AI Chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT were repeatedly shown to Many educators view AI tools with skepticismbecause they can provide false information, hallucinate entirely made-up facts and sources, and lead people in the wrong direction by giving confidently incorrect answers for questions. Many educators view AI tools with skepticism. OpenAI, and its competitors, are targeting colleges to push their services on students, regardless of concerns.
The New York Times reports that OpenAI is launching a major campaign to make ChatGPT an institution on college campuses. It will replace many aspects of college life with AI alternatives. According to the report the company wants to give college students a “personalized AI” account as soon as they arrive on campus, just like they get a school email. ChatGPT is envisioned as a personal assistant, a teacher’s aid, and a career assistant to help students find a job after graduation.
Despite the initial distrust and outright banning of AI in the educational world, some schools are already on board. According to the Times, universities like the University of Maryland and Duke University have signed up for OpenAI’s premium service ChatGPT Edu and have begun integrating the chatbot in different parts of the education experience. It’s not the only company to have its sights set on higher education. Elon Musk’s xAI provided free access to its chatbot Grokduring exam season. Google is also offering its Gemini AI Suite to students until the end of 2025-26 academic years. OpenAI, however, is trying to operate outside the actual infrastructure of higher-education.
It is unfortunate that universities are now embracing AI after initially being against it due to fears of cheating. AI is not very helpful if you want to learn and retain accurate knowledge. A study published in the past year found that relying on AI can undermine critical thinking skills. Other studies have found that people rely on AI to do the more difficult cognitive tasks by ahref=””https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/1/6″”>”offloading”>. AI undermines the university’s goal of teaching students how to think.
This is before you even consider the misinformation. Researchers wanted to know how AI could be used in a focused educational setting. They trained different modelsusing a patent law book to see how well they did when asked questions. All of them produced false information, fabricated cases, and made mistakes. Researchers reported that OpenAI’s GPT model provided answers that were “unacceptable” and “harmful for learning” about a quarter the time. This is not ideal.
OpenAI and other companies are trying to integrate their chatbots into every aspect of student’s life, including the classroom. There are other negative effects to consider. The use of AI chatbots may negatively impact social skills . The fact that universities invest in AI shows that they are not investing in areas where more human interaction is possible. A student visiting a tutor creates a social interactivity that requires emotional intelligence, trust and connection. This ultimately adds to a feeling of community and belonging. A chatbot will just give you an answer that may or may not be accurate.
