In a previous article, I mentioned the use of AI by students in their studies, specifically: using AI intelligently and selectively.
This article shares with you the advancements of AI and its impact on students' academic performance in the Industry 4.0 era. Here's an interesting story between me and a graduating student. I asked: "Do you use AI to develop business strategies for your company?" After a moment of hesitation, the student replied: "I refer to strategies developed by AI!". Hearing this, I was very happy, shook the student's hand firmly, and said: "Congratulations on your business success". This story may sound small, but it's a big lesson for businesses, for inexperienced business owners, and for recent graduates entrusted with important responsibilities. It's about using AI intelligently and selectively!
To date, AI holds trillions of gigabytes (GB) of information and databases worldwide, a colossal global library. Therefore, AI-powered robots will know everything in the world, capable of searching for information at lightning speed, performing billions of calculations per second – a superhuman ability previously only seen in science fiction, unmatched by humans.
However, AI learns from and is created by humans, so human thinking teaches AI. In terms of reasoning, extrapolation, and logical thinking, AI is still far behind humans. Once, the teacher asked ChatGPT: "Why does Saigon get so badly flooded after every heavy rain?" Within seconds, ChatGPT answered very systematically, listing many fundamental reasons that any long-time Saigon resident would know, such as: tides, high population density, poor drainage system, high building density, land subsidence below the Saigon River's water level, and clogged canals. However, because ChatGPT wasn't in Saigon, it was unaware of a core reason: garbage had clogged the drainage manholes after every rain, preventing water from flowing into the manholes and drainage system. Residents had discovered this, reported it to the authorities, and every time it rained, many citizens and drainage workers cleared thousands of manholes throughout the city. This story illustrates the impracticality of AI, its inability to grasp the daily changes in socio-economic and environmental conditions, and its lack of up-to-date information to provide more realistic and relevant answers.
The two short stories above give us two big lessons: (1) AI is learning from humans, so AI may not necessarily answer all the questions we ask correctly; (2) AI lacks practicality when information is not updated, so the answers will not be suitable for reality.
Therefore, for students to be able to apply AI in their studies, they should know which questions to ask AI, usually questions related to history, events, statistics, databases, and know which questions not to ask AI, or only refer to AI's answers to a reasonable and moderate degree, usually questions about logic and reasoning, rationality, argumentation, business strategy of an enterprise, action plan of an individual, master plan of a nation or in a project, use of human resources in the enterprise and other resources (technology, financial capital, natural resources) of the enterprise.
I wish you all excellent academic performance and encourage you to view AI only as a friend on your journey to conquering knowledge!
Dr. Ho Cao Viet - Faculty of Economics and Management.