Academics raise concerns over declining standards as students increasingly rely on AI in Nigeria.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing education while making learning more accessible but also sparking debates on its impact.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic integrity, especially with many students unable to defend their assignments or given works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed frustration over the growing reliance on AI-generated responses among students recounting a recent experience he had.
“I gave an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the exact same answers. These students did not even know each other, but they all used the same AI tool to generate their responses,” he said.
He noted that this trend is prevalent among both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is especially concerning in part-time and distance learning programs.
“AI is a serious challenge when it comes to assignments. Many students no longer think critically—they just go online, generate answers, and submit,” he added.
Surprisingly, some lecturers are also accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for convenience rather than intellectual rigor.
This debate raises critical questions about the role of AI in academic integrity and student development.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, only one country had released regulations on generative AI as of July 2023.
As of December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million people using the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent every day around the world.
