Academics express confidence in their ability to work together with AI

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AI may not be about to completely replace teachers and university professors, but it is enhancing the way the education sector approaches learning.

Robert Seamans, a professor of management and organizations at New York University's Stern School of Business, expects he and his peers will be helped to become better at what they already do by AI tools like ChatGPT, rather than taking over their roles.

They'll certainly be “faster, and hopefully better,” Seamans explains, and he's in a good position to judge, having co-authored research on which professions are most vulnerable to the rapid growth of AI.

This research has found that eight out of 10 professions exposed to AI are in the education sector: most of them are teachers in various subjects, including sociology and political science. However, this does not necessarily mean that they will be replaced, Seamans emphasizes, but the way they do their work will be affected in several ways.

The study acknowledges the potential for job losses and the government's role in managing disruption, but also points to the potential of technology. The research concluded that an AI-trained workforce would help companies and workers themselves “take advantage of new tools.”

In education, the implications include a change in the way those in academia deliver content and interact with their students, with greater access via tools like ChatGPT and automated administrative tasks.

Use cases: Learning chatbots and writing prompts

David Veredas is a professor at Vlerick Business School in Brussels. He sees AI as a “facilitator” for teachers and their students in the same way that other tools like Google and Wikipedia have done so far. “First we had the whiteboard, then we had the slides, and now we have artificial intelligence,” Veridas says. “We can do many things, like use virtual reality to enhance the learning experience.”

Others see the potential of artificial intelligence as an enhancer in the classroom. Greg Benson, a computer science professor at the University of San Francisco, recently launched Gemini Café, an informal forum where students exchange views on the potential of generative AI. “I feel like a kid in a candy store now,” he says. “There's a lot of change.”

Benson says intelligent chatbots emerged as part of his university's early thinking about artificial intelligence tools that could aid learning. “They won't give you the answer, but they will help you solve the problems you're working on,” he says.

However, he is concerned about plagiarism as a result of the use of language models. “Cheating is not a new problem, but we have made it clear that you cannot deliver AI-generated work,” he explains.

Seamans started using ChatGPT to help speed up his writing process. Writing “comes a little faster because I paste some initial ideas into ChatGPT, and I start to get a structure or a framework,” he says. “I never use most of what he gives me because it's not in my words,” he adds. [But] It ignites this creative process. . . It gives me something to respond to.

In this way, AI is likely to make certain tasks easier to perform, rather than making roles redundant. In addition to helping formulate initial research ideas, it can help organize academic papers, or provide a platform for brainstorming. This will speed up academic workflow but does not replace the creative or intellectual input of teachers. “It doesn't have to be about removing a professor from the front of the classroom,” Seamans emphasizes.

Enhanced functionality: lecturers and classroom teachers

Benson points to experimental tools developed by major technology companies that will act as virtual assistants, and will not necessarily replace one of them, but rather will create a new function for artificial intelligence. It highlights Google's NotebookLM, which helps in finding directions from uploaded documents. “You can ask him to summarize. You can ask him to produce things. This is one example where you can imagine a lecturer taking his notes, to make them available to his students now. Is this a new role or is it an enhancement to my existing role?”

It helps in students' thinking process as well. “If you're taking an ancient Chinese history class, and you get all your lecture notes and you can put them in there [NotebookLM]. This app will automatically create a list of questions and answers from those notes, and then create flashcards for them. Then you can study from that material.

Veridas is optimistic that his profession will survive and thrive despite the rise of artificial intelligence. It emphasizes the irreplaceable essence of learning that involves interaction, discussion and critical thinking, which AI cannot easily emulate.

“AI could transform the classroom,” he says. We can allow students to learn basic concepts at home using AI and then we can delve into the discussion in class. But it remains to be seen. We need to be open to new technology and embrace it whenever it is useful for learning.