Generative AI and the Student Perspective - Transcript

Emen Hussain (MA student)

As part of this year’s Festival, HEFI hosted a student panel on the topic of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). The panel brought together six students from different disciplines and academic levels to discuss their thoughts on Generative AI. Here, I will share with you three key points that emerged, shedding light on the students' experiences and concerns.  

The first issue raised was the Lack of Accuracy and Inconsistency when using Generative AI. For instance, when law assignments were fed into Chat GPT, the software generated fabricated law cases and misquoted laws. However, in a biomedical science assessment ChatGPT produced better results. The panel were concerned that both students and staff might assume that the information provided by ChatGPT is always correct, which is not the case. 

University Responsibility: the panel thought it is crucial for universities to ensure that students are aware of the limitations and risks associated with using ChatGPT or similar tools for academic work. ChatGPT has raised important questions regarding agency, authenticity, authorship, and ownership of work. Therefore, universities and lecturers have a responsibility to teach students how to use it critically, methodologically, and ethically. 

Avoiding Over-Reliance: Students expressed concerns about over-reliance on AI, fearing that it may diminish their own knowledge, reasoning abilities, and creativity. Instead of perceiving AI as a sole source of information, panel members suggested positioning it as an overt methodological approach to support students' learning experiences.