The Faculty of Art recently held a seminar on “Cheating as Chatting: ethics of Artificial Intelligence and how to tame AI-assisted Academic Malpractices in the Academia.”

In his remarks, Vice-Chancellor Prof. Haruna Kuje Ayuba, represented by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof. Musa Dankyau, emphasized that Artificial Intelligence (AI) leads us into uncharted territories. He highlighted that the seminar aims to explore the impact of AI on examination and academic malpractices, and to find ways to utilize AI while upholding academic integrity.

Earlier, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof. Dul Johnson, expressed gratitude to the Vice Chancellor and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor as well as the faculty staff, other departments, and especially the students, for their engagement with this highly relevant topic. He highlighted that this was the faculty's first seminar, which he hoped would inspire the faculty of many more in the future.

In his lecture, Prof. Ephraim-Stephen Essien addressed the ethical challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence, specifically the Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT), to academic integrity. The lecture highlighted the moral dilemma of AI-assisted academic malpractice, emphasizing the need for a philosophical approach to tame this technological intrusion in education.

Prof Essien traced the roots of philosophy and its pursuit of wisdom, underscoring how it laid the foundation for modern sciences. He drew parallels between ancient philosophical inquiries and contemporary challenges, suggesting that just as early philosophers sought to understand the world through reason and inquiry, today's scholars must navigate the complexities introduced by AI with a similar spirit of critical examination.

The core of the lecture focused on the impact of generative AI on academic honesty. Prof Essien warned that tools like ChatGPT could facilitate cheating, undermining the educational process. He called for a collaborative effort among educators to develop strategies that uphold academic standards while embracing technological advancements.

Prof. Essien proposed several measures to mitigate AI-induced academic malpractices, including implementing stricter academic policies, enhancing AI literacy among students and educators, and developing AI tools that support, rather than undermine, learning. He concluded by urging the academic community to view the ethical use of AI as a shared responsibility, echoing the commitment to truth and knowledge championed by ancient philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

The seminar culminated with an engaging session of audience responses, questions, and answers.