AI-A Boon or a Bane

 Part 1-AI in education: 

      Mobile phones  are handy. Every Tom,dick and harry has one with a good 4G internet  connectivity.Which is not a bad thing at all. Along with keeping in touch with our loved ones ,It helps in building relationships and also gaining knowledge. The internet is also available at a very reasonable price with good connectivity.

        Like any other individual,when it comes to mobile ,students are also privileged  and use mobile phones in their day to day activities. Due to easy accessibility and internet connectivity, any information verified or not is available at the tip of the fingers. E.g if any one ,in this context a student has doubts or they are seeking answers or knowledge ,then they will just use an  AI app. In the process,probably thinking that it provides the correct and accurate information. But most of the times they might be wrong. Cause in the AI app there is a disclosure that AI might not give the correct answers and other sources also should be checked.Along with hoarding  wrong knowledge we are also making our brain redundant. I had recently attended  a lecture of Dr Bhushan Patvardhan sir . In  his lecture he had explained 'how f MRI studies have proven that parts of the brain are less functioning in today's generation due to the massive use of AI'. If this continues and we use AI for generating each and every information then major part of a brain will not work. 

       And this dysfunctional redundant brain, we will be passing on to the next generations. Ten and thousands of years ago, the Homo Neanderthalinsis man had a small brain because he only used to hunt . This man just knew to satiate his hunger and survive .Slowly humans evolved ,learned ,started to think and make decisions and hence the brain volume increased . If we are not using our brain to think, decide, learn and judge then majority of the frontal part of the brain will degenerate. Brain is said to be plastic . As we learn and acquire new skills, new neuronal connections will be formed in the brain and this is called plasticity.Therefore in order to prevent dementia,old age people are advised to learn something new or atleast acquire a new skill post the age of 60 years.Opposite of plasticity can occur when we are not using our brain for the things it is good at. 

     Easy availability of mobile phones and internet access as made us a pawn to the digital world. We are so addicted to a mobile phone and its applications that even though when it is unnecessary we end up using it.

      I am not a Gen Z. Hence I had to learn to use AI at my workplace. Still even for me using mobile phones is an addiction .The notification which pops up every other second makes us look at the mobile every now and then .This interrupts with the regular work and obstructs the flow.This is a problem which everyone faces.  There are many successful  books and best sellers which have explained how to get rid of mobiles and prevent it  from distracting us at work. 

      By using AI ,some of us might show or express that they are smarter than the others but ultimately to succeed -true knowledge is essential. This can be gained by accessing the right knowledge which are available in books, good magazines, or published journal articles ,either hard copies or e copies. For doctors knowledge is gained  from theory and  practice. So there are different ways how one can acquire knowledge .

      As a teacher where we are the custodians of knowledge , it is our duty to guide students in the right way. The question which perturbs me every time is ' what can we do to make the students knowledgeable and efficient?' 

Some answers which I have got are as follows:

1.During lectures and discussion mobiles should not be permissible.Use of intuition and judgement by the student is of paramount importance.

2.As educators we have to take more efforts and come up with creative ways to keep the students engaged. At the same time we have to be disciplined about the knowledge they acquire and how they acquire it.

3.AI can be used to make the work easier. E g create table, flow chart, create word doc etc. But the content should be solely created by the student.

Perils of AI

It has been only a couple of years of using AI. Only in the coming years we will be able to know how badly we are affected. Already we have become slaves to chatGpt, deep seek like AI. Before the advent of  AI we would atleast search for information on Google, wikipedia, read up on it and then use it. Now, the information is readily served on a platter and students are using it eagerly without checking the authenticity. Hope it doesn't reach a stage where we forget to do things and  make judgements on our own. Let us take preventive steps before AI takes precedence in our life. Hence reading is very essential .Either a hard copy or an e -copy .