Blog: AI and the Christian Teacher
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Christian Teacher
Artificial intelligence (AI) is present in modern web search engines, mobile applications, standard office software and AI websites. AI models are trained on publicly available information, which may have been intentionally published and accidentally made available on the Internet. Generative AI has been adopted by software developers, producing computer program source code that is used in some modern applications. It has been used to find security exploits in existing software, which have then been patched. Generative AI can provide summaries of research topics or other types of information, much more quickly than could be achieved by an individual researcher. AI tools are used in many different sectors. Students should be encouraged to use and understand existing and developing tools, such that they can use them effectively within their future workplace.
AI chatbots can be used by a learner or educator to rapidly understand a specific topic. They allow a person to discuss a problem, such that the responses are tailored to the specific user’s requirements. However, results from generative AI should be scrutinised and validated, since they are affected by the data that they were trained on, the guard rails that are present in the software, and hallucinations that are weaknesses of a model and how it has been trained. For example, a learner may ask a question on a specific topic and receive an answer that is a well known response available on the Internet that is not completely true. Alternatively, the response may be constructed from articles that do not exist or have themselves been fabricated by generative AI. While these issues are present, AI tools still provide a significant advantage in terms of productivity and understanding.
It is tempting to rely on generative AI and avoid validating its output. For example, students may use generative AI to summarise or paraphrase teaching material, but in doing so lose some of the key meanings or learning points. Likewise, researchers can generate a review of published papers, which on first glance looks believable but is filled with misquotations and misused or fabricated citations. As a reviewer or educator, evaluating poor quality work generated by a weak student requires significantly more time than would have previously been needed prior to the advent of generative AI.
For many subject areas, it is no longer safe to set assessments that a student can complete outside of controlled conditions. A student that has not engaged with the teaching material may feed the description of an assessment into a generative AI tool that produces a response that is sufficient to pass an assessment. While this validates the AI model, it does not assess the understanding of the student. To avoid awarding marks erroneously, a student can be evaluated within a defined classroom environment or through a written or oral examination.
As Christians, we must conduct ourselves with integrity and reverence before God. He knows us, our thoughts, actions and weaknesses. We should respond to his grace by acting honourably and with complete integrity. We should be wary of trusting the output of generative AI tools without validation. Likewise, we have a duty of care for our students, encouraging them to learn rather than to become overly reliant on AI tools. Generative AI tools are useful, but should be used carefully.
Dr William Bell is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Strathclyde and an elder at Harper Church in Glasgow. He has taught Physics, Applied Statistics, and Computer Science in the UK and Geneva Switzerland, publishing many scientific papers and expository sermons.
