The Rise of AI in Academia: A Catalyst for Creativity

The power of the silicon chip! The world has transformed into a digital world. According to scientism, the equation of the digital world is jasnu-faced (a double-edged sword), i.e., one side facilitates our thriving in this technological realm. And the other facet cuts our bloody veins, which are responsible for our survival. The need of the world and of the time is to make this world liveable for all creatures through technological advancements.

Do you not find it amusing that in this age of technological marvels and scientific wonders, we are still working on the ancient art of coding? Why one might ask, should we labor over lines of C++ when we have at our disposal the most magnificent creation of our time – the Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, or Chatgpt as it is more commonly known? You are familiar with this most magical of technologies, which can pen essays, blogs, and social media posts with an accuracy and precision that would leave even the most skilled programmers envious.

CHAT GPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot designed by OpenAI and projected in November 2022. It is constructed on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 family of large language pinnacles and has fine-tuned (a strategy to disseminate learning) using captained and reinforcement learning strategies.

The 21st century is the era of the chatbot. This most advanced product of Silicon Valley will affect diverse fields ranging from digital marketing to advocacy. I observe a few areas in which this technology can impact academia as an academic. Moreover, I have suggestions for evolving educational paradigms in which this technology could play a role. And how can we harness this technology to avoid becoming obsolete?

Initially, AI will not substitute humans with machines. However, it will replace humans ignorant of AI with professionals harnessing this technology in academic areas. The reason is the digital evolution of this world over the last few decades. As Charles Darwin argued in the biological evolution by natural selection: “Only those species remain alive that will adapt to change instead of powerful ones.” Similarly, in the digital age, human survival is dependent on accumulating knowledge, equipping ourselves with digital skills, and diminishing the well of old and stagnant ideas.

In academia, the primary effect of this technology will be the indigenization of irrelevancy. In Homo Deus, the writer argues that artificial intelligence-based technologies will not make humans unemployed or replace them with machines. Instead, they will produce a working class that will be unemployable in the 21st century. This labor class will not have the refined skills to keep up in the professional market.

What is irrelevancy in academia? It is the utilization of obsolete educational models that have become irrelevant. For instance, if students do the paperwork for their assignments in the 21st-century educational model, which requires copying from textbooks and pasting it on paper, that is called irrelevancy.
If the instructor performs all numerical calculations (as we have done in the case of many courses) on a whiteboard, that is called irrelevancy. Teaching students 3-D coordinate systems on a 2-D blackboard without using any computer graphics explanation is called irrelevancy.

True, various academic scholars have shown concerns regarding plagiarism acts led by Chatgpt or other AI techniques. Joanna Stern with The Wall Street Journal depicted cheating in American high school English with the device by submitting a developed report. Professor Darren Hick of Furman University clarified noticing ChatGPT’s “style” in homework submitted by a student. The New York City Department of Education USA reportedly barricaded access to ChatGPT in December 2022 and officially declared a ban around January 4, 2023. HEC Pakistan has also invited scholars to revisit the usage of this technology in academia.

Besides these concerns, there is a need for age and time to include AI-based technology in academia to mitigate educational disparities. In the Nature logbook, Chris Stokel Walker indicated that teachers should acclimate this novel technology to enrich critical thinking or reasoning. One of the great investors in this project, Bill Gates, said: “Artificial intelligence and its associated technologies will revolutionize the world.”

Academic bosses must revisit the current educational model to make space for AI technologies. Dr. Shahzeb Khan conveyed from the skills enhancement class that: if a student can acquire an assignment from any online source, the instructor should alter the model of the dedicated piece of work rather than discourage the technology.

It needs to execute crucial structural adaptations to absorb AI-based technologies in academia. As a startup, I would proffer a few potential applicable shifts.

• For classroom teaching, the use of AI-based technologies should encourage the use of AI tools for explaining abstract scientific theories, science writing, and basic programming coding techniques in a course.
• The academic councils of universities should revisit the educational model and realign teaching methodologies and assessment approaches.
• Instructors should give space to AI technologies in their teaching models. Hopefully, its positive service will make learners more inventive and imaginative.
• Educational bosses should familiarize out-of-class learning models on campuses. The University of Oxford has started a Quantum circle that would engage scholars worldwide to share their hypotheses on quantum technologies. The University of Punjab has an effective student organization like CHEP scientific society and other student bodies that confront scholars worldwide in intellectual debate.
• There is a need to raise cognition among scholars on ethical and moral implications.

To conclude, we must acknowledge that artificial intelligence is not a mere tool but a force of nature that has the potential to reshape the academic landscape in ways we cannot yet fully imagine. Like a wild and untamed creature, it can inspire and lead us in ways we never thought possible. And so, as we look to the future, we must approach this new age of AI in academia with caution and enthusiasm, for it is a realm of infinite possibilities waiting to be explored and discovered by those who dare to dream beyond the confines of the present.