Imagine this: A student struggles to complete an essay due tonight. They turn to ChatGPT for assistance. Within minutes, a well-written essay appears on the screen. Meanwhile, a lecturer marking assignments wonders whether students are using artificial intelligence (AI) for help.
This is becoming increasingly common in Malaysian universities, where generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT are transforming student learning.
So, is this a game-changer for education, or does it pose a risk to authentic learning?
For students, GenAI is both a lifesaver and a time-saver. It can summarise articles in seconds, offer ideas and generate complete assignments quickly.
AI is an excellent study assistant, given the volume of tasks and tight deadlines. It can also provide personalised learning experiences, adapt to individual learning styles, offer instant feedback, and enhance learning.
However, there is a downside. Over-reliance on AI can erode critical thinking and lead students to favour AI-generated content over active engagement with their studies. Worse still, cheating with AI-generated work raises serious ethical concerns about academic integrity.
While AI can support teaching by suggesting lesson topics and managing administrative duties, differentiating between student submissions and AI-generated content can be challenging.
As a result, traditional assessments like essays and reports – designed to measure student understanding – are currently under evaluation.
Universities are reforming student evaluation methods by including oral presentations, class activities and critical analysis tasks that require genuine human input. The role of lecturers is vital.
AI is also transforming research writing and academic teaching. Researchers increasingly use ChatGPT to write literature reviews, collect data and draft research papers.
While AI can help individuals work faster, it raises concerns about originality, academic ethics and research credibility. Some scholarly journals require authors to disclose whether they have used AI in their research.
Hence, researchers must weigh the benefits of using AI to expedite their work against the need to maintain truthfulness and rigour in scholarship.
Additionally, ethical concerns are critical, as GenAI learns from large datasets and may propagate biases or inaccuracies. Students and researchers using these generated responses without verification risk disseminating misinformation.
There is also the issue of whether students and researchers should disclose the fact that AI has contributed to their work. Some universities are developing guidelines to manage this issue, aiming to utilise AI as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for original work.
While it is neither practical nor beneficial to prohibit GenAI entirely, students must learn to use it responsibly. As the custodians of education, universities have a pivotal role to play in ensuring the proper and ethical adoption of technology as a tool for idea generation, research assistance, and enriching learning. Lecturers, too, must adapt and demonstrate how to use AI responsibly in the classroom.
As AI’s role in education continues to grow, how we integrate it will impact the outcomes we achieve. When used appropriately, AI can improve learning and research while sparking creativity.
However, when misused, it may compromise educational standards and integrity.
The evolution of university education will not be a rivalry between humans and machines; instead, it will focus on augmenting human cognition with AI to ensure that technology complements, rather than replaces, human intellect.
DR UMMU AJIRAH ABDUL RAUF
Graduate School of Business
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
