The University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka has concluded plans to unveil a policy document on the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its academic activities.
The purpose of the document, according to the university, is to enhance hardwork and critical thinking rather than fostering plagiarism and academic indolence among students and lecturers.
The institution’s deputy vice chancellor (Academics and Research), Professor Bola Oboh, stated this at a three-day workshop on ethics in higher education, recently.
The forum, organised by the Office of International Relations, Partnerships and Prospects (IRPP) of UNILAG, was facilitated by the deputy Ethics Officer at Texas A&M University, USA, Professor Russell Porter.
Addressing journalists at the opening session, Professor Oboh highlighted the importance of ethics in the tertiary education sector, including the use of AI, hence the essence of the workshop.
According to her, the application of AI in academia is inevitable and academic institutions must ensure the tools only aid the intellectual endowments of users and not disrupt quality academic standards.
She said: “If we say no to AI, we will just be deceiving ourselves, as we have already started developing policies in that direction in UNILAG and in the next one or two months, the policy will be finally taken to the university’s Senate for consideration.
“So, whether we like it or not, our students are already using AI, and some lecturers are also using it to detect plagiarised works.
“We have also made the student realise that while they can use AI, the idea of being able to think critically, using their thoughts and mind, should not be thrown away.
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“It is when you pick things online and dump them as received that it becomes a serious ethical problem.”
Oboh declared that the adoption of AI would greatly enhance critical thinking rather than fostering plagiarism and laziness among staff and students.
She, however, tasked participants to ensure that they replicate the training at their various faculties to ensure a transfer of the new knowledge across to everyone.
On his part, the workshop facilitator, Professor Russell Porter, also emphasised that ethical consideration surrounding the use of AI and Machine Learning (ML) in research and academic work as a global concern, while calling for caution in its implantation to avoid ethical and legal violations.
The scholar in this regard urged universities to adopt “preventive measures rather than reactive responses to ethical challenges,” noting that the ethics framework could be structured to fit local contexts in Nigerian universities while ensuring adherence to global best practices.
“So, each university, he advised, “can establish ethics committees to assess past breaches and implement strategies to prevent their recurrences.”
Also speaking, the Research Lead, Machine Intelligence Research Group (MIRG) in UNILAG, Babatunde Sawyer, a lecturer at the Department of Computer Science, urged participants to take into consideration validity, reliability, security, privacy and accountability when using AI.
