(Web Desk) - Half of South Asian undergraduate students say they use artificial intelligence to help with their assignments.

Meanwhile, schools are trialing its use in the classroom.

ChatGPT arrived in November 2022, assisting users with relevant responses to inquiries, questions or prompts.
Since then, other applications like Google Bard and Strut have come to the fore.

In March 2023, several universities banned ChatGPT over plagiarism fears. However, other institutions have embraced AI.

DESIblitz surveyed 150 South Asian undergraduates, both from the UK and abroad.

It found that 50% were using AI to generate information for essays they would be marked on.

One in four is using applications like Google Bard or ChatGPT to suggest topics while one in eight are using these applications to create content.

Five per cent of respondents admitted to copying and pasting unedited AI-generated text into their assignments.

When it comes to AI applications used, 70% said they used ChatGPT due to the fact that it is the most well-known one.

Fifteen per cent said they used Google Bard while the remaining 15% used lesser-known applications like Jasper Chat and YouChat.

Teachers are also turning to AI to streamline their work, with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) signing up secondary schools for a new research project into the use of AI to generate lesson plans and teaching materials as well as exams and model answers.

Dr Andres Guadamuz, a reader in intellectual property law at the University of Sussex, said it was no surprise that more students were adopting AI and suggested universities needed to be explicit in discussing how best to use it as a study tool.

He said: “I’ve implemented a policy of having mature conversations with students about generative AI. They share with me how they utilise it.

“My primary concern is the significant number of students who are unaware of the potential for ‘hallucinations’ and inaccuracies in AI.

“I believe it is our responsibility as educators to address this issue directly.”

Dr Guadamuz said students handed in essays in 2023 that clearly used unedited ChatGPT output, given away by the “boring” writing style.

But as AI usage spread, the survey found that this is one of the main reasons why students do not use it.

A quarter of those who do not use AI for their university work said they fear plagiarism would be detected.

Dr Guadamuz continued: “The world is evolving, and as educators, we need to adapt by establishing clear guidelines and policies, as well as designing more challenging assessments.

“However, this is difficult in a resource-constrained environment where academics are already overburdened and underpaid.”

The EEF has proposed that the use of AI might help ease the workload on teachers as well as improve the quality of their teaching.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said AI could take on the “heavy lifting” of marking and planning for teachers.

Half of the 58 schools in England participating in the EEF’s project will receive a toolkit to create assessment materials such as practice questions, exams and model answers, and to tailor lessons to specific groups of children.