Andrew Suryanto founded the University of NSW artificial intelligence society in the middle of 2023, months after the university banned AI from being used in assignments.
Three hundred students joined as soon as it became official. New members were impressed by the possibilities that AI promised, but they were equally worried about its impact on their job prospects after graduating.
Andrew Suryanto (centre) and leaders of UNSW Artificial Intelligence Society Rahul Markasserithodi, Jack Ma, Ishmanbir Singh and Tarushi Nandwani.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
“If it were born in any year before 2023, I don’t think we would have had nearly as much interest,” said Suryanto, a fifth-year computer science student.
“People are joining because they understand that if you don’t get ahead of this now, then it’s going to cause a lot of problems for you in the future.”
UNSW has revised its academic policy since Suryanto’s AI society was founded, with the use of generative tools now allowed if approved by the lecturer and credited correctly, as universities globally come to grips with the proliferation of machine learning in academia.
Among those is the University of Sydney, which now has an online module for students wishing to maximise the use of generative AI in their learning.
Students at the University of Sydney are also beginning to embrace AI. Credit: Oscar Colman
Jack Quinlan, an engineering and science student at the University of Sydney, helped design the module. With the help of AI, he can now write code up to 55 per cent faster than he previously could.
“It’s becoming almost a mandatory skill,” Quinlan said of integrating AI programs within his course. “As company expectations increase, our proficiencies need to increase with generative AI as well.”
Armin Chitizadeh, a Sydney University lecturer who formerly ran UNSW’s artificial intelligence course, has noted some companies requiring graduate workers to be skilled in generative AI programs.
He thought educators “should make [students] comfortable using generative AI”, finding that the technology will be “part of our daily life more and more”.
“The industry wants anything that improves their quality; if it can help them to make a product faster or better, or both of them combined, they will definitely use that,” Chitizadeh said.
Abigail Bobkowski, a fourth-year arts student at the University of Sydney, found a huge AI uptake among students in some areas of her degree.
“One of my professors always says, ‘AI is not going to take your job, but you’re going to lose your job to the person who can use it,’ ” Bobkowski said.
“It’s that type of preparedness that some professors are really on board with, and I think the whole university is moving toward that model of education.”
Suryanto advises fellow students to adapt to new technologies as they emerge, calling this the “one thing we have over AI at the moment”.
“It could be likened to trying to catch a runaway train with how quickly everything is going,” Suryanto said. “As unfortunate as it is, the university will not be able to teach you everything, especially not with AI coming into the workforce.”
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