Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Promises, Perils, and Perspective

Artificial Intelligence- "an emerging technology” is there for a long time but now it is the talk of the town. It has all the potential to revolutionize the lives of human beings. Artificial Intelligence is evolving in the form of Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Collaborative systems, Human Computation, Automatic Speech Recognition, Computer Vision, Robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), etc. It has always been more popular in the corporate sector but now it is grasping its application in the Higher Education Sector not only in the areas of Teaching-Learning but also in various other domains such as campus management. Artificial Intelligence is now a reality in the Higher Education sector as we have started experimenting with the technology and reaping the benefits from the same. But, this reality is marginal as there is still a long way to go for Al in the context of development and application. Elon Musk said: "Al will be the best or worst thing ever for humanity; so let's get it right.” With this background in mind, this paper tries to determine the current status of Al in the Higher Education Sector and to explore the opportunities & challenges associated with Al. The paper explores various opportunities and challenges of using technology in the sector. It also discusses students' perspective on Al and their awareness of the same. A survey was conducted on students of the Higher Education Sector to understand their views on opportunities and challenges associated with Al and data was analyzed using SPSS and Nvivo Software. The purpose of the paper is to give reasonable suggestions on grabbing potential opportunities and also, to provide possible solutions for the challenges.