Being an Ethical AI User
This module has focused on what AI systems do and what builders and deployers should do. This lesson turns the lens on you. You are already an AI user — search suggestions, content recommendations, voice assistants, and generative AI tools are part of everyday life for most people your age. The choices you make as a user have real effects: on other people, on the systems you use, and on what kind of AI future gets built. Ethical use is not about following a rulebook — it is about reasoning carefully in real situations.
Four Dimensions of Ethical AI Use
Being an ethical AI user involves thinking across four dimensions. Honesty: Are you representing AI-generated content accurately? Submitting AI-generated work as your own without disclosure, or sharing AI-generated claims as established facts, are forms of deception. Harm: Does your use of AI affect other people? Using AI to generate targeted harassment, spread false information about a real person, or produce content that demeans groups causes harm — regardless of whether you authored it in the traditional sense. Consent: Are you using AI tools in ways that respect the privacy and consent of others? Training a voice clone of a classmate without their permission, generating images of real people in scenarios they did not agree to, or scraping someone's personal data into an AI tool all raise serious consent issues. Dependence: Are you using AI in ways that preserve your own ability to think and grow? Using AI to learn and extend your capabilities is very different from using it to outsource thinking you need to develop.
The same AI tool can be used ethically or unethically depending on context. Using an AI to generate a first draft you revise and take responsibility for is different from copying its output unchanged and claiming it as your work. Using AI to explore an unfamiliar topic is different from using it to generate confident-sounding false information to win an argument. Context and intent matter — but so does outcome.
Here is an important point: the ethics of AI use are not settled. There are genuinely contested questions where thoughtful people disagree. When is it appropriate to disclose that you used AI assistance? Does it depend on the stakes — a school assignment versus a medical report versus a news article? Who owns AI-generated content, legally and morally? Is it ethical to use AI trained on artists' work without their compensation? On these contested questions, the goal is not to hand you a conclusion but to make sure you are reasoning through them rather than acting without thinking. The skills this module has built — recognizing bias, checking sources, tracing accountability, thinking about who is affected — apply directly to evaluating your own AI use.
Practice Scenarios
Work through these scenarios. For each one, there is more than one reasonable position — but some positions are much harder to defend than others. Think carefully. Scenario A: You are writing a history essay for class. You use an AI to generate an outline, then write all the content yourself based on your own research and understanding. Is this ethical? Does your school's policy matter? Does it matter whether you disclose? Scenario B: You ask an AI to generate a social media post 'in the style of' a classmate, making fun of something they said. You think it is funny and do not plan to post it. Is generating it harmful? Scenario C: You ask an AI for medical information about a symptom you are experiencing. It gives a confident-sounding answer. What are your ethical obligations before acting on it? Scenario D: A friend asks you to help them use an AI to write an application essay for a scholarship. They plan to submit it without disclosure. They say 'everyone does it.' How do you respond?
The prevalence of a behavior does not make it right. It may reduce the social cost of doing it, or reveal that a rule is poorly designed — but those are separate questions. Reasoning clearly about ethics means distinguishing 'this is common' from 'this is acceptable.' Sometimes they are the same. Often they are not.
Match each ethical AI use dimension to the scenario it most directly applies to.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
A student uses AI to generate their entire science lab report, then submits it with their name on it. Their school has no explicit policy about AI. Is this ethically straightforward?
You receive a message from an AI assistant stating a confident-sounding fact about a public health topic. What is the most ethical next step before sharing this information?
Your Personal AI Ethics Code
- Write your own personal AI ethics code — the principles you will actually apply to your own AI use.
- Start by listing three or four ways you currently use AI tools (or expect to use them soon).
- For each, identify the ethical dimension most relevant: honesty, harm, consent, or dependence.
- Write one principle for each dimension — a commitment you are making to yourself about how you will use AI. Make it specific enough to actually guide a real decision.
- Example: 'When I use AI to help draft writing, I will revise it substantially and take responsibility for every claim in the final version.'
- Finally, write one situation where you would share your code with someone else — why and with whom.
- Keep this code. Return to it in a year and revise it based on what you have learned.