Using artificial intelligence (AI) in Leaving Certificate projects should not be permitted, Ciara Kelly has said.

From next year, Leaving Cert students will be permitted to use AI when preparing research projects which are worth up to 40% of marks across a range of subjects.

Guidelines were issued earlier in the week by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment for at least four subjects (Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Business) as part of a new additional assessment components which will go live in September.

On Newstalk Breakfast, presenter Ciara Kelly expressed that she thinks this is a “terrible idea”.

Fellow presenter Jonathan Healy told Ciara he is “of the opinion that technology is only there to supplement and augment what humans already do”.

“When I was in college in the ‘90s, the Internet was the ruination of academia,” he said.

“We were told that by searching [or] using Google, we were cheating.”

"Apples and oranges"

Ciara said Jonathan “could not be more wrong”.

“First you're not comparing like with like - this is apples and oranges,” she said.

“Google and Chat GPT are not the same thing.”

“The reality of it is if you think we're going to catch every bit of AI that comes through these 40% research projects, you are wholly naive.

“The single biggest barrier to cheating is the thought that you will get caught.

“No one is going to get caught for this - it is not going to happen.”

Ciara Kelly in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk

Ciara said coming “late to the party” on continuous assessment has made us “wedded to it”.

“We did it years after everyone else, and now we're wedded to it like some kind of modernity that we have to get down with the kids with,” she said.

“The only thing valid in terms of an assessment is an exam hall on the sixth of June because everything else now is being generated by AI.

“The fact that it exists in the ether out there and they're going to have to work with it when they are older has nothing to do with the integrity of the exam.”

"A fool's errand"

Jonathan said if young people think they will “get ahead” using AI to write something for them they are on a “fool’s errand” as they will eventually get “caught out”.

“Ultimately they'll learn nothing and they'll be caught out at some point in the future,” he said.

“They have to learn that themselves - that's part of growing up.

Jonathan said AI is “part of the evolution of the mind and the evolution of how we teach”.

“If we are to wring our hands and clutch our pearls because technology has been introduced, then we're not doing anything to help these young people,” he said.

Listeners texting in to the show both agreed and disagreed with Ciara, showing a real divide in how we are reacting to a ‘new age’ of artificial intelligence.

Main image: Split image shows an image representing AI (L) and Ciara Kelly (R)