AI misuse in Indian colleges and how professors are arresting the situation

BENGALURU - When creative writing professor Pranav V.S. in Bengaluru congratulated his student over text about a cultural performance, he received a reply that began with: “You can express your gratitude with a simple note or message. Here’s a suggestion: Thank you so much, Sir, for your kind words...”

His heart sank.

“Can college students these days not even compose a personal thank-you message without getting help from artificial intelligence (AI) tools?” he wondered.

Prof Pranav, who teaches at St Joseph’s University in Bengaluru, is not alone in his despair over the use of AI by students.

Even as most Indian universities forbid using generative AI for assignments, students are drawn to the time-saving, modern tool, many professors told The Straits Times.

They said that students write entire essays and e-mails, as well as produce presentations, using generative AI. Instead of taking class notes and reading books and technical modules, they feed the PDFs into their favourite AI tools to generate simple summaries of three or four pages.

Professors worry that students’ use of AI disrupts the learning process, fosters impatience with studying and diminishes the importance of writing and reading.

Prof Pranav said it also drives a wedge in interactions between teachers and students.

“It’s a shortcut for students. But for teachers, it’s more laborious to separate the AI content from the students’ content. The joy of teaching is gone,” said Dr Adil Hossain, who teaches history and sociology in Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.

Independent thinking is vanishing

Assistant Professor Ananya Mukherjee from Azim Premji University in Bhopal, who has been teaching biology for nine years, shared that despite her picking controversial topics like genetics and reproductive choice to encourage her students to express their genuine opinions, many students use AI tools ChatGPT and Gemini to come up