Abstract
An interesting cyclic effect can be observed, where education has led to development of artificial intelligence and technology and the same developments are now being used to enhance the manner of education. The objective of this research paper is to explore legal and other implications of use of AI and Technology in education. Also to deal with problems such as Lack of Clarity in Copyright, Data Privacy Issues, Who is responsible for IP breaches? Hypothesis for the research is As AI is ever evolving technology, it's difficult to restrict use of AI and Technology in education and so it's more challenging to legally bound it. However certain guidelines can be set. Analytical methodology and secondary data sources are used in research paper.
The question of clarity arises regarding rights of content created: Whether it is the right of humans or AI to claim the right infringed. But AI is not a legal person. In India, the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and educational content has led to significant legal challenges, particularly concerning copyright infringement. AI tools that are influenced by human biases can amplify this harm at a systematic level, especially as they're being integrated into the organizations and systems that shape our modern lives. As there is a widespread use of AI in education it becomes imperative to frame guidelines by the policymakers in order to govern the use of AI in order to protect its stakeholders.
About 40% of managers would prefer to recruit artificial intelligence robots than Gen Z graduates. The internet penetration rate in India is over 52 percent in 2024. But it means nearly half of the population is lacking accessibility to the internet, which conflicts with their fundamental right u/s 21A if AI is used excessively in education.
Introduction
One of the indispensable qualities that humans possess is to constantly learn and evolve and hence education has always been considered to be a significant part of society. The enhancement and evolution of the human race has simultaneously brought unprecedented changes in advancement of technology. One such prominent development in recent times has been the invention and adaptation of Artificial Intelligence. An interesting cyclic effect can be observed, where education has led to development of artificial intelligence and technology and the same developments are now being used to enhance the manner of education. It impacts not only the students but also the educators as well as the state and other concerned authorities, which will jointly have implications of the new aspects being introduced into education. Advocates of AI and technological implementation in education strongly believe that it's imperative to adapt to the change, whereas critics believe that it is being used as a substitute to learning resulting in poor development of skills.
The Implementation of artificial intelligence and technology in education will entail certain legal implications ranging from matters related to intellectual property to practical legislative implications to provide accessibility to the new means of education as a right to every individual as enshrined in Art 21A of Constitution of India. It is essential to understand these legal implications of artificial intelligence and technology in education, in order to establish appropriate guidelines for implementation that will result in overall positive outcome.
Objectives
The objective of this research paper is to explore legal and other implications of use of AI and Technology in education; on part of Educational institutes or Educational content creators, Students and Authorities involved therein. Also to explore significance of AI in Education system and laws connected therewith such as Intellectual Property Rights, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Also, to delve into Societal impact of AI and Technology in education as education is a fundamental right enshrined in the constitution of India. That is, this research will also probe legal implications regarding Societal impact due to increasing modernity.
Statement of problem
Lack of Clarity in Copyright - Who owns AI-generated content the developer, user, or AI itself? Can AI-generated works receive copyright protection?
Data Privacy Issues - How can user data be protected from unauthorized AI usage? Are AI models violating IP rights by using copyrighted datasets?
IP Infringement - How can AI-generated content avoid plagiarism or trademark violations? Who is responsible for IP breaches?
Uncertain Liability - Who is accountable for misinformation, harm, or biases in AI-generated content?
Societal Biases - How can AI mitigate biases in decision-making and prevent discrimination?
Hypothesis
As AI is ever evolving technology, it's difficult to restrict use of AI and Technology in education and so it's more challenging to legally bound it. However certain guidelines can be set.
Methodology
Analysing current laws dealing with AI and technology in Education in Indian contexts.
Analysing various case laws around the world to understand the legal implications arising for the training of AI modules or use of AI.
Data is collected from the secondary sources.
Main Discourse
In ancient times the prescribed mode of transmission of education was only through oratory methods passed down from generation to generation by the way of guru-shishya parampara in India, with the development of technology of writing and invention of paper led to transmission of education through written means. This was amplified with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century, which led to widespread education. The next significant development in this field was the invention of computers by Charles Babbage which was a pivotal step for technological reformation and later paired along with the Internet made it easier to bridge the gap of geographical boundaries in terms of transmission of information and education.
