NEWS | MATIHIKO | TECH
Written by Evie Richardson (she/her) | @evi3m4y | News Editor
Edited by Liam Hansen (they/them) | @liamhanse.n | Editor-in-Chief
A few weeks ago, on my daily online news trawl, an outlandish concept popped up on my feed that prompted me to do a double take. As seen in the NZ Herald, Business and Economics students at the University of Auckland were reportedly ‘outraged’ after finding out they wouldn’t have a qualified professor acting as their tutor this semester, but instead an AI programme.
As one of the most debated topics of the past decade, AI seems to dominate conversations in nearly every industry. How will it affect jobs? How will it increase productivity? How will it corrode creativity? Although we often wonder what effect AI will take in the future, it’s easy to forget that it’s playing an increasingly prominent role in our everyday lives.
So coming to university, although at AUT all of your tutors still have a beating heart, AI is an integral part of the way the university operates. Most students are probably aware of this, in the sense that ChatGPT has probably come in handy on many a last minute essay. Of course, getting AI to write an entire assignment isn’t technically allowed (nor encouraged by Debate), but there are ways that AI can be harnessed here at university to make your life a little bit easier.
AUT had a candid chat with Debate about how students can actually use AI to assist them in their studies without being busted for plagiarism, as well as how AUT is harnessing it as a tool for development, rather than as a replacement teacher.
So can you actually use AI to help with your assignments?
Well, the short answer is yes. The long answer is a little bit more complicated.
Unless you’re sitting an in person exam or undertaking a physical assignment (AUT’s examples were making a pot, or performing a dance - it would be quite impressive if you found a way to use AI to help you out here), you’re more than welcome to crack open ChatGPT.
The long story short is there is no outright ban on AI when it comes to doing assignments. AUT wants students to harness the technology available to them in a productive way. The only catch to this, AUT repeatedly stresses that it must be done with integrity. This word came up eight times throughout the university’s response to Debate on the topic of AI. But, what on earth does that mean? AUT’s rules around AI use are clearly currently quite ambiguous. This again can be put down to the fast moving nature of the tech. It’s evident that even AUT is still trying to wrap its head around exactly how it works.
Helpfully, AUT does have a resource aptly titled ‘How to Use AI with Integrity’. But since most of you won’t take the time to read through it, we’ve broken it down here.
The resource essentially walks you through a number of hypothetical examples of when you could potentially use AI - and how to do it in the right way.
When Researching and Reading:
You Can:
Use AI to help you break down certain concepts or words you don’t understand
Fact check the AI response against other resources you have
You Can’t:
Get AI to give you a bunch of resources and readings, and then not actually read them
AI can’t analyse whether any of those sources are credible or accurate
The content in these sources might not even be relevant to the assignment
When Writing and Presenting:
You can:
Get AI to check your grammar and punctuation, and general writing style (like Grammarly)
Take advice and guidance from AI, but make your own changes
You can’t:
Get AI to write your work (we’re leaving this here because this is a no brainer really)
When Preparing for Exams and Tests:
You can:
Use AI to create a summary of the course content (But check that it’s accurate before cracking into revision)
Use AI to generate questions that could be in the exam using previous exam papers questions
You can’t:
Get AI to generate answers to previous exam questions (Another no brainer guys, without the context of the course, there’s no way a chatbot will know what it’s talking about)
Lots of assessments will now actually incorporate the use of AI into them. Of course, the guidelines will vary from assessment, but most of the time you’re welcome to crack on with AI as long as you accurately reference where you’ve used it.
AUT stressed that they are still actively updating their policy around AI. Particularly over the next two years, when their official AI policy will be rolled out across the uni.
So I can use AI, but what AI do I use?
Of course we all know ChatGPT as a trusty best friend, but AUT actually offers their own AI tools to students. Microsoft Copilot in Edge is available to all students, and there are some key guidelines to using it available online too.
Are my lecturers also going to be replaced with AI chatbots?
Well first off, we’re not UoA - it’s commonly known we’re better in all aspects. But unfortunately, the answer to this question isn’t a hard no.
AUT is currently piloting the use of a generative AI tool called Cogniti in several courses.
Through this, “teachers can build custom chatbot agents that can be given specific instructions, and specific resources, to assist student learning”.
Examples of this developed so far include a patient simulation role play, and a tutor providing advice and guidance on a group assessment task. AUT would like to stress that teachers use Cogniti to enhance, not replace, their teaching.
So for now, no, a robot won’t be your tutor (But from the sounds of things, I’d never say never).
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