MANILA — Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slowly being introduced and embraced in the education sector in the Philippines, according to a survey done by NYSE-listed education technology company Instructure.

The finding is included in the group’s "2023 State Of Student Success and Engagement in Higher Education" study.

At a virtual press conference, Ryan Lufkin, Instructure Vice President for Global Strategy, said the University of the Philippines is a prime example of how the country is leading the AI conversation in the education sector in Asia.

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UP recently unveiled the “University of the Philippines Principles for Responsible and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence.” It’s a set of guidelines that UP is adopting “in order to provide guardrails and indicate the way forward on the development and use of AI in the University and the country.”

“When we look at the University of the Philippines, they actually already had guidelines for generative AI use on their campus established on their website available for students. One of the biggest challenges that we face is students and educators not knowing exactly when it’s acceptable to use AI or when not to,” said Lufkin who described UP’s work as impressive.

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But Lufkin also noted that other educational institutions in the Philippines are also starting to realize that AI is here and is already being used by some students and teachers.

About 46 percent of the respondents who are either students, faculty, or school officials said that their institutions already introduced light guidelines on generative AI use, 28 percent reported the presence of strict guidelines, while the rest do not have guidelines.

The survey also showed that 83 percent of students use generative AI, such as ChatGPT, for research and writing, 52 percent said it is for preparing for tests, and 47 percent said it’s for learning a foreign language.

On the other hand, teachers find generative AI helpful for creating content for their classes, research and writing, and personalized learning.

Instructure said though that there is still a cautious embrace of the technology in the country, but pointed out that the future of education and AI is inevitable.

“Students can engage with an AI tutor that has access to all the content of the course and can answer simple questions and provide guidelines,” said Lufkin on how AI can help students after school or during the weekends.

“It’s good at giving students a starting point, putting words on paper, and getting them focused. It’s good for helping them create outlines. It’s good for helping them do research. But they need to understand those uses, understand the right way to use AI,” he added,

Teachers can also benefit from the right use of AI, he said.

“You can use AI for generating course content, generating quiz content, creating story problems, doing a first-passing grading. All those tasks that save educators’ time,” he added.

Lufkin said that some universities in the US admitted not setting guidelines on AI because they want to err on the side of innovation and not put restrictions, but he asserted that boundaries and guidelines are still very important.

“AI can sometimes be completely wrong, but very confident in its answers. If you don’t know enough to question it, you might trust those answers,” he said.

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