Artificial intelligence is sure to have an impact on higher education institutions too - indeed, organizations like UNESCO and the European University Association are starting to analyze its potential impact and provide guidelines for its implementation.
Dr. Workiewicz notes: “Disruption is a familiar topic in business schools, where we teach future leaders the importance of adapting to changes in technology, society, and regulations. Now, disruption has arrived in our classrooms, forcing us to reevaluate our teaching methods and adapt to new AI technologies. GPT is a powerful AI language model capable of generating high-quality text in response to complex questions."
The impact of GPT is already apparent. Students can easily access tools online that provide well-articulated answers to nuanced problems. The line between AI-generated text and human-written content is blurring, making it difficult, if not impossible, to detect plagiarism. This development challenges the status quo in business education and demands that we rethink our teaching methods as well as what we teach.
As we venture into the era of GPT and other advanced AI technologies, it is essential for educators to understand and integrate these tools into their curriculums. GPT can be used to prepare teaching plans, create personalized exercises, help students brainstorm ideas, and act as a simulated exercise partner in negotiations or case analysis. The applications are numerous, and every day an application update brings new possibilities. These creative applications of AI will not only enable productive classroom discussions: it will also ensure that our students are prepared for the changing labor market and economy. The need for continuous education is more pressing than ever, as our alumni will also benefit from learning new skills to thrive in this rapidly evolving landscape.
The potential of GPT extends beyond academics, with significant gains in productivity observed in fields such as computer coding, journalism, and text editing. It is clear that we cannot ignore the transformative power of this technology, which is poised to reshape our lives and work. By embracing AI tools like GPT and learning how to cooperate with them, students and managers alike can amplify their impact in the business world. We have the tools. Now we need to make time to use them.
One of the key principles behind OpenAI is that if we introduce AI early and develop it slowly, we will give society and our institutions time to adjust to them, find productive uses and approaches and guard against malevolent applications. But we need to start early and invest sufficient time to allow organizations and institutions to integrate this tool into their workflows. Similarly, business schools, and the educational sector in general, should embrace this new technology as soon as possible so that fresh graduates and experienced managers are kept up to date in terms of knowledge and skills. Otherwise, all this extra headstart will be for nothing.
-
Maciej Workiewicz is an Associate Professor of Management at ESSEC Business School.
This article was adapted from ESSEC Knowledge.
First Published: Oct 25, 2024, 11:08
Subscribe Now