ABSTRACT
As AI tools have permeated the realm of education in the past decade, it is no surprise that chatbots have taken the world by storm due to their impending impact on education. Within the framework of virtue ethics, the purpose of this chapter is to argue that, in the wake of the “responsibility gap” of AI tools, we will need teachers and parents to play the role of educators-in-the-loop. I will first present the epistemic and moral goals of education for children and argue that AI might hamper them both. Firstly, cognitive outsourcing to ChatGPT is problematic both when such chatbots might work properly, as students would end up learning nothing and cheating in the process, and when they will unavoidably “hallucinate”. Furthermore, due to algorithmic bias, reliance on AI might increase discrimination by reinforcing prejudices. For children to be able to become epistemic and moral agents we will need an educational and ethical infrastructure in place in which teachers, parents and the school curricula will focus on fostering the necessary virtues such as curiosity, intellectual courage and intellectual honesty needed for a responsible use of AI.