New challenges emerged during the reign of Covid 19 which forced us to shift the culture away from the physical form of activities and directed into a virtual direction. This led to a challenge in the creation of content for educational purposes. Meanwhile, development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes it easier to create the content. Also, brings few challenges such as infringement of copyrights for content generated through AI, protection of data, malpractices by students through the means of AI and technology, unclear responsibility of liability arising from the use of AI, societal biases, etc. But, excessive use of AI will hamper society at large, which may also infringe fundamental rights of education enshrined in the constitution of India due to inaccessibility of essential resources.
As there was an immense demand for educational content in recent times, Artificial Intelligence prodigiously supported to meet the requirements within the stringent timeframes. The content provided by the human brain, by the way of the prompt given to the AI generates AI created content. The question of clarity arises regarding rights of content created: Whether it is the right of humans or AI to claim the right infringed.
But AI is not a legal person. Legal Personality of AI: Legal personality is a bundle of rights and responsibilities. In general artificial personalities are not accorded with liability because they have no personality in the eye of law. For instance, Sophia, a humanoid robot invented in 2016 was given citizenship by Saudi Arabia. Since then the country received controversial comments about its legal personality.
The content created by any legal person gives him the legal right over the content enshrined by The Copyright Act, 1957. Where copyright is a right to control content created by a legal person i.e. Author, where specifically defined u/s 2(d)(vi) of the said act, in relation to any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work which is computer-generated, the person who causes the work to be created. Sec 2(o) defines literary work which also includes computer programmes.
Identifying the owner when an AI model generates content becomes tricky when the generator autonomously generates content. In some domains, the authorship may be adhered to by the organization which operates or programs the A.I. but some may also consider the content to be public due to lack of authorship. This duality creates a need for proper organizational policies and codes to give definitions of A.I. generated educational content.
A.I. models get their training done on large datasets, which can sometimes include copyright material. This becomes the cause for significant legal concerns. Some arguments consider this use as 'fair use', but in the majority of the cases, this interpretation is not accepted. Notably several lawsuits have been filed against these A.I. developers for allegedly using copyrighted content for training their models. For example, The New York Times requested a federal judge to make OpenAI 'identify and admit' all the newspaper articles that the company has used as a dataset to train. A few days later GEMA, a German licensing body filed a lawsuit against the same OpenAI alleging that OpenAI uses GEMA's 'repertoire as a dataset to train its system.
According to section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970, which provides that what are not inventions and it excludes mathematical or computer programs per se or algorithm. As AI algorithms are mathematical models on their own they are not patentable. But, AI based practical inventions to solve the technical issues are patentable. For example, AI used to create an image that correlates the story written for children might be patentable. Under current law it is only available to natural people and AI is not a natural person.
As Artificial intelligence is based on open source and publicly available information it can violate the Intellectual Property Rights of the original content creator, as it is not necessary that every information available publicly is there through the legitimate sources. In India, the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and educational content has led to significant legal challenges, particularly concerning copyright infringement. Notable cases include:
1. Federation of Indian Publishers v. OpenAI (2024)
Background: A coalition of Indian and international book publishers, represented by the Federation of Indian Publishers, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the Delhi High Court. The publishers alleged that OpenAI's AI model, ChatGPT, generated summaries and extracts of their books without authorization, potentially impacting their sales and infringing on their copyrights. Prominent publishers involved include Bloomsbury, Penguin Random House, Cambridge University Press, Pan Macmillan, Rupa Publications, and S. Chand and Co.
Outcome: The case is ongoing, with the publishers seeking to prevent OpenAI from accessing their copyrighted content without proper licensing. They have requested the deletion of any infringing data used in AI training and are exploring compensation avenues. OpenAI has countered by asserting that its AI models utilize publicly available data in a manner consistent with fair use principles.
