ChatGPT - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Generative AI in the classroom risks further threatening Indigenous inclusion in schools

IT is well documented that Australian teachers face challenges incorporating Indigenous perspectives and content in their classrooms. The approach can sometimes be somewhat tokenistic as if the teacher is “ticking a box”. We need a more culturally responsive teaching workforce. Generative AI is advancing at a fast pace and quickly finding a place within education. Tools such as ChatGPT (or Chatty G as the kids say) continue to dominate conversations in education as these technologies are explored and developed. TAMIKA WORRELL, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Critical Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University, Macquarie University There are many concerns around academic…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

South African university students use AI to help them understand – not to avoid work

EDUCATION

WHEN ChatGPT was released in November 2022, it sparked many conversations and moral panics. These centre on the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on the information environment. People worry that AI chatbots can negatively affect the integrity of creative and academic work, especially since they can produce human-like texts and images. TANJA BOSCH, Professor in Media Studies and Production, University of Cape Town CHIKEZIE E. UZUEGBUNAM, Lecturer & MA Programme Coordinator, Rhodes University ChatGPT is a generative AI model using machine learning. It creates human-like responses, having been trained to recognise patterns in data. While it appears the model…

May

2023

By GABRIELLA OPARA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

An African alternative to ChatGPT takes Nigerian Telegram by storm

NEWS

AFTER enrolling as a distance learning student at the International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Justin Irabor quickly realized he needed help merging work and school. It wasn't easy to balance the duties of a professional web developer and a data science student. "My Master's program is online, and the challenge with that is that you need a study partner, otherwise you're never quite sure how much of the study material you've consumed. This was quite challenging because combining daily activities with school meant you have to synchronize with a lot of people. Sometimes I'm at work and my study…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

ChatGPT is the push higher education needs to rethink assessment

EDUCATION

SIOUX MCKENNA, DAN DIXON, DANIEL OPPENHEIMER, MARGARET BLACKIE and SAM ILLINGWORTH THE COVID-19 pandemic was a shock to higher education systems everywhere. But while some changes, like moving lectures online, were relatively easy to make, assessment posed a much bigger challenge. Assessment can take many forms, from essays to exams to experiments and more. Many institutions and individual academics essentially outsourced the assessment process to software. They increased their use of programs like Turnitin to check for matched wording in students’ assignments. And for closed-book, timed tests they used tools such as Proctorio, which monitors a student’s computer or phone…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

We pitted ChatGPT against tools for detecting AI-written text, and the results are troubling

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

AS the “chatbot wars” rage in Silicon Valley, the growing proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools specifically designed to generate human-like text has left many baffled. Educators in particular are scrambling to adjust to the availability of software that can produce a moderately competent essay on any topic at a moment’s notice. Should we go back to pen-and-paper assessments? Increasing exam supervision? Ban the use of AI entirely? Authors ARMIN ALIMARDANI, Lecturer, University of Wollongong EMMA A. JANE, Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney All these and more have been proposed. However, none of these less-than-ideal measures would be needed if educators…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

ChatGPT: our study shows AI can produce academic papers good enough for journals – just as some ban it

EDUCATION

SOME of the world’s biggest academic journal publishers have banned or curbed their authors from using the advanced chatbot, ChatGPT. Because the bot uses information from the internet to produce highly readable answers to questions, the publishers are worried that inaccurate or plagiarised work could enter the pages of academic literature. Authors BRIAN LUCEY, Professor of International Finance and Commodities, Trinity College Dublin MICHAEL DOWLING, Professor of Finance, Dublin City University Several researchers have already listed the chatbot as a co-author on academic studies, and some publishers have moved to ban this practice. But the editor-in-chief of Science, one of…