Educational Applications of ChatGPT: Ethical Challenges and Countermeasures

To mitigate the ethical risks of ChatGPT in educational applications and fully leverage the advantages of AI-enabled education, this study draws on the principles of fairness and justice theory, ethics of care theory, social contract theory, consequentialism, and virtue ethics in ethics to explore the ethical challenges of ChatGPT’s educational applications and propose corresponding strategies. The research reveals that the ethical issues in the educational use of ChatGPT include algorithmic bias and unfairness in the domain of techno-ethics, lack of algorithmic transparency and interpretability, and issues of technical reliability and misleading information. In the context of academic ethics, concerns arise regarding the legitimacy of ChatGPT’s participation as an academic researcher, the potential for academic plagiarism and misconduct resulting from ChatGPT-generated content, and the limited value of the generated content itself. In terms of educational ethics, challenges encompass issues of educational fairness and equal opportunities, the potential alienation of teacher-student relationships, and the need to strike a balance between educational goals and personalized instruction. Therefore, addressing these ethical challenges and ensuring the fulfillment of its true purpose require approaches that encompass legal regulations and moral constraints, fostering awareness among individuals involved, and defending the essence of education while fostering innovation.