IIM Kozhikode Director, Prof Debashis Chatterjee, in an interview with the FinancialExpress.com, offered a candid take on the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on education. He said that ChatGPT cannot beat natural intelligence as the “carbon brain has created the silicon brain” and not the other way around. “The dog has produced the tail, so the tail cannot move the dog,” he explained.
Chatterjee revealed that while he encourages students to use AI tools like ChatGPT for their research documents, he evaluates them based on how well they enhance the AI-generated text and the original content they add to it. The aim, he said, is to push students to go beyond the machine.
“That’s how I am evaluating students today. I say, why are you scared of a medium that is so easy? You do this, and then you say 10 per cent of your own original stuff on that medium,” he told FinancialExpress.com, adding that “learning histories have changed”.
‘Write exam using ChatGPT, then enhance it’
When asked whether using AI tools like ChatGPT for writing exams or research papers amounts to cheating, Chatterjee responded, “First, you use ChatGPT to write a paper. Then, use your own intelligence to make it so complex that even ChatGPT cannot recognise that it has written it.”
He added that if he were at Wharton, he would have used ChatGPT to solve the paper and later refined it. In Jan 2023, ChatGPT-3 made headlines when it cleared the final exam for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School MBA program.
The experiment was part of a study led by Professor Christian Terwiesch, who wrote the research paper: “Would ChatGPT3 Get a Wharton MBA? A Prediction Based on Its Performance in the Operations Management Course.” According to the study, the AI scored between a B- and B, and did an “amazing job at basic operations management and process analysis questions, including those that are based on case studies”.
‘ChatGPT cannot beat human brain’
“It’s all about AI. People are talking about generative AI. My simple question is, who generates?” he asked before answering, “I generate. I am the one who gives prompts. I am generating the AI, and I am asking AI.”
“AI is a mechanism that you have to understand, like electricity was mastered, like fire was mastered with a matchbox. You have to master AI through your awareness, through your mental ability. It is a stretch of mental ability…,” he told FinancialExpress.com.
The director reiterated, “You cannot beat natural intelligence. Natural intelligence is what has created artificial intelligence. It outsources itself to artificial intelligence.”
‘Ask right questions to AI’
The director also said that one should train themselves to ask the “right questions” to the AI chatbot rather than simply seeking the right answers.
“We will know what prompts to give. We also know what to discard. The junk that is produced. It simply means I have to train you to ask the right question, not get the right answer… You have to master this craft, and in that process, there is nothing to be overworked.”
Impact of AI on education
He also discussed AI’s growing role in management education and said that the integration of real-time data is transforming how organisations operate, with traditional decision-making, where you plan today and act tomorrow, is being replaced by near-instant execution.
“We change the strategic capability of organisations. So, I can strategise taking into account multiple things happening in multiple places. I have access to data. So, the strategic positioning of organisations will be very different. The market access will be very different. And then the sensitivity that is required for, see if you run a typical organisation in the way mechanical organisations run, so you decide today, do it tomorrow. That you will decide now, and do it in the next class,” he said.
He added that AI can help automate data-driven tasks, but it’s the non-algorithmic, creative thinking, the kind that can’t be computed, that will set future leaders apart. “Eventually, creativity will become the key skill that shapes how AI is used in organisations,” he noted.
‘AI will not kill creativity’
“It [creativity] will not get hampered, it will surface in the way you start using those instruments. See, it will surface differently. You have to know how to deploy these algorithms. What proportion and what kind of work will yield the greatest value?” the director said, stressing that “AI has not matched human imagination yet”.
He pointed to real-world innovations like Mysuru’s ‘Robot Sundari’, which is the first idli-vending robot in the world, as examples of AI and automation that will help save time, energy and resources that can be utilised elsewhere.
Chatterjee’s interview was taken hours ahead of IIM Kozhikode’s convocation ceremony for the 15th batch of its Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP) in Management. On the second day of the event, over 600 students graduated, marking the largest batch to date.
The convocation was graced by Dr V Narayanan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), as the chief guest. Soumitra Dutta, Dean of Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and Radhika Gupta, Managing Director and CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund, attended as guests of honour.
The institute also announced the launch of its 18th batch of EPGP in Management – a two-year MBA programme for working professionals with 3 to 25 years of experience.