Towards a framework for local interrogation of AI ethics: A case study on text generators, academic integrity, and composing with ChatGPT

Ethical frameworks for text generators (TGs) in education are generally concerned with personalized instruction, a dependency on data, biases in training data, academic integrity, and lack of creativity from students. While broad-level, institutional guidelines provide value in understanding the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI) for the classroom, there is a need for a more ecological understanding of how AI ethics might be constructed locally, one that takes into account the negotiation of AI between teacher and student. This article investigates how an educational ethical framework for AI use emerges through a qualitative case study of one composition student's interaction with and understanding of using ChatGPT as a type of writing partner. Analysis of interview data and student logs uncover what we term an emergent “local ethic” – a framework that is capable of exploring unique ethical considerations, values, and norms that develop at the most foundational unit of higher education – the individual classroom. Our framework is meant to provide a heuristic for other writing teacher-scholars as they interrogate issues related to pedagogy, student criticality, agency, reliability, and access within the context of powerful AI systems.