Responsible and Ethical Use of AI in Education: Are We Forcing a Square Peg into a Round Hole?
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Research Aims and Questions
2. Background
3. Method
Limitations
4. Results
4.1. Identifying Universities’ Concerns About AI (And Academic Integrity)
4.2. Universities’ Efforts to Innovate Whilst Preserving the Status Quo: Some Examples
5. Discussion
5.1. Universities’ Concerns About AI and Academic Integrity
5.2. What Can Academic Guidelines Tell Us About the Responsible Use of AI in Higher Education?
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Category | Implication | Reason | Proposed Action | Example |
---|---|---|---|---|
Threat/ Irresponsible use | Academic integrity | May undermine academic integrity | Communicate, engage | “instructors need to clearly and intentially (sic) communicate their expectations” |
Academic integrity | Disincentivize AI use, redesign assessments, provide training | “design assignments that require critical and creative thinking” | ||
Academic integrity | Cite and acknowledge AI-generated content | “cite a generative AI tool whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate into your own work” | ||
Academic integrity | Detect misuse | “there are no assurances that iThenticate screening will be fool proof” | ||
Learning process disruption | May disrupt the learning process | Ban, selectively allow, provide support | “may discourage critical thinking and independent learning among students” | |
Intellectual property infringement | May infringe on copyright, trademark, or patent laws | Ban, use with caution | “generative AI may create content that infringes on others’ intellectual property (IP) or copyright-protected works”. | |
Privacy infringement | May infringe on privacy rights | Limit use cases, run AI locally | “Do not share sensitive information” | |
Bias/quality concerns | May generate biased or inaccurate results | Review, do not run generated computer code | “may include fake but realistic article titles” | |
Inequality | May exacerbate inequality | Provide training | “there is an emerging equality issue surrounding the use of generative AI” | |
Job security | May potentially replace academic staff | Raise awareness | “Universities using AI to reduce numbers of full-time faculty and staff” | |
Opportunity/ responsible use | Learning aid | May serve as a learning aid | Provide training, engage, implement | “review grammar and spelling of your completed essays” |
Learning aid | Provide an opportunity to learn ethics through practical examples | “discussing machine ethics” | ||
Learning aid | Provide training | “promote digital literacy in general, and AI literacy in particular” | ||
Teaching automation | May automate tasks | Experiment, employ | “create a well-structured lesson plan” | |
Research automation | Experiment, employ | “narrowing your topic ideas for a research paper” |
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Amigud, A.; Pell, D.J. Responsible and Ethical Use of AI in Education: Are We Forcing a Square Peg into a Round Hole? World 2025, 6, 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/world6020081
Amigud A, Pell DJ. Responsible and Ethical Use of AI in Education: Are We Forcing a Square Peg into a Round Hole? World. 2025; 6(2):81. https://doi.org/10.3390/world6020081
Chicago/Turabian StyleAmigud, Alexander, and David J. Pell. 2025. "Responsible and Ethical Use of AI in Education: Are We Forcing a Square Peg into a Round Hole?" World 6, no. 2: 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/world6020081
APA StyleAmigud, A., & Pell, D. J. (2025). Responsible and Ethical Use of AI in Education: Are We Forcing a Square Peg into a Round Hole? World, 6(2), 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/world6020081