Artificial intelligence tools are starting to transform the education sector. A survey of Lithuanian high school students conducted on the initiative of Oxsico and PLAG, a plagiarism prevention system, revealed that 68 percent of students use AI tools for homework or writing essays, according to an Oxsico press release.
“The results of the survey send a clear message: the development of generative AI tools is a lightning-fast phenomenon that has spread to all areas of our lives. Therefore, we also need to react quickly to the problems they pose, not in a bureaucratic way,” Kotryna Tomkevičiūtė, CEO of start-up Oxsico, said in the press release.
A survey conducted by research company Vilmorus in September showed that the vast majority of students are actively testing AI tools to facilitate their learning process.
The survey of 504 students from 63 Lithuanian high schools showed that more than half (52 percent) of the respondents are planning to use AI in the future, while only 13 percent are not.
The use of these tools among students is at a high level across Lithuania. Almost all (94 percent) of the Vilnius high school students who took part in the survey indicated that they had tried AI tools at least once.
Similar results are recorded in the rest of Lithuania – 74 percent of students in Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Panevėžys have done so, as well as in other cities, and 78 percent in rural and urban areas.
The majority (62 percent) of high school pupils use AI tools to search for information, while more than a third (36 percent) use them for learning.
A significant proportion of students also use the tools for dishonest intentions – around half (47 percent) of respondents use AI tools to complete homework, a third (34 percent) to write essays, and almost a fifth (17.6 percent) to answer test questions.
“If students use AI tools in an unauthorised way [...], the principle of academic honesty may be violated,” said Birutė Liekė, chief analyst at the Office of the Ombudsman for Academic Ethics and Procedures of Lithuania.
“The unauthorised use of AI tools falls under offences such as plagiarism. This leaves lecturers with the problem of objectively assessing students' competencies and makes it difficult to notice if a student is having difficulties in their studies,” she added.
Instead of bans, educators should adapt existing teaching methods, said Tomkevičiūtė, CEO of Oxsico.
“We need to ensure that teachers have at least a basic understanding of AI and its applications. We do not yet have precise data, but personal experience from presentations in schools suggests that only about one-third of teachers have heard of AI tools. Those who use them are few and far between,” she added.
Vilmorus conducted the survey between September 15-23, polling 504 pupils aged 16-18. Representatives of 63 high schools from all over Lithuania participated in the survey.
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