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AI and Academia - Dr. Unwana Samuel

Posted by: Benjamin Onuorah

I was recently invited to speak on a breakfast show on TV about AI and academia, and I gave them my honest take.
There was a time in history when calculators weren't allowed in exam halls anywhere in the world. Today, that story has changed. But some of my colleagues still describe AI as the worst form of plagiarism.

Let me take you to the future, or at least, to what's already happening.
Early this year, Purdue University, an Ivy League school and the alma mater of Dr. Akinwunmi Adeshina, became the first university in the United States to introduce AI graduation requirements. With over 44,000 students, they now have five core AI benchmarks: Learning with AI, Learning about AI, Researching with AI, Using AI, and Partnering in AI.

Their statement was clear: "This foundational curriculum will ensure that all students and graduates have working competency in AI tools and applications for the future of work."
The requirements also push students to understand AI's strengths and limits, to think critically about how to use it ethically in real-world settings. They've partnered with Google and are exploring AI in areas like biological manufacturing. Apparently, these new AI requirements could save staff over 127,000 work hours and about $3.5 billion.

Because of moves like this, universities across the US and other Western countries are now weaving AI into their programmes. Even in my own field of communication and media, we're beginning to see courses like "AI and the Newsroom" pop up in our curriculum.
Back in the day, employers wanted you to be IT compliant. Now? They want you to be AI compliant. Industries are looking for people who can use AI tools to get work done fast, efficiently, and with quality, and research backs that up.

Even in academic publishing, things are shifting. Reputable journals indexed in Scopus now have "AI Declaration and Policy" sections. They ask authors to declare how much AI was used in their work. That tells you something, which is, they're beginning to accept a certain level of AI integration.
Back home in Nigeria, the federal government is setting up AI development centers and gradually rolling out AI applications across various sectors.
But here's the question that still hangs in the air; when a student uses AI-assisted tools to complete any class assignment, who are we actually grading? The student, or the AI?

By Unwana Samuel Akpan, Ph.D

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