As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to integrate into various aspects of our lives, its role in education raises essential ethical questions. Generative AI, which creates new text, images, video, audio, code, or synthetic data, is at the forefront of this transformation.

However, while AI offers numerous benefits, it also presents several challenges that educators and institutions must carefully navigate.

Understanding AI’s Foundations

Generative AI is trained on extensive datasets from across the globe. This vast reservoir of information allows AI to generate content that is often perceived as new and original. But the origin of these data sets raises crucial questions: How was the data sourced? Were there biases present in the training set?

These questions are not just academic but central to the ethical deployment of AI in educational settings. The biases in data can perpetuate inequalities, leading to unfair outcomes in learning environments.

Ownership and Intellectual Property

One of the most debated topics surrounding AI in education is the question of ownership. Who owns the work created by AI? If AI generates a piece of writing or artwork, does it belong to the user, the developer of the AI, or perhaps even the original creators whose data contributed to the AI’s training?

This issue is further complicated by concerns about plagiarism and copyright infringement. If AI-generated content draws heavily from existing sources, does that infringe on the rights of the original creators?

Addressing AI Hallucinations and Safety

AI is not infallible. It can produce “hallucinations”—outputs that are factually incorrect or nonsensical. This potential for error underscores the importance of using AI with caution, especially in educational contexts.

Moreover, there is the issue of “jailbreaking” AI’s safety protocols, which could lead to harmful or unintended consequences. Educators must be vigilant in understanding these risks and ensuring that AI is used responsibly.

The Importance of Dialogue and Standards

Given the complexity of these issues, it’s crucial to hold conversations about AI at the start of any educational initiative. Educators and students alike should discuss what they know about AI, how they use it, and what they consider appropriate or inappropriate applications.

Creating rules, standards, and expectations together can help foster a learning environment that respects academic integrity and ethical considerations.

Moving Forward: Balancing Innovation with Critical Thinking

As AI becomes more ingrained in education, it’s essential to view it as a tool that complements, rather than replaces, human critical thinking. Just as calculators and Wikipedia became valuable educational resources with proper guidance, AI can serve as a starting point for deeper exploration and learning.

However, educators must ensure that students understand the importance of accuracy, sourcing, and citation, and do not become overly reliant on AI at the expense of their own intellectual development.

The ethical use of AI in education is a dynamic and ongoing conversation. By addressing these challenges head-on, educators can harness the power of AI while upholding the values of fairness, integrity, and critical thinking in the classroom.

As a member of the ICAI Executive Board of Directors, where I lead on issues in advocacy and conference leadership, I recently headed up the planning committee for the International Center for Academic Integrity‘s (ICAI) 2021 Annual Conference. While normally in person, COVID changed everyone’s plans, and it was necessary to pivot to an online conference. It worked out, as ICAI had its biggest conference ever!

ICAI is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to advocacy for academic integrity the world over. My team and I organized four keynote panels and 36 concurrent sessions by over 100 speakers over four days that were live broadcasted to over 1200 attendees across 15 concurrent time zones, from St. Petersburg, Florida to Auckland, New Zealand to Kyiv, Ukraine and everywhere in between!

New Challenges

This year’s conference was especially unique, in that it was completely online because of COVID. It was a huge lift to go from a conference for about 350 attendees planned to be in Chicago hotel to around 1200 people attending online simultaneously from around the world.

I hope to be back to meeting face-to-face in 2022, and I’d like to innovate even more by developing a hybrid conference experience so folks can discuss and share important issues in integrity on the ground and online simultaneously.

Important Discussions

Some of the most popular sessions included research on identifying contract cheating, developing effective integrity policy, and inspiring academic cultures and students towards honor and truthfulness in all aspects of academic life. As South County Academic Chair of the Applied Ethics Institute at St. Petersburg College, I am proud to have represented the community college’s role in the conversation, as well as its role in developing effective policy at both the individual class and institutional levels.

Florida’s community colleges serve 65 percent of the state’s high school graduates. For many students, they haven’t done college-level work before, and many others haven’t been in a formal classroom in some time. This makes it important for us to facilitate our students to learn with integrity and give credit where credit is due. Community colleges are uniquely suited to encourage students to be good citizens, to live their lives with integrity, and to teach them how to be good stewards of public and private money and trust.

Christian Moriarty is the South County Academic Chair of St. Petersburg College’s Applied Ethics Institute at St. Petersburg College.