“Students are already using it, so the question becomes, how can we leverage it for learning and encourage responsible and ethical best practices for both professors and students?”

According to McMinn, most professors have already allowed some class usage of generative AI, which can create content such as text, images, audio, or videos based on a variety of inputs. Thus far, that has included students using it to generate fake case studies for projects, conducting preliminary research, and having the chatbot create personalised quizzes and self-assessments.

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With ChatGPT, developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, inaccessible from Hong Kong without a VPN connection, the Centre for Education Innovation site directs students to Poe, a service developed by Quora and launched in December 2022 that allows access to a range of AI bots built on top of large language models (LLMs) including some from OpenAI.

One HKUST business professor, Joon Nak Choi, said generative AI will have a number of positive learning outcomes. He is directing one of his business ethics classes to use ChatGPT for their final essays, from helping to come up with essay topics to the actual writing of drafts.

“My goal is to not only for students to familiarise themselves with using ChatGPT, but to prepare them for its successors, which will continue to become far more powerful and integrated with workflow processes.”

Choi, who teaches some machine learning and AI-related courses, said he expects Microsoft 365 Copilot, launched earlier this year, to have an even bigger impact on academic work and work in general than ChatGPT.

Microsoft 365 Copilot will be integrated into common everyday apps like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams, with the software already being used by 600 customers in an early access testing program.

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“As with many of the new technologies of the past decades, these generative AI tools will increase the sheer amount of information students can access and will enable them to perform at a higher level,” said Choi. He added that the expectations for academic performance will rise and that students will also be responsible for learning how to avoid and correct the chatbot’s biases and shortcomings.

Dr. Ben Yui Bun Chan, an engineering professor at HKUST, said ChatGPT has benefited his students, particularly when it comes to projects that require research on new and complex topics.

“AI can quickly summarise and explain information, so students can spend less time in the research and learning stage of an assignment and more time focusing on creative problem-solving, critical thinking and strategy,” said Chan, noting that many of his students were using it for this purpose before being instructed to.

Chan said he is also allowing his classes to use generative text-to-picture AI programs like Midjourney for visual and design assignments, helping students express and visualise ideas in ways they may not have been able to do before.

Higher education institutions in the city have evolved their approach to ChatGPT-like services. The University of Hong Kong (HKU) first banned ChatGPT in February, but then allowed its lecturers and staff to use ChatGPT under new guidelines released in April.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is allowing the new technology to be incorporated into its teaching methods, but said students would need permission from tutors before using it and that turning in assignments done with ChatGPT would constitute plagiarism.

There are clear risks with the new technology. The HKUST professors stressed that while the technology has benefits, some students may learn to rely on it too much and use it as a crutch.

“It’s very good at completing simple assignments, but when it comes to major real-world problems, they will find that AI will not simply solve it for them directly,” said Chan. “It is important for them to understand the limitations of AI and then move onto figuring out how to work collectively with it.”

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He added that students who become overly reliant on AI to complete tasks rather than using it to enhance their capabilities, may be setting themselves up to be replaced by the tech in the workforce.

In a Microsoft work trend report released this week, 69 per cent of business respondents in Hong Kong said they are worried that AI will replace their jobs. But an even bigger share – 83 per cent – said that they would assign as much work as possible to AI if it could lessen their workload and increase overall productivity.

Still, professors note that AI skills should not eliminate the importance of raw knowledge for a number of academic activities, such as arithmetic and mathematics. For those activities, students benefit from the mental calculations of pen-and-paper problem-solving rather than simply searching for the answers.

ChatGPT also creates a problem when it comes to traditional homework. One HKUST professor who asked not to be named said he would stop assigning common essays and worksheets due to the fact that many students may simply use AI to do the work for them.

“If it’s not possible to tell whether or not a student has written an assignment or what part was AI-generated, it’s no longer useful,” said McMinn, explaining that this shift could “encourage professors to move away from exam-oriented assessments”.

Examples of ‘AI-proof assignments’ include hands-on activities such as big, interactive projects, in-person presentations, experimentations, and personal lesson reflections, which tend to reinforce better learning behaviour anyway, McMinn added.

He noted that the full effects of generative AI on education remains speculative and that it will be hard for professors to change mindsets and practices overnight. But, one way or another, the tech will demand innovation in an educational environment that has been overly stagnant for decades, he added.

“It won’t be a choice; the technology will force change across the education system; that’s how powerful it is.”