AI has made conventional assignments ‘pretty much dead’, says IIT Kanpur director
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Artificial intelligence is changing how students learn and how institutions assess them, with conventional assignments becoming increasingly ineffective, IIT Kanpur director Manindra Agrawal has said.
In an interview with India Today Digital, Agrawal said there was "almost no point" in giving students traditional assignments because AI models can now solve most of them effectively.
"The assignment era has gone," Agrawal said, arguing that institutions need to find alternative ways of teaching and assessing students rather than resisting AI.
He said the technology could also create new learning opportunities.
Students interested in mathematics, for instance, could interact with AI tools capable of tackling complex mathematical problems and use those interactions to develop knowledge in specific areas. Unlike conventional teaching, such tools could provide a more personalised learning experience and be available whenever students need them.
AI is also making design and manufacturing easier, Agrawal said. Students can use AI to develop designs and translate them into instructions for 3D printers. Similar tools can help convert electronic designs into circuit layouts for printed circuit boards.
Agrawal said these changes were already beginning to affect education and would become more significant over the next few years, requiring institutions to adapt.
He also called for greater investment in mathematics education in India. While institutions including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, ICTS, CMI, ISI and mathematical sciences institutes already conduct advanced research, he said many have limited training programmes.
"What we ideally need is our mathematics institutes with a significant training component," he said, pointing to CMI as an example.
Agrawal, a Padma Shri awardee and Fellow of the Royal Society, is known for theoretical computer science and the AKS primality test. He said India's existing institutions, including IITs, could also strengthen training in emerging areas of mathematics, particularly those connected to AI.
He said IIT Kanpur was also developing research at the intersection of mathematics and biosciences, bringing mathematical methods into the study of living systems.