Rural students do not know AI tools

Warangal: While the threat that Artificial Intelligence (AI) poses to jobs is a hot topic around the world, many students hailing from rural areas in Warangal and Karimnagar districts are unaware of one of the disruptive technologies of the current era.

With the exception of students pursuing engineering and medical fields, students in other academic fields rarely use AI language tools to understand their subjects.

Dr. D. Vijay Prakash, professor of English at Satavahana University, says students pursuing language courses must excel in their subject. “They cannot make mistakes in grammar or sentence formation. That’s why many students take help from ChatGPT. By reading their assignments, we can easily understand whether they prepared the work themselves or whether they used any linguistic tools.”

However, this talent is not visible in all faculty members. Some professors are blissfully unaware of advances in artificial intelligence and therefore unable to identify misdeeds committed by students. They don’t know of any applications that can identify AI-generated text or human text.

Dr. M. Estari, professor of zoology at Kakatiya University, says many of the students pursuing their studies at the university come from rural backgrounds and do not know English well.

Anjali, a contract lecturer working at a girls’ college in Jammikunta, said many girls come from rural backgrounds and are not familiar with any AI-based language tools. They just listen to their lecturers and follow them. If they are asked to search for something on the Internet, on their computer or on their mobile phone, they simply do it.

She added that even though lecturers tell students to take help from ChatGPT or another AI tool, students from rural backgrounds turn to lecturers for help in using these applications.

Medical student A. Navadeep said that many doctors use ChatGPT to get a clear description of some of the medical terms they come across while studying their subjects.

Engineering student G.Venkatesh said that engineering students not only use language tools but also many other applications that help them understand the subjects easily. “But if they rely completely on these tools, they may not perform well in the exams as lecturers will not allow any mobile phones or gadgets into the exam hall,” he added.