Empowering Social Sciences Educators on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

Ethical Considerations for Using GenAI in Teaching and Learning

Before integrating AI tools into teaching or learning activities, both instructors and students must consult the relevant guidelines provided by their home institution. If no such guidelines exist, they should seek guidance from the head of their academic unit or a designated academic officer responsible for study organization.

The following ethical considerations are drawn on the basis of AI guidelines of EmpowerAI consortium members: University of Tartu, Kaunas University of Technology, University of Turku and Tampere University. 

  • Purposefulness, ethics, and transparency: the use of AI must be intentional, ethical, transparent, and approached with critical thinking.
  • Proper acknowledgement in written work: any use of AI-generated content (e.g., from chatbots) in written assignments must be clearly described and properly cited. Presenting AI-generated content (including, text and images) as one’s own work constitutes academic misconduct.
  • Data protection and privacy: do not input personal data into AI tools without the explicit consent of the individual. Never submit students’ coursework, personal information, or confidential data to external AI services. Always follow institutional data protection policies and privacy standards.
  • Awareness of AI limitations: AI-generated content may appear credible but can include errors, such as fictitious sources, logical inconsistencies, formatting issues, biased perspectives, or incorrect grammar. Outputs may also conflict with data protection laws or contain fabricated personal details. Users are fully responsible for evaluating the accuracy, relevance, and reliability of AI outputs and must possess adequate subject knowledge to do so. 
  • Shared understanding and open discussion: at the beginning of the course, lecturers should clearly inform and discuss the role of AI with students. Reinforce that AI is a supplementary tool and cannot replace their own critical thinking or skills. Guidelines for AI usage should be made readily available, for instance, via the course syllabus or the course’s Moodle page.
  • Critical use and source evaluation: AI-generated material must be critically assessed. Students should verify sources, as AI tools may cite non-existent references. AI is most effective when used to support areas where students already have a solid foundation and can critically assess the tool’s contributions. 
  • Copyright awareness: be aware that some of the training data used by language models may be protected by copyright. Exercise caution when treating AI-generated content as source material.
  • AI bias: AI models are heavily influenced by the quality and nature of their training data. Since much of this data is sourced from the internet in vast quantities, it inherently reflects societal biases and prejudices related to race, gender, socioeconomic status, cultural norms, political ideologies, and other factors.
  • AI environmental impact: it is important to bear in mind and be mindful of the ecological footprint of using GenAI tools on a daily basis, including in teaching and learning. Training large-scale models requires immense computational power, leading to significant energy consumption.  AI data centers currently account for approximately 2.5–3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing even the environmental footprint of the aviation industry (Cho, R. 2023). 

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