By Nicarlyle Hanchard / The Jambar
After several Youngstown State University professors shared their views on the use of generative artificial intelligence in classrooms, The Jambar sat down with two students to get their thoughts on AI use.
In The Jambar story published March 19, the professors agreed that students should learn how to use the new technology, but stressed that overreliance could have adverse effects on students’ learning.
Niko DePinto, freshman mechanical engineering major, said he uses AI to assist with studying math and chemistry as it provides practice problems. Aside from this task, DePinto said he does not use AI to complete assignments.
“With studying in high school, I never studied a lot, so I struggled a lot with it since coming to college, and I got a tutor ‘cause I was falling behind a little bit, and he kind of showed me, with ChatGPT, how it can very easily give you practice problems and then, if you don’t know how to do it, [ChatGPT] can explain it to you,” DePinto said.
AI hallucinations refer to instances where the technology presents information as facts that do not exist. DePinto said he has experienced this while using AI to study.
“With a lot of the stuff I’ve done with it I’ve had — like chemistry, for example — there’s a lot of notes in that, I’ve used it to summarize notes, and there’s sometimes where it has gotten the wrong information. It may have just misunderstood the way I put [the prompt] in, and I actually was studying and studied the wrong information,” DePinto said. “It messed me up, but I have a tutor that helped me out.”
DePinto’s issue with the prompt highlights a point made by Anwarul Islam, professor and director of the civil engineering program, in his previous interview with The Jambar. Islam said large language models are command-based, where they will produce as instructed. Hallucinations and unclear prompts are another facet of which students should be aware.
Oloyede Adeeko, junior political science and philosophy double major, works as a peer leader with First Year Student Services and a tutor with the Resch Academic Success Center. He stated he uses AI to create comprehensive study notes to make studying easier.
“I mostly use AI in that regard because it goes beyond what I conveniently cover in a given time frame,” Adeeko stated. “The reason why I do opt to use AI is simply [because] it’s faster. However, I’ve come to utilize it less, since I learned of the environmental impacts associated with the use of AI and simply just challenging myself more by making the notes myself.”
Adeeko stated he experienced similar misinformation from AI hallucinations when researching soccer statistics. He stated it was then he realized that the ease of using AI was not worth possible misinformation.
Though DePinto said he believes AI can be a helpful tool, he said students should not use the technology to complete assignments as it does not help the learning process. Similarly, Adeeko stated students should not use AI in completing coursework as it deprives them of learning essential skills.
“Honestly, I’d say just try to avoid it, especially if it’s in a field you aim to specialize in, because you’re essentially denying yourself the opportunity to learn and gain essential skills. [It’s] best use would be as a study guide or for non-academia purposes,” Adeeko stated.