Lecturers at the University of Tirana are expressing concern that students are doing assignments in a few minutes, using Chatgpt.


Zylyftar Bregu

There has been talk about Artificial Intelligence in Albania for a few months, but beyond the articles in the foreign press and the suspicions of lecturers that students will use Chatgpt to do the required essays, there is no real discussion about the impact, challenges, doubts and dilemmas about Artificial Intelligence.

In the first days when the use of Chatgpt became possible in Albania, a journalist conducted an interview with the program and asked him mainly what he knew about Albania and Albanians, the challenges the country has. The interview was conducted in Albanian and the answers were technically correct.

Lecturers at the University of Tirana are expressing concern that students are doing assignments in a few minutes, using Chatgpt. If until yesterday there was talk about the Google effect, now the first signs of using Chat-gpt are appearing. Plagiarism is now moving to another level. But it must be said that Artificial Intelligence has not spread to universities outside Tirana. A media education trainer confirms that students in the districts had not heard/used chatgpt.

While users in the capital confirm personalized experiences, in the field of marketing, entertainment, and even in the field of health.

“I had a health problem. After the investigations I asked Chat-gpt” and received very valuable information”, says a security expert who seems to have passed the first test. He asked for information about diagnosis, drugs he could use, and the latest studies.

Artificial Intelligence algorithms, which Albanians have encountered in the last decade mainly through social networks, will increase productivity not only in communication, but also in economy, technology, finance, transport, health, etc. But there is still no talk about the effects that Artificial Intelligence can bring to the labor market. The only concern under the voice is about personal data and this is related to the bitter experience that Albanians have recently experienced with the scandal of the “robbing of the digital state” by Iranian hackers (which led to the breakdown of Albania’s relations with Iran).

Artificial Intelligence is data-driven, and protecting personal information and preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data remain challenges to be addressed.

But discussions about the impact on the economy, on social relations, on politics and on privacy are missing. We are still in the stage of wonder and the use is focused on communication, on the magic of communication no longer with a person, but with artificial intelligence. Even the media in Albania has not yet started using the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence, while the German media announced the reduction of thousands of jobs in its ranks for positions that artificial intelligence best fulfills.

In a politicized society, it is expected that Artificial Intelligence will soon descend on the political field. Albania held local elections in May of this year. Politicians and candidates in local elections widely used social networks, but with the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence, it is expected that in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for 2025, political communication will reach another level with the introduction of the programs offered by I. A.

 

Zylyftar Bregu is a lecturer at the University of Tirana and a freelance journalist