Although artificial intelligence (AI) is seen by some as the antithesis of education and learning, several BGSU experts said their research and experience has demonstrated that AI might be more helpful in academics than many students and professors may think.

Laura Sheets, an instruction services librarian at BGSU who teaches students information literacy and research skills and who recently spoke on generative AI at Lourdes University, said AI can help students and faculty alike become more productive and creative. Sheets said AI can also be helpful to students with learning disabilities or who are neurodivergent by summarizing or simplifying complex and lengthy texts.

Holly Bird, a BGSU writing professor who won a Shanklin AI Innovation Award for her project “ChatGPT for Academic Success,” said she’s found students also find AI helpful for overcoming writer’s block, brainstorming and time management.

However, due to AI’s reputation for being bad for education, many students and educators steer away from using it. Sheets said many people are concerned that utilizing AI in academics will lead to the loss of critical thinking and writing skills or academic dishonesty when students use AI on assignments.

Some students are hesitant about its use too.

“The only reason I would use it [AI] for school is for brainstorming or getting ideas,” said Kelissa James, a freshman business major. “I only use it when I’m super stuck.”

Sheets said students like James are not alone.

“I think a lot of them [students] are looking to their instructors and staff on campus for some guidance on how to use the tools properly and to be trained for the workforce,” said Sheets.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 83% of U.S. professionals believe students should be prepared to utilize AI effectively in the workforce.

Members of the current university workforce can begin to both help students and better their teaching, according to Bird and Sheets. Bird noted AI can be a collaborator for teachers to help build lesson plans and Sheets suggested educators utilize the AI Assessment Scale, a detailed spectrum that clearly explains to students when they are allowed to use AI on assignments in a particular class.

However, Bird noted jumping straight to AI when a student is struggling can be disadvantageous.

“To really learn something, you have to struggle with it. You have to figure out where you’ve failed or where you’re weak,” said Bird.

In Bird’s classes, she has “human” and “human plus tech” days, so students can struggle on paper with their own brain and then use AI for help later.

Similarly, Dr. Rony, a BGSU computer science professor with a research focus on AI machine learning, requires his students who use AI on class assignments to use critical thinking skills by explaining why they are accepting the AI result.

“This way they can learn how to solve the problem instead of depending on the AI fully,” said Rony.

Sheets said that because generative AI is basically text prediction, it can sometimes cite nonexistent texts by incorrectly predicting text titles. She suggests users remember that generative AI is not a search engine, only a generative tool.

There are also environmental and privacy concerns, as generative AI takes the input from the user to further train itself, so it is not a secure place for personal information or copyrighted material. AI data centers also consume more and more water and energy as the popularity of the tool grows.

“It’s not the Terminator,” said Bird. If students and professors use AI properly, it can be a friend in academics instead of an enemy.”