Multi-stakeholder perspective on responsible artificial intelligence and acceptability in education

Recognising a need to investigate the concerns and barriers to the acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, this study explores the acceptability of different AI applications in education from a multi-stakeholder perspective, including students, teachers, and parents. Acknowledging the transformative potential of AI, it addresses concerns related to data privacy, AI agency, transparency, explainability, and ethical deployment of AI. Using a vignette methodology, participants were presented with four scenarios where AI agency, transparency, explainability, and privacy were manipulated. After each scenario, participants completed a survey that captured their perceptions of AI’s global utility, individual usefulness, justice, confidence, risk, and intention to use each scenario’s AI if it was available. The data collection, comprising a final sample of 1198 participants, focused on individual responses to four AI use cases. A mediation analysis of the data indicated that acceptance and trust in AI vary significantly across stakeholder groups and AI applications.