04/05/2023

And what if…robotic teachers?

By: Felipe Rojas
San José

In 1943 J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly invented what we consider the first
computer, which was only capable of doing basic mathematical operations, it had the size of a
room, and needed of six programers to work. In 1943 the idea of a computer that needed only of
one person to work was still a dream, but what wasn’t even a dream was the idea of a computer
that did not need a single person, today, that is something common, and it is called artificial
intelligence (AI). AI is a very useful tool because it is capable of analyzing tons of data in
seconds and put together a coherent conclusion, we can see it in multiple aspects of ordinary life,
for example, in the entertainment sector: Netflix, TikTok, YouTube, etc; however, in some other
sectors, such as education, this isn’t that common. This generates the question: How can schools
effectively utilize artificial intelligence to enhance student learning outcomes?

In first place, is important to understand that even though AI does not have a significant
role in education, there are some uses. One of the most frequent uses of AI in education is the use
of automated grading, specially for digital tests that gained popularity in the pandemic. It is not
surprising when we’re talking of “mark with an X” exercises, but it gets interesting when we
include “answer in your own words” questions, it turns out AI can identify key words and mark
the answer as correct or incorrect, actually, with enough information AI can grade any answer.
That’s what is amazing of AI, the only thing it needs is data, with sufficient information of a
student AI can develop personalized learning algorithms or intelligent tutoring systems, but the
elephant in the room is: How much information of a student should an AI know?.

This is a very delicate topic and doesn’t have a specific answer since most students are
under-age. The more details AI knows, the better it can do its work, however anyone with access
to that knowledge could use that personal information with bad intentions. That is not the only
drawback, there is another problem of paramount importance, AI is so advanced that it can do
complete investigations and write entire essays, this is an irresistible simple solution for any
student, and if students get used use AI they could start to loose the capacity of producing texts.
With this two inconvenient it may seem like the AI is getting out of hand, nevertheless, if we
think a little bit out of the box we can come up with different solutions.

The most simple solution would be to change the evaluation system, giving more
importance to exams and short tests, because you can’t ask Chat GPT (artificial intelligence) to
answer the exam, but there are other options are better, and take more advantage of AI. By
adjusting some details of platforms like Chat GPT we could have something like a “C.GPT
education edition”. This educational edition would be able to help students and give them advice
but without making their work, and obviously, all the personal information would stay secret,
with this, students wouldn’t feel so tempted to resort to cheat, and they won’t loose the capacity

 04/05/2023

of producing texts. Also, probably, artificial intelligence is going to have a protagonist paper in
the future, and being used to AIs will be very useful.

In conclusion, artificial intelligence opens a lot of possibilities for the future of education.
Its use may present some dilemas, but with an appropriate implementation it can be very
positive, specially in a world whose future is closely linked to AI.