Toward Partnership Ethics for Generative Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education

Abstract

Since generative artificial intelligence (genAI) applications became widely available in November 2022, university students and teachers have confronted choices about using genAI in coursework, research, and other tasks. In this article, we investigate Swedish university students’ and teachers’ perspectives on the ethics of genAI (non)use in higher education. Data comes from anonymous responses to voluntary online surveys and five focus group interviews with undergraduate and postgraduate students and teachers in the social science faculty of a Swedish public university. We ask what ethical concerns informed research participants’ perceptions and (non)use of genAI, and draw on the discipline of moral philosophy, particularly the work of environmental ethicist Carolyn Merchant, to consider how higher education institutions might work holistically with this material to support ethical genAI (non)use. Merchant proposes “partnership ethics” as an environmentally-informed, dialogue-based alternative to the ethics that often dominate decision-making. We argue that partnership ethics can guide university teachers and students in making decisions about this rapidly evolving technology and offer practical suggestions for implementing partnership ethics in higher education settings.