AI Tools Like ChatGPT Part Of New Normal, But Cannot Truly Replace Learning: Chan Chun Sing

Images by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash and Chan Chun Sing Facebook

The all-popular AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, presents challenges and opportunities to the field of education in Singapore, according to Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing in Parliament today.

ChatGPT has proven to be a threat in the education sector, passing some of the U.S.’s business and law exams.

In Singapore, Minister Chan said that MOE will give educators enough resources and guidance to use such technologies.

At the same time, Chan said that educators will still teach students to understand fundamental concepts and guide students against an overreliance on technological tools.

He gave the example of a calculator.

It supports students in their learning of mathematics but students would first need to master mathematical concepts.

Hence, ChatGPT can only be a useful tool for learning only after basic concepts and thinking skills have been imparted.

He added that educators must also teach students to embrace and work with tools in the new normal “that have a range of outcomes beyond a deterministic outcome”.

This includes AI tools that, he said, will increase in pervasiveness and may not only provide deterministic answers.

As such, educators would need to help students understand how ChatGPT, and other AI tools, work.

“Cheating is cheating”

Addressing concerns about the misuse of ChatGPT by students, Chan said that schools and institutes of higher learning have put in place safeguards against it.

In addition to that, students were also taught the importance of integrity and the consequences of plagiarism.

As for teachers, they use multiple modes of assessment to gauge students’ proficiency and detect any uncharacteristic answers.

France’s top university, Sciences Po, has banned ChatGPT to prevent plagiarism. Similarly, several states in Australia had also banned the chatbot in schools as it could be used to cheat in assessments.

Responding to Dr Lim Wee Kiak’s supplementary question on cheating and the penalty faced by students, Chan said:

“Cheating is cheating. Cheating is not tolerated in any of our educational institutions”.

He also ended his speech by declaring that his speech was thanks to the hard work of MOE staff, not ChatGPT.

Similarly, this article too was written by a human writer, not an AI-generated tool.