NAS holds 5th NAS Meeting with Nigerian Science Associations
In 2011, the Nigerian Academy of Science initiated a meeting with national science associations in Nigeria to start a process of restructuring and organizing the Nigerian scientific community. The scientific community acknowledged the importance of regular meetings to monitor progress and delineate ways to advance scientific development in the country. It was also agreed that NAS was best suited to lead this effort.
On the 11th of June, 2024, the Academy virtually convened representatives from diverse science associations in Nigeria to deliberate on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic writing in Nigeria. The theme was The Emerging Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Academic Writing: Balancing the Perspectives. In her opening remarks, the NAS President, Professor Ekanem Braide FAS, emphasized collaboration among all stakeholders as the key to solving national problems, influencing national policies, and promoting good governance. The President of the Science Association of Nigeria (SAN), Professor Hamza Abba, delivered a goodwill message in which he emphasized the need for a balanced, ethical, and practical approach to integrating AI tools in academic writing. Professor Abba also assured NAS of the Association’s willingness to collaborate on projects that would further the development of science in the country.
The meeting which was moderated by Professor Musbau Akanji FAS, Academic Secretary Biological Sciences of NAS, explored the emerging role of generative AI in academic writing, including the benefits, drawbacks, and recommendations for maintaining academic integrity/standards.
The Chief Transformation Officer at MTN Nigeria, Dr. Olubayo Adekanmbi, delivered the first presentation, titled “AI as a Tool for Academic Research”. He gave an overview of artificial intelligence (AI), discussing the challenges and benefits of generative AI, exploring practical applications of AI in writing, and emphasizing the importance of striking a balance. Dr. Adekanmbi explained that large language models of generative AI are a pinnacle in the advancement of artificial intelligence capable of understanding and generating human-like text. He said that these models are trained on massive datasets containing diverse examples of human language, enabling them to learn intricate patterns, grammar rules, and contextual nuances inherent in natural language.
Professor Oluwole Soboyejo FAS, who is the President of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, New York, delivered the second presentation titled, “Balancing Ethical Considerations”. In his presentation, Soboyejo highlighted the four industrial revolutions, transformational information technology, AI tools for academic writing, the benefits of AI in academic writing, and explored the challenges of AI in academic writing. He said numerous AI tools now support academic writing, such as ChatGPT for summarization, Elephas for rewriting papers, and Typeset.io for streamlined writing with templates and citations. He further explained that these tools enhance clarity and grammar; however, they also raise ethical concerns, such as unintentional plagiarism through mismatched information from diverse sources.
The meeting recommended that it is crucial to convene stakeholders to develop guidelines that provide ethical guidance to the global scientific community as the scientific community navigates the integration of AI technologies.