GEORGE TOWN, Feb 15 — Labelled as "scary good" by Elon Musk, the introduction of Artificial Intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, has taken the world by storm as it becomes one of the fastest-growing apps of all time.The technology, created by AI and research company OpenAI, was launched on November 30 last year and since then, it has become a hot topic with other companies racing to join the fray.

Created as an AI language processing tool that can generate almost anything from essays to codes for a website, the chatbot could be seen as a bane to the education system.

However, some educators believe that it is a boon to the whole education system as it could be a tool for both teachers and students.

The future of education

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"AI will improve students' learning capability for the better," said Asiatech Education Sdn Bhd's chief executive officer Eric Balan.

"When a student can look at different shapes and describe and question the characteristics of that shape, it elevates thinking and the students will start reasoning and configuring the best solutions for a given norm problem," he elaborated

.He said the country is moving from an industrial and operational era into one of innovation and local commercialisation which is the beginning of drastic changes that the future generation will experience.

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"We are not far off from fully adopting AI into our daily life," he pointed out.

Eric said it is now a transitional period as people have been relying heavily on systems since the introduction of the internet.

He drew similarities between the introduction of Google previously and now, ChatGPT."Was Google boon or bane?" he asked.

Co-founder of Arus Academy, David Chak also expressed a similar opinion saying that the chatbot will benefit students who are independent learners and teachers who like to up their classroom game.

"Independent learners can use ChatGPT to help them understand difficult topics, for example, you can ask ChatGPT to explain 'photosynthesis'," he said.

Similarly, he said teachers can use it to find suitable examples and even get AI technology to generate interesting lesson plans.

Meanwhile, at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) in Kampar, Assoc Prof Ooi Boon Yaik has already started using ChatGPT in his classes.

"I made my students use it to check the grammar of their reports before submitting it," he said.

The head of the computer science department from the faculty of information and communication technology said it is a good tool for students to use especially if they struggle with writing reports.

"I am so tired of reading badly written reports so I want them to use it, but when I am grading their reports, I don't evaluate the language or grammar anymore, instead, I evaluate the facts they present in the report," he said

.Time for teachers to change

Ooi said lecturers can easily change how they mark the assignments submitted to them and also change the ways they frame the assignment questions.

"Lecturers can use it to come up with higher order thinking assignments, for example, they can generate a few summaries on one topic but only one with accurate facts and use these to test the students by asking them to distinguish which is accurate and which is not," he said.

Eric said the introduction of AI means that teaching methods and the education system are about to change drastically in Malaysia.

He said it is time to change and if educators do not learn to embrace change and technology, then all new systems and solutions will only be seen as threats.

"The way we learn should complement the use of AI," he said.

He said maths and sciences were still being taught without getting the students to question the reasons and relativity the subjects have with each other.

"A society that memorises and regurgitates is a society that is indoctrinated with commands and inputs, and therefore are not adequate to think and challenge the reasoning," he said."

AI like ChatGPT helps us solve complex problems but on a technical level," he added.

However, he said the human element is still needed to know and choose the right formulas to input into the system.

"We need to change and elevate the delivery of content to make teaching, learning, and knowledge sharing on a higher level," he said.

He said students need to learn approaches that go beyond the common intellect.

"They need to learn the rationale of rain clouds formation rather than creating rain clouds in the lab," he said.

When asked about the possibility of plagiarism using the chatbot, Ooi said the chatbot has limitations too as the facts in the content it generated may sometimes be inaccurate.

"It is more like a calculator, a language model to generate grammatically correct text but just like how one uses Google to search for answers, you will still need a human to check it, to see if it is accurate to what you need," he said.

He said due to the low accuracy of facts by the chatbot, he said students should not rely on it fully to give them answers to their homework or assignments.

He said it is time that lecturers and teachers pivot and change the way they teach and design assignments.

"I have to design assignments in a way that the AI cannot come up with a reply so we can no longer ask questions like 'write a letter' in assignments, instead, we have to design high-order thinking questions," he said.

Eric said plagiarism is a normal problem but there are tools to catch plagiarism such as Turnitin and there will now be AI tools to catch plagiarism too.

He too said it is time for teachers to create more advanced assignments and essay questions.

"Schools need to move up and away from the current. It will take time," he said.

He also said that ethical studying needs to be emphasised to students to minimise cheating and for students to claim ownership of their assignments.

Chak also agreed that ChatGPT has the potential to be misused by students to complete their homework.

"This however does not discredit its benefit in education, teachers just need to be extra vigilant in spotting such plagiarised work," he said.

Eric said AI is still new therefore many still take a negative stand on it as they do not know how to use it for their own betterment.

"Give it time. The industry loves AI, and it was created from the education of making things more efficient, and now it's about user adoption," he said.

What ChatGPT says

So what does ChatGPT say about the use of AI technology for education?

This question was fed to the chatbot and its reply is:

"On one hand, AI can provide a wealth of information and educational resources that can enhance the learning experience for students. For example, AI-powered tutoring systems can provide personalized feedback and practice problems to help students improve their understanding of a subject.

"On the other hand, AI technology can also have negative effects on education if it is used to replace human teachers or to automate critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

"While AI systems like ChatGPT can provide a large amount of information and assist in the learning process, they cannot replace the human interaction and personal touch that a teacher provides."