[Paper Review] Legal and ethical considerations regarding the use of ChatGPT in education

Fereniki Panagopoulou, Christina Parpoula+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jun 9, 2023

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education4 citations

TL;DR

This paper examines the legal and ethical implications of integrating ChatGPT into educational settings, analyzing its potential applications, risks, and societal impacts. It proposes a framework for responsible use by identifying key challenges such as academic integrity, data privacy, and bias, and offers recommendations for educators and institutions to navigate the ethical deployment of generative AI in higher education.

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence has evolved enormously over the last two decades, becoming mainstream in different scientific domains including education, where so far, it is mainly utilized to enhance administrative and intelligent tutoring systems services and academic support. ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based chatbot, developed by OpenAI and released in November 2022, has rapidly gained attention from the entire international community for its impressive performance in generating comprehensive, systematic, and informative human-like responses to user input through natural language processing. Inevitably, it has also rapidly posed several challenges, opportunities, and potential issues and concerns raised regarding its use across various scientific disciplines. This paper aims to discuss the legal and ethical implications arising from this new technology, identify potential use cases, and enrich our understanding of Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, and its capabilities in education.

Motivation & Objective

• To identify and analyze the legal and ethical challenges posed by the integration of ChatGPT in educational institutions.
• To examine how generative AI like ChatGPT affects academic integrity, data privacy, and equity in education.
• To explore potential use cases of ChatGPT that could enhance teaching and learning while minimizing harm.
• To provide actionable recommendations for educators and institutions on the responsible adoption of generative AI tools.
• To contribute to the ongoing discourse on AI governance in higher education by framing ethical and legal considerations systematically.

Proposed method

• Conduct a thematic analysis of existing literature and policy frameworks related to AI in education.
• Evaluate ChatGPT's capabilities in generating human-like text across academic domains using qualitative assessment of sample outputs.
• Identify key legal and ethical issues through a structured review of data protection laws, intellectual property rights, and institutional policies.
• Map potential educational use cases of ChatGPT, distinguishing between acceptable and high-risk applications.
• Propose a set of ethical guidelines and institutional policies for the responsible integration of generative AI in teaching and assessment.
• Use a multidisciplinary lens combining computer science, education, and law to assess systemic implications.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the primary legal risks associated with using ChatGPT in academic institutions, particularly concerning data privacy and intellectual property?
• RQ2 How do ethical concerns such as bias, plagiarism, and fairness impact the use of ChatGPT in educational settings?
• RQ3 What are the viable and responsible use cases of ChatGPT in teaching, learning, and administrative support in higher education?
• RQ4 How can educational institutions develop policies that balance innovation with accountability and student protection?
• RQ5 What institutional safeguards are necessary to ensure transparency, equity, and trust in the use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT?

Key findings

• ChatGPT poses significant risks to academic integrity due to its ability to generate plausible but potentially plagiarized content.
• Data privacy concerns arise from the potential storage and processing of student data through third-party AI platforms.
• Bias in training data may lead to discriminatory or inaccurate outputs, particularly in diverse educational contexts.
• There is a lack of clear legal frameworks governing the ownership and use of AI-generated content in academic work.
• Institutional policies are essential to define acceptable use, ensure transparency, and maintain accountability in AI-assisted education.
• Educators require training and ethical guidelines to effectively and responsibly integrate ChatGPT into pedagogical practices.