About
Teaching AI Ethics is a project started in 2023 by Leon Furze.
Leon is a PhD candidate studying generative artificial intelligence in education, a bestselling author, and a consultant who works with schools, universities, and businesses on the practical and ethical implications of AI.
In 2023 Leon published a series of blog articles called Teaching AI Ethics. The original series outlined nine areas of ethical concern that surfaced repeatedly in his early research. After publication, the articles were turned into an open-access educational resource, shared both on Leon’s website and on the OER platform LibreTexts. By 2024, thousands of educators had used these resources to inform their course design and units of work on artificial intelligence across K–12 and higher education.
In 2025 Leon began updating the original articles with new case studies and resources to show what had, and had not, changed in AI ethics. At the same time, he launched this website as a permanent home for the open-access Teaching AI Ethics project. The site will continue to grow as new resources, lesson ideas, and articles are added.
What Is AI Ethics?
Ethics is always complex, and the term is loaded with theoretical and political connotations. Many AI ethics frameworks are in development worldwide. However, many of these frameworks are industry-led and arguably do not have the best interests of individuals at heart.
Some frameworks border on what academic Timnit Gebru calls TESCREAL philosophies—an acronym for Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singulitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism—overlapping beliefs that prioritise a long-term view in which investing enough money, power, and data in AI will solve problems like the climate crisis and poverty.
The Teaching AI Ethics project avoids techno-optimistic frameworks and focuses on practical advice for educators working with young people who want to discuss the problems that exist with AI here and now—issues such as algorithmic discrimination, the energy and water consumption of data-centre-based AI, media platformisation, and the centralisation of control in the hands of a few wealthy companies.
From a theoretical perspective, Leon Furze’s work is grounded in critical literacy and Critical AI Literacy, recognising that immediate, tangible harms are caused by digital technologies and that educators have a responsibility to be informed and to discuss these issues with students.
This project is not designed to turn anybody against AI, nor to sweep ethical issues under the rug in the hope that technology will one day solve them. It is a resource to help you and your students make informed decisions about when you do, or do not, use the technology.
Teaching AI Ethics 