Cheating in the Age of AI: Universities need guidelines – Siphumelele Zondi, Durban University of Technology

702’s Bongani Bingwa speaks with Siphumelele Zondi of the Durban University of Technology.

Listen below:

Tertiary institutions are forced to be more innovative as artificial intelligence gains popularity.

There has been an increase in AI-generated content in the academic space, whereby students have been using the tool to cut corners.

In response, lecturers have adopted innovative tools to help detect the use of AI.

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“You get the model to produce work for you, and you then present this work as if it were done by yourself.”

– Siphumelele Zondi, Lecturer – Durban University of Technology

“I always caution students to be careful because AI can also have hallucinations… it would seldom say ‘I do not know this thing’. It will make up something.”

– Siphumelele Zondi, Lecturer – Durban University of Technology

As AI continues to learn and improve, Zondi says universities must implement policies to guide students. 

 "At this present moment, it is being treated the same as plagiarism instead of creating AI policies... There are good ways of working with AI.”

– Siphumelele Zondi, Lecturer – Durban University of Technology

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Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the discussion.