By Agatha N Biira
In Uganda, a person spends a minimum of 18 years in school. From 2–3 years of nursery school, 7 years of primary school, 6 years of secondary school, and a minimum of two years for post-secondary education.
After all these years spent in school to acquire knowledge and specialize in the different fields of interest, a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, ChatGPT, that can do almost everything learned in school within a mere second, has, since its launch, become popular.
ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) is an AI tool that interacts conversationally to generate human-like texts and responses regarding a wide range of topics.
It was launched on November 30, 2022, by San Francisco-based OpenAI, a research laboratory founded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, and others. As of January, ChatGPT had over 100 million active users.
It can write essays, stories, articles, answers to everyday questions, elaborate codes, and generate text good enough to pass exams. You can ask it to write a story or an essay about Uganda’s history; within mere seconds, it will generate a satisfactory article.
But just like any other technology, ChatGPT is limited to information and events before 2022. It can also generate biased information based on the information it was trained on.
Since it is still new, not many students know about it. Isaac Nuwenyine, a third-year student at Uganda Christian University (UCU) pursuing a Bachelor of Governance and International Relations who has used ChatGPT before, says, “It helps me handle school work and breakdown bulky tasks in a short time which would have otherwise taken weeks to accomplish.”
He adds that, however much many people are biased, saying it takes away the learning aspect of school, it has helped him get ahead, which he considers learning too. “Different industries and sectors like marketing and photography keep automating, and not using this to your advantage stunts your work output,” Nuwenyine said.
Eleonah Nyakato, a third-year student at UCU pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration, does not use the program as much as she uses the application on her phone. “It is data-consuming and gives inaccurate information at times,” she said.
However, she says, “It is good if you are asking longer questions because it gives you exactly what you want, which is its advantage over other search engines.”
As the program gains more popularity, it is likely that students will turn to it to assist in their studies. So, what does this mean for academic authenticity?
With its ability to process large amounts of information in seconds and work at a speed no human can compete with, it raises questions about academic integrity.
Many people worry that this tool is ushering in a new age of plagiarism and contract cheating. Walter Washika, a lecturer at UCU, discourages students from using ChatGPT, saying it inhibits their ability to think creatively. “This tool is smart enough to give you work that is 100% original.” If we encourage students to use it, then we shall be building robots,” he said.
David Bukenya, the Uganda Christian University librarian, does not support the use of ChatGPT in academia. He says, “It takes the place of your mind, and you cease to have profound engagement with solving or handling issues. The program diminishes the whole reason as to why people have to go to school or even do research.”
While it is true that ChatGPT is going to change the way people view learning and research, Dr. Angella Napakol, a senior lecturer at UCU, cautions academics to first understand the tool before criticizing it.
“We need to figure out how to work with it and also guide students on how to use it because it is something we cannot get rid of.” “We need to be more vigilant and use tools that can detect work that has been done using this tool,” she said.
Joreen Arigye, a second-year Ph.D. student in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University in the USA, says ChatGPT will have a big impact on academia depending on how it is utilized. “If used well, these AI systems have practical uses in education,” she said. “We are moving into a knowledge era, not just an information era. That means we shall be seeing a shift in the services that provide that.”
John Semakula, the Head of Department, Undergraduate School of Journalism at UCU, says there might be a shift in how students are examined. “As lecturers, we have to try and ensure that students put in the extra effort while using this program. We also have to think and come up with a better method of assessing them,” he said.
ChatGPT is not the only one of its kind. However, unlike other software and applications such as Quizlet, Anyword, Photomath, and Homeworkify that have been used to cheat on assignments in the past, ChatGPT has no paywall, which therefore makes it free and accessible to everyone with access to the internet.
Therefore, just like how the COVID-19 pandemic forced many educators to shift from physical lessons to blended learning (physical and online classes), should academic institutions embrace or fight this tool?
