This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 14, 2023 - August 20, 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a wide-ranging branch of computer science that aims to create intelligent machines. Its remarkable capabilities in performing human tasks have left us in awe. However, there is a concern that AI may replace many full-time jobs, putting human workers in some sectors at risk.

Nonetheless, it is worth noting that AI is considered a double-edged sword, offering both pros and cons. Its role has recently come to the fore in the modern era, as it streamlines numerous activities across various sectors, including health and education. In the education sector, AI plays a pivotal role in enhancing students’ academic performance and assisting lecturers in streamlining their work, suggesting that it can benefit both students and lecturers. Therefore, it is imperative for both to embrace AI as a valuable tool.

AI can bring a breath of fresh air to the methods used in delivering lessons, ensuring that they cater to the needs of students with different levels of intelligence. Without AI, it would be more challenging for lecturers to provide lessons that all students can easily understand. It can adjust the lesson content according to students' intelligence levels, and lecturers can offer extra materials and sources from outside the traditional curriculum.

AI can provide alternative solutions to textbook questions, allowing lecturers to choose the most suitable ones for their students. Additionally, AI can recommend additional notes, videos or modules that suit students’ interests and abilities. This not only improves their interest but also enhances their understanding.

Interestingly, AI can assist lecturers in grading student assignments quickly, efficiently and accurately. They would just need to provide their rubrics and ask AI to grade the assignments. This eliminates the need for lecturers to read every single word, thus, saving them time and reducing the potential for errors in the grading process. It also ensures consistency and fairness in grading. This is because lecturers are human beings, so they are prone to making mistakes.

AI can help alleviate this issue. It can provide detailed comments and suggestions, addressing specific areas of improvement and highlighting strengths. It can pinpoint areas where students are struggling or excelling. Furthermore, AI-powered grading systems can provide immediate feedback to students, eliminating delays in receiving assessment results. This real-time feedback allows students to promptly identify areas of weakness and take immediate action to improve their understanding. With timely insights provided by AI, students can address misconceptions, clarify doubts and seek further guidance, enhancing their learning progression without unnecessary delays.

In addition to lecturing, lecturers are also responsible for conducting research and writing articles. Sometimes, they scratch their heads for topics of interest to explore for their research. However, with the assistance of AI, they can easily generate ideas. Even if they have identified topics, writing can be tremendously challenging as it entails skills to ensure that what they write is coherent and free of errors. They would be much obliged to AI, as it helps provide ideas and enhances their writing skills. When submitting their articles for publication, they undergo a review process. In this regard, AI can be a valuable tool to address the reviewers’ comments, thus increasing the likelihood of acceptance for publication. By utilising AI, lecturers can improve the quality of their work and effectively respond to the feedback provided by reviewers.

AI can be a valuable tool for students who fall behind or struggle in particular subjects. Some students are poor at subjects that involve mathematics, such as economics, accounting and finance. This is a stumbling block for them to gain interest in those subjects. However, AI-powered platforms can offer step-by-step explanations, interactive simulations and adaptive practice exercises to strengthen conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills, and which are easy to comprehend. They can request further explanations from AI instead of their lecturers if they still do not understand.

Similarly, in subjects like English language or sciences, AI can assist by providing language analysis tools, grammar and vocabulary exercises, as well as interactive simulations or virtual experiments. These resources can help students grasp complex concepts, enhance their language skills, and develop a deeper understanding of scientific principles. Moreover, AI can also help proofread their assignments and final-year projects, saving them proofreading costs.

Students can become independent with the help of AI, which provides additional resources and support outside the classroom. Therefore, they don't need to rely solely on their lecturers. When they grapple with understanding the materials presented by their lecturers, AI can offer help for revision and comprehension. Also, it can provide them with tutorials, exercises and real-time feedback, enabling students to engage in self-paced learning and revisit topics as needed. For example, AI-powered language learning apps can offer grammar exercises, vocabulary drills and pronunciation assistance, allowing students to brush up on their language skills at their own pace.

If students have some confusion about their lessons and are not confident to ask their lecturers for clarity, their perplexity will remain unresolved without the presence of AI. AI-based virtual tutors or chatbots can act as personalised study companions. Students can ask questions, seek explanations, and receive instant feedback on their progress. These virtual assistants can simulate one-on-one interactions, providing targeted guidance and clarifications tailored to each student’s needs. They can gain confidence, fill knowledge gaps and improve their understanding of the subjects they struggle with.

Apart from improving their writing styles in their theses, postgraduate students can avail themselves of AI to find the most suitable topic and learn how to conduct their analysis. Once they have collected and processed their data, they only need to ask AI to analyse the results. Furthermore, AI can provide multiple justifications for the findings, which can be mind-blowing.

Certain theories and concepts can be complex and challenging for postgraduate students and lecturers to grasp. However, the emergence of AI has opened up new possibilities for students to enhance their understanding by requesting AI to provide examples, detailed explanations and relevant connections to their research topic. This can greatly improve their comprehension of the theories. Additionally, AI can assist students in addressing comments from their supervisors and even examiners more easily.

However, despite the convenience, human intelligence and effort are still necessary to verify and validate the accuracy of every statement. This is because AI may produce unreliable or incorrect information.

While AI brings numerous benefits to education, it is worth noting that its misuse can have serious implications for students and society as a whole. As such, it is essential for lecturers and parents to keep tabs on students while they are engaging with the technology. Bear in mind that we must use AI ethically. Our failure to do so would undermine the integrity of higher education.

Lecturers and educational institutions should be aware of the ethical implications of AI systems and take proactive steps to reduce biases and ensure that everyone has equal access to educational opportunities. Imposing a ban on the use of AI will make students and even lecturers lag far behind others. We have to come to terms with the fact that more advanced technology is of utmost importance as it can streamline our work and daily activities.

Dr Mohd Shahidan Shaari is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Business and Communication, Universiti Malaysia Perlis

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