Student identification of the social, economic and environmental implications of using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI): identifying student ethical awareness of ChatGPT from a scaffolded multi-stage assessment

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), typified by tools like ChatGPT, has generated widespread debate about its potential benefits and significant risks, resulting in confusion around social, economic, environmental, and ethical impacts. Instances of academic integrity breaches, undisclosed usage, corporate embarrassments, and intellectual property concerns have emerged. Little was known which of these implications students could identify. To gauge students’ awareness, a scaffolded two-stage assessment was introduced. A 32-item catalogue of social, economic, and environmental implications was designed to identify those students could independently recognise, supplemented by a critical reflection process. In the first stage, students critically analysed ChatGPT outputs to identify ethical considerations. In the second, they conducted a more extensive research-based reflective exercise. Students identified all but three implications, but the average number identified was low. These findings show that students were more likely to recognise positive implications, emphasising the need to raise awareness of risks and ethical challenges.