The Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs with Memorial University’s Faculty of Education is cautioning against the introduction of generative AI in lower grades in the education system.

David Gill told VOCM Open Line with Paddy Daly that while AI is an effective tool, children in particular need to develop the skills necessary to learn, and think critically.

“What is the purpose of education, what is the purpose of learning to read and write?” Gill asks “I would argue it is so that individuals can independently critique things, think critically, write arguments and reason.” He says “if we introduce ChatGPT at an early age, they’re never going to struggle learning those steps.”

Gill cites a recent study as an example where a group of students were split into two groups. One group was asked to write an essay using ChatGPT, while the other wrote the essay on their own.

He says the ChatGPT group was then asked to re-write their essays from memory, “they couldn’t do it, but the group that id it on their own, used ChatGPT to help them, their mind functions and things like that were fine.”