Responsible & Ethical Implementation

Since GenAI relies on existing data, its output naturally raises questions about content ownership, copyright, and intellectual property (IP). Current policies and laws may be inadequate to address IP issues generated by a machine, although interpretations are beginning to surface amidst novel situations. For example, in 2023 a federal judge rules that copyright may not be granted for images generated with AI citing a lack of human authorship; this ruling was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in March of 2025, stating that U.S. copyright law "requires all work to be authored in the first instance by a human being" (Reuters, 2025).

The introduction of GenAI into educational contexts has left many educators feeling apprehensive about accepting student work that may have been machine-generated. Certainly, these new tools challenge traditional understandings of authorship with respect to human creativity. Concerns over intellectual property intersect with questions about academic integrity, professional responsibilities, and student learning.