Using Ethical Scenarios to Explore the Future of Artificial Intelligence in Primary and Secondary Education

Presenter

Michał Wieczirek, Institute of Ethics, Dublin City University

Bio

Michał Wieczorek is a philosopher and an IRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Dublin City University. His work deals with the impact of new technologies on beliefs and behaviour, and his current work explores the ethical issues raised by the use of AI in schools.

Description

The session will involve a short talk (approx. 20 minutes), followed by discussion.

The ethics of educational artificial intelligence (AIED) has become a prominent topic of debate in recent years. However, many prospective AIED tools are still under development and may change before they are widely deployed in schools. Researchers analyzing the prospective ethical impacts of AIED cannot rely on actual use cases and empirical evidence concerning the experiences of teachers and students affected by AI.

I address these limitations by relying on futures studies methods which help me develop four anticipatory scenarios that can enable ethical deliberation on the future of AIED. By employing a 2x2 grid, I forecast scenarios in which AIED is used to deliver content, used to manage students, used for both these purposes, or not used at all.

I argue that futures studies methods can enrich the approaches used to investigate the possible futures of education. Just like educational fiction, scenario planning helps construct rich narratives, but produces distinct and original results while being more explicit about the factors and assumptions that influence them. Moreover, while previous anticipatory ethical work highlighted only individual issues or principles, my scenarios are ethically ambiguous and multifaceted – they present value conflicts and moral dilemmas that may be at play in the forecasted futures.