Ensuring fairness and accountability in AI-powered education

With AI reshaping how students complete assignments, authentic assessment is more important than ever. 
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping education, offering personalised learning, efficiency, and accessibility. For students, AI provides individualised support; for faculty, it streamlines administrative tasks allowing them more time to focus on student success. While it holds great promise it also raises critical ethical concerns, particularly regarding fairness, transparency, and accountability. Educators and institutions must implement AI thoughtfully, ethically, and inclusively to harness its potential without compromising equity or integrity.

Building trust

Ensuring trust in AI goes beyond compliance. It requires confidence from students, faculty, and institutions that AI is a tool to enhance education. One of the greatest concerns in AI adoption is the ‘black box’ problem. This refers to a situation where faculty and students lack insight into how AI-driven decisions are made. In other words, AI should be explainable, interpretable, and understandable, not something that makes decisions without clear reasoning.

To address this challenge, human oversight is essential to ensure that AI remains a transparent and accountable tool rather than an opaque decision-maker. Institutions and faculty should retain full control over how AI influences instruction, grading, and student support. Importantly, students should always be informed when AI shapes their learning experience. By embedding fairness, transparency, and accountability into AI adoption, institutions can ensure AI is a force for student success, faculty autonomy, and institutional integrity.

Strategies for educators

Educators play a pivotal role in shaping how AI is used in the classroom. Many faculty members remain cautious about AI’s growing presence, yet students are already using these tools. With clear strategies, educators can take a leadership role in responsible AI integration, ensuring they retain control over how AI influences learning and assessment.

AI should enhance learning, not substitute deep engagement. For example, instead of students passively accepting AI-generated summaries, faculty can require them to refine, compare, and critique AI-generated content. Encouraging meta-cognitive reflection — where students evaluate AI’s effectiveness — ensures that AI remains a tool for learning rather than a shortcut.

Educators can and should play a role in reducing bias in AI-driven assessments and analytics. When using AI-powered grading or feedback tools, faculty must cross-check results against qualitative student insights to ensure fair outcomes. This means that faculty should not simply trust AI-generated results, but rather critically evaluate them to ensure they align with their understanding of the students’ work and abilities.

As AI becomes deeply embedded in industries and daily life, AI literacy is now essential for students. Faculty should not just teach with AI; they should teach about AI. This includes helping students understand AI’s limitations, recognise bias, and critically evaluate AI-generated content. One effective strategy is requiring students to validate and cite AI-generated material, treating it as they would any academic source.

Additionally, students should discuss AI ethics. By embedding critical AI literacy into coursework, educators can equip students with the skills they need for the AI-driven workforce.

With AI reshaping how students complete assignments, authentic assessment is more important than ever. Faculty must design assignments that demand creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving; areas where AI struggles. Rather than assigning traditional essays that AI can quickly generate, educators can implement the following:

• Reflective writing where students connect personal experiences to course concepts.

• Project-based learning that requires collaborative problem-solving.

• Case studies and simulations that demand adaptive thinking and decision-making.

Assignments should require higher-order skills that AI cannot easily replicate, reinforcing academic integrity and critical thinking. By thoughtfully integrating AI into pedagogy, ensuring fair and diverse assessments, and equipping students with AI literacy, faculty can create an environment where AI enhances rather than replaces human insight. The question now is not whether AI belongs in education but how we ensure it responsibly serves students, educators, and institutions.

The writer is the CEO of the ed-tech company Anthology.