The exponential rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in daily lives has resulted in school children using it in their studies as teachers "rush to get to grips" with the new tech, a digital consultant from Largs has told the News.
The sudden growth of AI means that 2,000 word essays can be produced by the online tool within seconds, at the touch of a button.
While the rise of AI has been heralded as an innovative and new way for learning which could have many benefits, digital guru Gary Ennis believes teachers need to 'get up to speed' on the fast paced rise of artificial intelligence.
Digital marketing consultant and Largs man Gary, who runs NS Design, told the News that AI is now here to stay and pointed out that the new tech is already being used by schoolchildren.
He said: "School pupils have quickly embraced AI with many using Snapchat's AI BOT powered by ChatGPT.
"It is a valuable tool when it is used correctly. I don't envy modern day school teachers and the fact that essays can be produced on various topics within seconds is quite incredible.
"My concern is that teachers might not fully understand it and whether they are aware of the pros and cons of AI.
"I think there needs to be more training for teachers so that they can get up to speed.
Gary, who has written a book on the rise of social media called 'Embrace the Space', added: "There needs to be a professional deep dive into AI by the teaching profession; I was chatting to some teachers and they are not aware of the detail of it but the kids are well au fait with it all and there is a danger that the teachers are being left behind.
"But the teachers need to embrace it - you could ask a pupil for an example to upload a 2,000 word essay on the American Civil War for example- and then ask the pupil to analyse the Chat GPT response and question where it got its sources from and dissect it further; there is no doubt about it is a powerful learning tool but in essence it is actually no different to when the worldwide web turned up on the scene - we all said that Google and Wikipedia would change the landscape, and it did.
"The difference with AI is that it writes like a human and creates content like a person in its responses.
"Chat GPT is a powerful learning tool which can have many benefits too and it is about harnessing it in the correct manner and we are on the cusp of something which is potentially radical and revolutionary - so we need to look at how we can make the best of it as it would be wrong too to deny pupils this amazing and powerful education resource.
"Chat GPT only launched in November - and pupils are even giving the AI names such as Eric, Jane or Peter, and asking Peter - write me an essay on this or that."
Former Largs Academy teacher Tom Marshall said: "From an education point of view it is a concern.
"Universities have sophisticated software to check if an essay has been plagarised or using AI as the student is maybe using words and sentence construction which is beyond their ability.
"But for schools it represents a bit of a problem.
"The push for more coursework needs to be reigned back in my opinion to offset that.
"With AI you can sit at home and ask AI to do your essays which is obviously something we don't want to see going forward, and the only way to counter that is to go back to the old fashioned exam room settings."
The council has been approached for comment.
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