The negative impacts of artificial intelligence on education are studied while the solutions to making these disadvantages positive are considered.
Education has been affected widely because of the newly introduced artificial intelligence platforms various companies are producing like Snapchat’s “My AI” or ChapGPT. Some may argue that artificial intelligence, or AI, can be beneficial in that it can instantaneously produce a perfectly written piece, but the consequences are exceedingly high. Education has reached some serious issues because of AI that have impacted how students are learning. Some negative impacts of AI on today’s education are the lack of human interaction and dependence on AI, as mentioned in an article written on Medium. With that being said, there are also some solutions to these impacts like balancing AI interaction and advocating for individuals’ critical thinking.
One major consequence of newly created artificial intelligence on education is the lack of human interaction. Even though AI can give students personalized educational services, it cannot replace human teachers who provide face-to-face interactions. Teachers can humanly interact, discuss, and provide feedback unlike AI could ever. They are crucial in students’ development not only in their academic careers but also as they develop social skills, as advocated by Teachers of Tomorrow. Teachers provide a sense of physical interaction that artificial intelligence could never replace. As seen through the global pandemic, human interaction is necessary for an individual’s overall well-being. AI could potentially result in decreased human interaction and end up leading to detrimental educational experiences.
Another major disadvantage of AI in education is the dependence on it involving the educational process. Artificial intelligence can complete difficult, lengthy assignments almost instantaneously and students may become overly dependent on technology for tasks where they could be learning and developing their brains. Students gain problem-solving skills and work ethic from completing assignments in their academic careers that prepare them for their futures. Relying on AI to complete these tasks where they should be learning can be dangerous for individuals in the long run when they have no ability to think independently.
While the negative impacts of AI seem severe and hopeless, some solutions may work. For the first negative impact of decreased human interaction, current teachers could try using AI tools as a way to enhance their curriculums rather than allowing the programs to replace them entirely.
Daniel Schwartz, the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, said in his opening remarks at the recent AI+Education summit, “I want to emphasize that a lot of AI is also going to automate really bad ways of teaching. So [we need to] think about it as a way of creating new types of teaching.”
He perfectly described how educators should not run away from AI and try to avoid it entirely and rather use it as a way to better education and make it a resource students can benefit from. If this is done students will still have teachers and their human interactions and the enhanced content of education from artificial intelligence.
Finally, the last solution for the negative impact of being too dependent on AI in education is to advocate for individuals’ critical thinking. Allowing AI to do the work for students when they should be learning and gaining life skills is a serious issue. The solution could be that teachers design their educational systems to get students to further develop or analyze the information AI has provided them. This goes with the previously listed solution of using AI to better the curriculum rather than have it replace teachers entirely in that education needs to find ways to adapt to AI and use it as a way to further educate students. This will even allow students to better navigate the use of AI in the future when they enter the workforce.
AI has caused a series of negative reactions to the current educational systems and now the goal is to find a way to make those impacts benefit education rather than be a disadvantage. It is important to recognize those struggles like overdependence on AI or lack of human interaction because of it, but finding those solutions is just as important. Artificial intelligence is very relevant and it is important to not hide or avoid the system entirely and rather adapt to it so it betters education as a whole instead.
