An Education and Research panel was hosted in the morning session followed by a lively Q&A.
On Wednesday 5 June, academics gathered at City St George’s, University of London’s Tooting campus for a collaborative day exploring the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) across disciplines and professions.
GenAI, short for Generative Artificial Intelligence, is a type of AI that can create new content, ideas, or data, including text, images and music. It is trained on vast datasets and can produce outputs that mimic human-like creativity.
In the morning, Professor Baba Sheba, Director of Digital Transformation (secondment) at the newly merged University, and organiser of the day, welcomed colleagues to the event which began with an Education and Research panel. It featured Professor Susan Blake and Danon Pritchard from The City Law School, Professor Eduardo Alonso from the School of Science & Technology, and Dr Julia Kutschenreuter, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University’s Institute for Infection and Immunity.
The panel discussed the use of AI within legal practices, research and student assessments, acknowledging its rapid development and extensive reach. Today, most devices have some form of built-in AI capability. It is notably embedded within smartphones, tablets and laptops – consumer electronics used for study and work.
Professor Alonso introduced two academic approaches to GenAI: integrated methods and apocalyptic methods. He and his team choose to analyse AI critically, undertaking integration methods by focusing on the benefits of AI in four areas: research, medicine, business modelling and security.
Professor Alonso explained that the distribution of AI could be optimised to target real-world challenges, for example, by detecting early indicators of illness in health research, or improving workplace efficiency. He also highlighted the shortage of human expertise in areas such as finance, creativity and security, suggesting that AI-generated simulations could fill these gaps and deliver more nuanced solutions and advice. Echoing this perspective, Professor Blake affirmed that “integration is needed for research and assessment”.
In contrast, Dr Kutschenreuter offered a more cautious view on AI. She described it as “liberating yet overwhelming”, noting that its capabilities are limited by what the databases permit. As a wet-lab scientist, Dr Kutschenreuter explained that much of the data she creates is “messy and unstructured”, and often incompatible with the standardised data GenAI needs to work effectively.
She questioned the reliability of AI outputs, asking if we can trust something if we don’t know how it is made, and raised important ethical concerns about the accessibility of tools such as ChatGPT for non-native English speakers. Dr Kutschenreuter further emphasised that expert review is still needed when working with AI, stressing that, within the context of academia, it should not be writing any assessments.
Responding to worries surrounding AI and student education Dr Julie Voce, Head of Digital Education, Learning Enhancement and Development at City St George’s, acknowledged the sector-wide debate by saying “we need to embrace AI”. She noted that her team has always recognised its potential, believing it is something that cannot be avoided.
She instead recommended reviewing how students are assessed, by shifting the focus from the output onto the learning process. Dr Voce says banning AI usage in classrooms is not feasible. She cited some of the University’s approaches to AI, such as the guidelines printed for each School on when AI can be used.
In the Q&A session that followed, the conversation turned to how AI usage can be developed from being more than just ‘copy/paste.’ Dr Kutschenreuter suggested AI is most beneficial for topics students already have a foundational knowledge in, which would allow them to critically think about information accuracy. “It’s a skill,” she said.
All members of the panel unanimously agreed that an open dialogue is needed to go beyond prohibiting students from using artificial intelligence, to teaching them to use it selectivity, and to know when the information provided is wrong. As the session closed, there was a strong consensus that critical thinking is becoming more and more important within educational and professional environment.
Find out more
A further article with an overview of the entire day's proceedings will follow shortly.
Byline: this article was written by Andrea Costache, Communications Assistant, City St George's, University of London Press Office
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