Ethics in AIED: Who cares?

The 2018 AIED conference workshop ETHICS in AIED: Who Cares? was an important but only a first step towards addressing the far-reaching ethical questions raised by the field of AIED. The reality is that, although there are encouraging signs, most AIED research, development and deployment continues to take place in what is essentially a moral vacuum. In short, still today, little research has been undertaken, no guidelines have been provided, no policies have been developed, and no regulations have been enacted to address the specific ethical issues raised by the application of AI in educational contexts. For these reasons, for the AIED 2019 conference, we are proposing a second ETHICS in AIED: Who Cares? workshop. This will build on the outcomes of the first workshop (which includes a journal paper and commissioned book proposal). It will be an opportunity for researchers who are exploring AIED ethical issues to share their insights, to identify key ethical issues, to map out how to address the multiple challenges, and to inform best practice. The overarching aim will be to help establish a basis for meaningful ethical reflection necessary for innovation in AIED. The workshop will begin with “ETHICS in AIED: What’s the problem?”, presentations by Professors Beverly Woolf and Rose Luckin. This will be followed by “Addressing the Challenges”, round-table small-group discussions, each triggered by an ethics vignette or a provocative statement; and then “Mapping the Landscape”, in which up to five AIED conference participants will each give a five-minute ‘lightning’ presentation on an ethics in AIED research issue with which they have been engaging. The workshop will conclude with a whole-workshop discussion considering what Ethics in AIED 2025 will look like. A core outcome for this workshop will be to identify and propose Ethics in AIED policy for the International AIED Society and future AIED conferences to address