With technology fully embedded in our modern lives and Artificial Intelligence (AI) sparking both fear and promise, experts sought to explain why it is important to stay abreast of developments today.
They spoke of how various AI tools could be put to beneficial use for complementing the work we do, instead of negating them, especially in the education sector, where faculty -student ratio stood at 1:26 (1:10 is the desirable ratio) and qualified teachers are few.
It was emphasised that for India to emerge as a global innovation hub, higher education institutions needed to create the right ecosystem and go with the flow of AI. While a national AI policy is still in drafting stage, the speakers said, every institution should have its own AI guidelines as a safeguard.
The speakers were speaking at a webinar on Generative AI for Higher Education presented by Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Chennai, under the career counselling series of The Hindu Education Plus.
In his presentation on How generative AI can help in the Teaching-Learning-Assessment process, L. Jeganathan, Professor, VIT, quelled worries about GenAI threatening to kill the thinking ability of individuals. On the other hand, he said, the technology could help create a culture of innovation and creativity.
Explaining the tools of AI, such as chatGPT, BARD, Co-Pilot, Alphacode, he said these were effective in improving education and learning process. For instance, chatGPT’s brain is just the internet, he said. It acquires related information, comprehends and predicts based on patterns generated from the internet content already existing.
Talking on how GenAI can enhance research skills of higher education students, G.Bharadawaja Kumar, Professor, VIT, said the AI tools act as enablers and catalysts to tap the potential of students. “One should not feel crippled by technology,” he said referring to ethical concerns such as plagiarism and privacy. “Every AI tool is a partner that assists in learning, provided we self-regulate, not to abuse the outcomes of the powerful tools,” he said, while sharing the various links with the audience that work as effective research tools.
Looking at the potential and perils of GenAI, Sundarsun Santhiappan, the Chief Scientific Officer, BUDDI AI, said education pedagogy needs to transform itself from memory-driven what questions to application-driven how and why questions in order to beat the concerns over technology replacing jobs and humans.
He said the GenAI pace is very strong and helps to minimise time and labour in developing software and applications. “The AI use has to be democratised to help a larger section of people adapt to technology and fine tune the deep learning process,” he said.
