Academic Integrity Day highlights AI era challenges, opportunities

The FEUture Center Auditorium was packed with students and faculty as they recently gathered to celebrate Academic Integrity Day. With the theme “Intelligence, Inquiry, and Integrity,” Center for Learning Enrichment and Research for Students director Marko Antonio Da Silva introduced thought-provoking discussions led by distinguished scholars from top universities.

Prof. Dr. Napoleon Mabaquiao, Jr. from the Department of Philosophy at De La Salle University, opened the program with a rousing keynote that warned of a troubling trend: the loss of education’s true meaning in the pursuit of numbers and metrics.

“We are at risk,” Mabaquiao stressed, “of reducing education to mere outputs—grades, citations, rankings—while losing the very heart of learning: understanding, wisdom, and human growth.”

From left to right: The host of the event, Angelica Alano, Irish Sherina Digo together with Marko Antonio Da Silva, together with the speakers, Anton Rennesland and Napoleon, and Academic Affairs Office’s Jade Espuelas. CLEARS 

Mabaquiao urged students to resist the temptation of easy, AI-generated work and instead uphold the spirit of inquiry and intellectual honesty.

Following him, Dr. Anton Rennesland, director of the Research Center for Culture, Arts, and the Humanities at the University of Santo Tomas, expanded the conversation toward the creative realm, especially the integration of AI into artistic processes. Responding to a student’s pointed question about student overdependence on AI, Rennesland emphasized caution.

“[Artificial Intelligence] can be a powerful tool for idea generation,” said Rennesland, “but it must never replace the critical thinking, creativity, and ethical responsibility that only human beings can embody. Dependency on AI is a sign not of progress, but of intellectual atrophy.”

A compelling segment was delivered by Greg Dulay from the Language and Literature Department, who discussed the ethical implications of AI in artmaking. He shared a real-world example of a client instructing AI to generate a tattoo design, noting that while AI can produce impressive outputs, it lacks true autonomy and agency.

“[Artificial Intelligence] mimics creativity, but it cannot originate it,” said Dulay. “There is no ‘greeting back’—no self-awareness or authentic touch. Art made through AI still requires human intention and discernment to carry meaning.”

Throughout the event, the dialogue returned to a central concern: how to maintain integrity when new technologies make shortcuts easy and tempting.

“If we continue to focus solely on metrics—on grades, awards, outputs—we will lose the very soul of education. Intelligence, inquiry, and integrity must guide us, not the blind pursuit of numbers,” saic Mabaquiao.

The event concluded with an open forum, leaving students inspired and challenged to approach their academic journey with renewed commitment to honesty, creativity, and critical thought in an AI-driven world.