Several students and instructors say that the use of artificial intelligence in universities and academic centers in Afghanistan has increased. They consider the use of artificial intelligence beneficial and believe that this technology has made access to information and the conduct of research easier, but warn that continuous and excessive use of it leads to a decline in critical thinking, dependency on pre-generated information, weakened analytical skills, and poor writing abilities, reducing creativity and human capacities. In their view, artificial intelligence can be useful only if it is used as an auxiliary tool and if regulatory and ethical frameworks are defined for it so that it does not replace the effort and thinking of students.
Paiman Sadat, a student at Kabul University, says artificial intelligence (AI) has made many academic tasks significantly easier for students. He adds that this technology addresses almost 90 percent of a student’s educational needs, whereas previously writing a paper required hours of searching through books.
Sadat considers the use of artificial intelligence very helpful and explains: “Artificial intelligence accelerates learning and helps solve mathematical and physics problems. In many projects, this technology plays a major role, and if access to it is ever cut off, completing assignments will become very difficult for students.”
Maiwand, another student, emphasizing the drawbacks of artificial intelligence, says that excessive use of this tool can lead to severe dependency, reduced creativity, and weakened human abilities. He says, “At the moment, I have become heavily dependent on artificial intelligence to the point that without the internet and AI tools, I can neither study properly nor get my work done. This dependency worries me because I fear that my writing and analytical abilities will weaken, and continuous use of AI will take away my core skills.”
Bahar, a young woman who studies online at a university, affirms Maiwand’s remarks and says that although artificial intelligence has made access to resources easier than before and reduced the cost and time of learning, this convenience can result in mental laziness, excessive dependency on machines, and reduced human thinking capacity. She adds, “Artificial intelligence has undoubtedly provided many possibilities, but these conveniences weaken the ability to think, which is humanity’s greatest power. When a person relies on a machine for even the simplest issues, their ability to analyze, create, and think deeply gradually declines.”
Meanwhile, several university professors complain about students’ indiscriminate use of artificial intelligence in presenting research projects and the noticeable change in quality. They add that the absence of specific guidelines for using AI has enabled laziness and reduced the quality of education.
Zakir Sadat (pseudonym), a professor at Kabul University, says the lack of supervisory frameworks and proper mechanisms for using artificial intelligence in Afghanistan’s universities has created conditions for laziness, cheating, and the decline of educational quality. He adds that compared to previous years, essential student skills such as critical thinking, independent writing, and analysis have become weaker. In his view, using artificial intelligence as a supportive tool is an advantage, provided that ethical and regulatory frameworks are defined so that it does not replace student effort and thinking.
This university professor, referring to the excessive use of AI and the change in the quality of students’ work, says: “The change in the quality of students’ work is evident. In previous years, before the emergence of artificial intelligence, students’ work was usually the result of perseverance, genuine effort, and extensive study, but with the advent of AI and the shift from classical to modern teaching methods, although the appearance and structure of their work have improved, the scientific depth and originality of some assignments have decreased. For example, at times we have seen a student obtain an entire project from artificial intelligence and submit it.”
This comes as, in recent years, the use of artificial intelligence in Afghanistan has increased across most scientific, social, cultural, recreational, psychological, and advisory fields, as well as in universities, research centers, and scientific industries.
Earlier, the scientific journal Nature, in a study conducted by a group of researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, reported that the behavior of 11 large language models, including “ChatGPT” and “Gemini,” had been evaluated in response to more than 11,000 questions. According to this study, these models in many cases reinforce users’ viewpoints and even overlook obvious errors.
Researchers have warned that this tendency in the use of artificial intelligence in the biological and medical sciences is dangerous, as it can lead to the repetition of incorrect hypotheses and flawed analyses, reduce scientific quality, and negatively affect academic research processes and specialized decision-making.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
هوش مصنوعی در دانشگاههای افغانستان: ابزار کمکی یا تهدید جدی برای تفکر و خلاقیت؟
