their learning experience by making scholastic materials more reasonable and accessible.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually considerably helped her knowing by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
“AI helped me comprehend things more easily, especially when handling complex topics,” she discussed.

However, she remembered a circumstances when she utilized AI to submit her project, only for her lecturer to immediately acknowledge that it was generated by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a superior degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, securely thinks that his academic success wasn’t due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking questions and focusing on locations that speakers highlight in class, as they are often shown in exam questions.
“It’s everything about being present, focusing, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers,” he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when facing multiple deadlines.
“To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have several deadlines, and I know I’m guilty of that, a lot of times the lecturers do not get to review them, however AI has also helped me learn faster.”

Balancing AI’s role in education

Experts believe the solution lies in AI literacy