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Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is trained on enormous bodies of text, video and images to identify patterns. It then creates new texts, videos and images on the basis of this pattern identification. Thanks to machine learning, it improves its ability to do so every time it is used.<\/p>\n
As AI becomes embedded in academic life, a troubling reality has emerged: students are extremely vulnerable to its use. They don\u2019t know enough about what AI is to be alert to its shortcomings. And they don\u2019t know enough about their subject content to make judgements on this anyway. Most importantly, they don\u2019t know what they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0two<\/a>\u00a0academics<\/a>\u00a0involved in higher education teaching, we argue that there are four key dangers facing students in today\u2019s world of AI. They are:<\/p>\n Given our experiences as academics who have developed curricula for students and who research generative AI, we think there are three things universities can do. They should teach critical AI literacy, emphasise why developing knowledge is important, and teach students why being an expert matters if they\u2019re going to engage meaningfully with AI.<\/p>\n Blind trust in AI\u2019s false confidence.<\/strong>\u00a0A\u00a0recent Microsoft report<\/a>\u00a0showed that those who know the least about a topic are the most likely to accept AI outputs as correct. Generative AI programs like\u00a0ChatGPT<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Claude<\/a>\u00a0produce text with remarkable confidence. Students lacking domain expertise can\u2019t identify when these systems are completely wrong.<\/p>\n Headlines already demonstrate the consequences of this in the workplace: lawyers submitting fabricated case citations\u00a0generated by AI<\/a>, and\u00a0hospitals using AI transcription tools<\/a>\u00a0that invent statements never actually made.<\/p>\n Generative AI can get it wrong because it doesn\u2019t\u00a0understand<\/em>\u00a0anything in the human sense of the word. But it can identify and replicate patterns with remarkable sophistication. These patterns include not only words and ideas but also tone and style.<\/p>\n Missing the power of education.<\/strong>\u00a0A core purpose of higher education is to give students a new way of understanding the world and their place in it. When students use AI in ways that sidestep intellectual challenges, they miss this essential transformation.<\/p>\n When students simply outsource their thinking to AI, they\u2019re getting credentials without competence. They might graduate with degrees but without knowledge and expertise.<\/p>\n\n
The four dangers<\/strong><\/h4>\n