GAINS AND CHALLENGES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN ACADEMIA

The era of artificial intelligence integration in academia is gradually transforming the conduct of academic research and education in general. Bicknell, Brust, and Settles (2023), Joshua and Edel (2024) underscored uses of Duolingo, Khanmigo, ChatGPT, iFlyTek, DELL-E, etc. as indispensable tools that offer great opportunities, enabling productivity, creativity and accessibilities for researchers in academia. However, as stated by Edtech (2020), Artificial intelligence offers both benefits and potential threats to academics and education sector in general. Artificial intelligence tools are designed in such a way that fit into specific needs of individuals, ranging from gathering ideas for research purposes, keeping track records of events, design statements for advertising purposes and motivating potential buyers for patronage etc. In academia, artificial intelligence has potentials to revolutionize the entire education system as it addresses various needs of individual learners according to their peculiarities (Holmes, Bialik and Fadel, 2019). However, Du Boulay, (2000); Selwyn, (2016), Castaneda and Selwyn, (2018) unanimously emphasized that sole or over reliance on the output of artificial intelligence cannot produce reliable academic results, in spite of its multidimensional and transformational impacts on both students and academics in higher institutions of learning. This calls for caution in the use of artificial intelligence tools aiding academic/research activities. Vieriu and Petrea, (2025) opined that use of artificial intelligence should not completely obliterate human intelligence but rather should be used to complement human reasoning in idea generation and efficient organization of information useful for intended purposes.