By Timothy Agberagba
Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have gained prominence in Nigeria, bringing benefits and potential side effects to Nigerian students and the general public in particular.
AI chatbots are computer programs or interfaces that can carry on human-like conversations using natural language understanding (NLU), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML).
Those programs are designed to help with academics, business, data analysis, and entertainment. To use them, you instruct the chatbot to provide a solution to a particular problem, and it will automatically generate the result.
Many Nigerian students have embraced AI as a resource for academic exercises. Some use it for research, presentation, and literary compositions. Lecturers also use it to generate lecture materials without the stress of surfing the internet. Information can be easily accessed through AI Chatbots.
However, this trend has become a matter of concern as many Nigerian students and graduates heavily depend on these AI chatbots rather than engage in critical reasoning and rationality. AI Chatbots have made many people so lazy and dependent that they cannot conduct joint research on issues around them.
Many fail to understand that AI chatbots collect information randomly from published materials and present it as facts. This is why people, mainly Nigerian students, should always engage in personal research rather than depend on AI.
With the emergence of AI Chatbots, it is also disturbing that many Nigerian youths cannot compose a simple essay without using AI chatbots anymore—a 2024 research by Prof. Oluebube Miracle on the effect of AI chatbots in Nigeria revealed that “many students boycott knowledge construction process, leading to a dearth of experience, irrationality, passive learning, groupthink, academic dishonesty, and a diminished propensity for critical thinking”. This negates the future of academics and knowledge transfer because future generations will depend on it, and creativity and brain work will die naturally.
Additionally, in a developing country like Nigeria, people need to engage in creative thinking and innovation rather than allow AI to think for them. The secret behind developed countries is the constant brainstorming of creative ideas that translate into innovative undertakings. This is exactly what Nigeria needs.
It is said that youths are leaders of tomorrow, but if they heavily depend on AI chatbots for ideas, what will happen to the country? AI can only give you what you ask for and nothing more. It doesn’t feel or think and is not sensitive to the environment. By implication, dependence on AI is a sign of gross failure as far as creativity is concerned.
Finally, to mitigate the tendency to over-depend on AI Chatbots and promote creativity among Nigerian youths, educators, policymakers, and stakeholders need to work collaboratively to ensure that the integration of AI in education promotes independence and critical thinking. Nigerian youths should not abandon traditional study methods to enrich themselves with the knowledge necessary for self-development and national progress.
Timothy Agberagba writes from the Mass Communication Department at Bayero University, Kano.