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One potential application of AI in education is through adaptive learning software, which can provide personalised instruction to each student based on their individual needs and learning style. This can help to increase student engagement and improve academic performance. Additionally, AI-powered tutoring systems can provide students with access to high-quality educational resources, regardless of their location.
Another benefit of implementing AI in the education system is that it can help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of teacher training and professional development. By using data analytics and machine learning, teachers can gain insights into student learning patterns and identify areas where they need to improve their instruction. Additionally, AI-powered tools can be used to assist teachers in creating lesson plans and providing feedback on student work.
Additionally, such a department could work to build partnerships between government, industry and academia to promote the development of AI-powered educational tools and resources.
AI has the potential to significantly improve education outcomes in the South African school system. With the help of technology diffusion, students in rural areas can access quality education resources, teachers can improve their teaching methods and professional development, and the government can work to promote the development of AI-powered educational tools and resources. The creation of a new ministry or department of artificial intelligence in South Africa could further boost the effort.
What if I told you that what you have been reading thus far was written by a chatbot using the latest information technology called Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, commonly known as ChatGPT? This chatbot was launched by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research and deployment company in November last year.
In regards to this article, I asked ChatGPT to “write a 200-word opinion piece on AI and how technology diffusion can help improve education outcomes in the South African school system. Also, what would be the benefits, if any, of creating a new ministry or department of artificial intelligence in South Africa”.
The results were as astonishingly lucid and coherent as you may have noticed above. It could have taken me hours and endless editing to stitch together the 200 words that the chatbot was able to do in less than a minute.
The use of AI chatbots in education and content creation raises several ethical dilemmas related to copyright infringement and plagiarism.
One issue is that AI chatbots, particularly those that generate written content, may inadvertently reproduce copyrighted material without proper attribution. This could lead to legal disputes over copyright infringement and result in financial penalties for the parties involved. Additionally, students and writers who use AI chatbots to generate content may be guilty of plagiarism, as they are not properly citing the source of the information used.
There is a need to regulate AI to ensure that these ethical dilemmas are addressed and that the rights of copyright holders are protected. This could involve creating new laws and regulations specific to AI, or updating existing laws to take into account the unique challenges posed by AI. Additionally, industry standards and best practices could be established to guide the development and use of AI chatbots.
It's important to have a new regime to regulate AI to ensure that these ethical dilemmas are addressed and that the rights of copyright holders are protected. This could involve creating new laws and regulations specific to AI, or updating existing laws to take into account the unique challenges posed by AI.
The point is, while the world of technology diffusion is taking quantum leaps, we risk being left behind unless we moved with speed to adopt new technologies that will define, or at least influence, our future as members of a global village.
Lest we forgot, we were at the leading (some say “bleeding”) edging of GSM-based mobile telephony applications and development in the 90s.
In the '90s, South Africa made a significant contribution to the early stages of GSM adoption and roll-out by developing several innovative solutions that allowed for more affordable and accessible mobile communications in the country, such as the low-cost GSM infrastructure solution, GSM-based mobile banking system, and being one of the first mobile operators to launch GSM services in the world. These innovations helped to increase competition, drive down costs and make mobile communication accessible to more people in the country.
In sum, ChatGPT can be used for a wide range of applications, such as content creation, chatbots, language translation and many more. It has natural language understanding, can generate human-like text, it's fast and scalable and can be fine-tuned to specific tasks. Additionally, it's cost-effective and can learn from new data, making it a useful tool for many industries.
With data considered a raw, precious material that can be obtained for free, there are many benefits to embracing artificial intelligence, a large language model trained by OpenAI. We can do no better than to embrace and take advantage of opportunities presented by the artificial intelligence technological revolution, just as we did with GSM.
After all, the future is here.
*Khaas is the chief entrepreneur at the SA Institute of Chartered Entrepreneurs and director at Digital IQ Corporation.
