I begin from the position (half-informed and partially flexible) that generative AI is inherently unethical, thus the claim—so common in education circles—that the educator’s job should include teaching young people to use AI ethically is fallacious. Spurious assertions are part and parcel of Silicon Valley, though one would think the halls of the academy would do better.
To be sure, those who argue that we who teach should teach students to use this tool ethically are not arguing in bad faith and are not bad people or anything like that. But I cannot understand their reasoning, however well they present their positions. Because, to repeat my thesis, generative AI is a tool, but it is not an ethical tool.
I would say the same for firearms. The handgun has a purpose, but I do not consider that purpose ethically defensible. In some extreme examples (protection, I suppose) one might defend the handgun, but claims of its neutrality or basic goodness seem farcical at best. There are situations where a handgun may be of important use (self-defense, again), but to be in that situation is to be dragged into ethically dubious territory. No one is elevated by those circumstances, even the innocent who uses the handgun to slay an attacker. The tool is hardly ethical despite its practical use.
While it may seem hyperbolic to equate AI with handguns, I’m doing it anyway. Better than equating AI with video games or calculators.
We know the problems with generative AI, but here we go, once more for the folks in the back: this technology is built on the theft of intellectual labor, the exploitation of vulnerable communities, and the degradation of the environment. It promotes itself as relief from friction necessary for growth. It confuses immediacy with innovation. It presents itself as an unmixed blessing, a true good above reproach.
Some of what generative AI produces may be worth those costs, but I’m hard pressed to think of an example. I like cute cat videos as much as the next guy, and I am not shaming anyone for using this tech to make a flyer promoting their one man show. I do not aim my darts at the individuals who use generative AI as a shortcut, however much I wish they wouldn’t. Much the way energy execs figured out that terms like “carbon footprint” can make us little people feel bad about driving too much, and thus ignore their corporate misdeeds, the shame of generative AI should be squarely on the heads of those weaving this tech into every goddamn aspect of our lives, much against our will.
Sam Altman and his ilk are pushing the false narrative that AI is inevitable, a mantra taken up by academics who should know better. False equivalencies abound in committee meetings to the tune of “People used to worry about the calculator” and so on. We’ve clearly capitulated, but still, does giving up also mean reshaping our surrender as an ethical imperative?
To restate what I will restate continually, we have no ethical obligation to teach young people to use generative AI because generative AI cannot be used ethically. It can make our lives faster and easier, but so what? Speed and ease are not ethical unto themselves. The argument of those in the other camp appears to be that students will need these skills in their professional lives. Quite possibly, but I do not feel my job, as a dude who teaches English and Composition, is to prepare students for the workplace. Whatever transferable skills come with an English degree (close reading, analysis, synthesis, clear communication, even that “critical thinking” business we’re always going on about) are not nothing, but I hardly begin classes with, “Okay, this will help you in ten years when you’re practicing law.” Because I would not know how to help my students practice law, work with protein strands, code, calculate actuary tables, or any other tasks that await them. They will be trained to do these things elsewhere, or they will acquire the skills to succeed once they begin their careers and do as previous generations have done—work hard and learn and excel. But I should, for some reason, make space in my lessons plans for using generative AI ethically so that these young people can graduate with that understanding and then, what? Go on to ethically employ AI in offices that have, from what I can tell, little interest in the ethics of any of their technologies or practices? How ethical is a start-up or a law firm or a bank? What are the ethics of a billion-dollar conglomerate? For that matter, what are the ethics of a university? Do we have a claim to some higher ethics that implies we can and should impart those values to our students?
If you believe that universities are ethical spaces that have a responsibility to shape young minds in that vein, you’re not wrong. But for all our self-congratulation in that regard, there are inescapable aspects of any organization that blur ethical lines. Professors may preach ethical behavior as their schools act predatorily. I had a friend who cried when the private high school they taught at took money from a corporation that has acted decidedly unethically. My colleague said, “I thought we were about social justice.” They were not wrong to react this way, but I—in my admittedly cynical way—found their statement somewhat naive.
I also noticed that my peer was in possession of several Apple devices, but who can be truly pure? I don’t fault them for bemoaning the ethical lapse of their employer and even posting about the matter on Facebook (evil) using an iPhone (nefarious) before enjoying a latte from Starbucks (infernal). Living as we do in these United States means we all swim in dirty waters. Nevertheless, we can pick which waters we’ll wade through. And we can minimize our filthy plunge. We may not always agree with what goes on in the workplace, but we can try to make it better. In the case of generative AI, I don’t know that treating it as an ethical tool, which it clearly is not, would serve that goal.
If I want my place of work, as well as my city and my country and my world, to be better, I can take some steps. I can resist some trends and scale back on whatever pollutes the otherwise lovely environment. I can talk with young people about why I feel generative AI is toxic and engage with them as I ask them to engage with me. Perhaps this is close to what people mean when they say I should teach generative AI’s ethical use. Fine. They win, because I have these conversations with students. Some of them see where I’m coming from but, again, they are in the world as it is, not as we’d like it to be. The waters are foul. We all have to jump in. But we don’t have to pretend we’re bathing in Evian.
