The Ethics of AI Tutors: Balancing Personalization with Privacy in Education

Abstract

The fast adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tutors in learning institutions has reshaped the teaching-learning activities by making them personalized, adaptive, and data-driven. Although AI tutors can be of great pedagogical benefit, their extensive use provokes the important ethical issue about student data privacy, autonomy, and informed consent. The current research paper explores the ethical issues related to AI-driven tutoring systems but, in particular, the issue of striking the balance between the advantages of individualization and ensuring the privacy of learners. The approach of the study is conceptual and analytical, as it is based on the existing literature and ethical frameworks and educational technology policies to investigate the ways in which AI tutors gather, process, and use student data. Data ownership, risks of surveillance, algorithmic bias, transparency, and accountability are the most important ethical aspects that are critically assessed. The paper postulates that the abuse of personalization in the guise of collecting more and more information can lead to a lack of trust and to the infringement of the right to privacy among students in this case, the most vulnerable groups, namely children and adolescents. Moreover, there are no definite regulatory norms and moral principles of AI tutors, which contributes to these issues. The results indicate the need to create responsible AI design based on privacy-by-design, minimal use of data, and explicit consent. This is also highlighted in the paper by addressing the contribution of educators, policymakers, and developers in ethically deploying in the form of governance frameworks and on-going ethical audits. Suggesting a middle ground of ethical views, this research is becoming part of the current debates on responsible AI in learning and highlights the significance of adjusting technological innovativeness to the primary ethical principles. Finally, the paper presents a proposal to establish an educational AI ecosystem that would improve learning results without interfering with personal privacy, dignity and autonomy.