The Ethics of AI in Education: What Students Need to Know

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), it is no surprise that students haven’t already taken full advantage of both Gemini (Google AI) and ChatGPT when it comes to not only writing their homework from them but also getting quick answers to questions they might have without endless google searches or messaging their tutors for some guidance. At the same time, there are many ethics discussions with students using these tools to help with their work, whether its logo design or essay writing.

There is a fine line between using it to help and then using it to do it all for you so finding that balance where you are not abusing the resources to the point where you have no idea what you are writing or learning about is important. AI tools are becoming increasingly common so school systems are now learning how to navigate through them. With this progress, ethical considerations and tools to check that students aren’t abusing these resources are necessary.

Educating students on how to use it and all the ethical considerations they need to be aware of is crucial for these early stages. This post will dive into the ethical landscape of AI’s application in the education system. AI should be a resource that empowers students, guiding them through their studies so let’s get into it.

AI Ethical Framework

The ethical framework is something all students need to be aware of before they enrol in college or university or are about to write any assignment.

Authenticity

The education system has many goals and aspirations for their students and being a space for them to represent themselves and be fully authentic with their work and achievements is a huge part of it.

With the development of AI, this can hinder the assessment process. It’s not only AI that has done this in the past, but individuals getting others to take their tests, plagiarism and many other things. There are now tools to help assessors establish how much of their work is not only plagiarised but also if it’s human-written. For students to risk it all or the best authentic grade by abusing this technology, it’s not actually worth it in the grand scheme of things.

Setting clear expectations and guidelines for how much can be deemed as ‘AI written’ should be considered by academic professionals but students should also consistently run their work through these online checking tools. These guidelines in place can deter students from steering away from their authentic selves in the education system. While this is only applicable to students who are doing more academic-based courses, AI should be used for all it can in terms of teaching physical skills such as how to make a clothing pattern for a size 8 gym leggings. These niches can help students shine with authenticity by finding and teaching that balance is key.

Accountability

While these AI tools are very quick to give you answers, they aren’t always 100% accurate. They tend to give information it has learned, so if it by chance hasn’t learned a stat or a figure you are asking for, it might give you an inaccurate answer.

It’s another reminder that while it’s all well and good to turn to this tool for quick answers, it should always be fact-checked whether you ask for its source or you run in through Google yourself. Either way, when you are submitting your piece of work, you must understand that you hold all accountability for it. 

Independently and critically evaluating the answers and suggestions from AI is crucial for students, as their future relies on it.

Access

Telling students to not use this tool and completely ignore its accessibility and entire existence isn’t a forward-thinking teaching method and is just very unrealistic. It should be used to teach advantage and be included in teaching and finding fun ways to add it to learning activities.

Whether you are a student or teacher, you should find an establishment that offers both access to AI tools and is open to including them in the classroom because, really, it’s not something that will go away, and it seems to be a huge part of the future. Its application is more than education so it’s naive to ban students from using it and adapting it to their education.

Awareness

The emergence of AI is not brand new on the scene and has been around for a long time. While its use by students has been on the rise for the past couple of years, it’s a tool that seriously needs to be discussed within educational institutions. While it’s something everyone is still getting used to and the unknown in some ways can be scary, education has and always will be power.

Therefore, this calls for a change in the way the education system works, not only so we can teach the new generation how to apply AI and where it seems useful but also how to not abuse the ‘power’ of quick access to information.

Setting up clear examples of what is acceptable to use in each context will be needed throughout AI literacy. Additional training for both students and teachers in how to use AI for the better should be seen as an exciting future for the education system if it’s navigated properly.

What Does The Future Of AI Have To Hold? 

Currently the future of AI is uncertain, with many different discussions about the impact it could have. From ideas that it’s going to completely take over industries to other people thinking laws will be enforced to stop this happening and to protect industries, AI is still relatively new and we expect a lot to change in the coming years.

Many people are afraid of AI and what it has the power to do, as there is a misconception about AI is that people think it has the ability to generate its own ideas, whereas this isn’t the case. Instead, it is able to take information or data that already exists and piece it together to answer a question. So, for example, if there is misinformation online, it will be easy for AI to pull in the wrong information in response to a certain question. Therefore, in any discussions of AI, it’s vital that as educators, young people are informed that this is the case and AI should be used in some ways to support their learning, but not to replace it altogether. Showing examples of positive ways to use AI will be much more beneficial compared to either giving students free reign or telling them not to use it together.