Ethics & Responsible Use
Use AI thoughtfully, fairly, and safely
What You'll Learn
- ✓How to identify high-stakes AI use cases that need extra care
- ✓Privacy considerations when using AI tools
- ✓The importance of transparency about AI involvement
- ✓Recognizing and mitigating bias in your AI applications
- ✓Building a personal responsible AI checklist
Key Ideas
Not all AI use is equal. High-stakes situations (hiring, medical advice, legal decisions) need extreme caution and human oversight. Low-stakes uses (brainstorming, drafts) are safer for experimentation.
Examples:
- • High-stakes: Resume screening, medical diagnosis, financial advice
- • Medium-stakes: Content creation, customer support, research
- • Low-stakes: Brainstorming, learning, personal organization
Assume everything you input to AI could become training data. Never share confidential information, personal data, or proprietary content without understanding the tool's data policy.
Examples:
- • Don't: Paste customer data, passwords, or trade secrets
- • Do: Use generic examples or anonymized data
- • Always: Check your organization's AI use policy
Be honest about AI involvement. In professional contexts, disclose when content is AI-assisted. This builds trust and sets appropriate expectations.
Examples:
- • Academic: Cite AI tools in assignments per school policy
- • Professional: Note 'Drafted with AI assistance' when appropriate
- • Creative: Indicate 'AI-generated' on images or content
AI can perpetuate or amplify human biases. Actively check for bias in outputs, especially in areas like hiring, content moderation, or recommendations that affect people's opportunities.
Examples:
- • Review: Do generated examples show diverse representation?
- • Question: Are recommendations fair across different groups?
- • Test: Try variations to see if results change with demographic details
Suggested Resources
University of Helsinki
UNESCO
Try This Now
Put your learning into practice with these hands-on exercises. Copy the prompts and try them in your favorite AI tool.
Help me create a 10-question checklist I can use before applying AI to a new task. Include questions about data privacy, stakes of the decision, bias potential, and transparency needs. Make it practical for everyday use.
Analyze this scenario: A small business owner wants to use AI to screen job applications to save time. What are 5 ethical considerations they should address? What safeguards should they implement?
Think about how you've used AI in the past week. List any instances where you might have shared sensitive information. What would you do differently now?
Reflection Questions
- 1.What are the highest-stakes ways you might use AI in your work?
- 2.How will you balance efficiency with ethical considerations?
- 3.What organizational policies or personal guidelines do you need to establish?