Excessive and necessary use of AI leads to generating huge amounts of the Data. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, is an Act to provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognises both the right of individuals to protect their personal data. U/s 6, the consent given by the Data Principal shall be free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous with a clear affirmative action, and shall signify an agreement to the processing of her personal data for the specified purpose and be limited to such personal data as is necessary for such specified purpose. So content used by AI to generate new content without consent of the original creator may infringe his right of data protection as well, but as stated above AI is not a legal person. Humans using AI as a tool to create such content which infringes the rights of the original creator can be sued.
Even though the Data Protection Act is in force, challenges such as vast amounts of data generated by AI, compliance costs may be burdened on content creators or the authorities. Also ethical issues are involved in societal biases as AI is inadvertently biased on demographic data. AI tools that are influenced by human biases can amplify this harm at a systematic level, especially as they're being integrated into the organizations and systems that shape our modern lives.
On part of students with the use of AI and technology it is necessary that copyright, patent, and data protection laws shall be applied to safeguard their intellectual property rights. For instance if a student is given a task to write an essay on a particular topic the content created by him, even with the use of AI shall come into ambit of above mentioned Acts, in a similar manner as for the educational content creators. But similar challenges as educators and content creators also arise over here as the challenges related to Identification of ownership and protection of personal data of students continue to persist.
Additionally this practice of substitution of skill development with the use of AI to mitigate the academic curriculums has led to deterioration of skills in the youth, that is malpractices with the use of AI and technology. As there is a widespread use of AI in education it becomes imperative to frame guidelines by the policymakers in order to govern the use of AI in order to protect its stakeholders.
But the question of liability persists as ownership of popular AI tools are owned by companies situated across international borders and used in another part of the world, such as OpenAI originated in the USA and Deepseek is a China based company. Furtherance to this the UNESCO has provided Policy recommendations as follows:
A system-wide vision and strategic priorities
Overarching principle for AI and education policies
Interdisciplinary planning and inter-sectoral governance
Policies and regulations for equitable, inclusive, and ethical use of AI
Master plans for using AI in education management, teaching, learning, and assessment
Pilot testing, monitoring and evaluation, and building an evidence base
Fostering local AI innovations for education
A.I. is inevitable as it assists humans to a great extent. But it comes with challenges of privacy, security and ownership of data. To ensure an ethical and effective implementation we must ensure:
Educational and Academic institutions must ensure strict and comprehensive frameworks related to data governance that adhere to data protection laws such as the GDPR in the EU and the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, of 2023 in India.
They must also ensure that privacy is considered during the development processes of the systems which as a result ensures that data collection is minimised and the consent of the user is obtained every time.
We must provide training sessions that will equip educators with the knowledge of A.I. tools and their responsible usage.
There must be communities of practice where educators using AI platforms can share experiences for integrating AI with education.
Organisations must regularly evaluate A.I. models for any potential biases and adjust accordingly to ensure equity and fairness.
During the training process use of diverse and representative datasets must be ensured which would lower the risk of outputs with biases.
Data Analysis
1) Survey: AI is preferred over the GenZ
About 40% of managers would prefer to recruit artificial intelligence robots than Gen Z graduates, per a survey conducted by an international business organization. According to a study published in Newsweek, 89% of HR leaders avoided hiring fresh graduates, while 98% of them reported difficulty finding talent. Is AI the next big thing threatening Gen Z employment? According to 37% of managers surveyed, "yes," they prefer bots over Gen Z. According to comments from recent graduates, the Hult International Business School-sponsored study also discovered the following:
85% of Gen Z respondents wish their college had better prepared them for the workplace, particularly because some employers now view AI as a professional competitor.
77% of Gen Z respondents claim they learned more in six months at their employment than in their four years of school.
87% of Gen Z respondents claim that their company provided them with greater job training than their undergraduate institution did.
55% claim that their undergraduate experience did not adequately equip them for their current position.
2) Accessibility of internet and technology
Internet penetration rate (Data Graph Values):
2014: 13.5%
2015: 14.9%
2016: 16.5%
2017: 24%
2018: 28.5%
2019: 33.7%
2020: 43.4%
2021: 46.3%
2022: 48.1%
2023: 51.5%
2024: 52.4%
The internet penetration rate in India rose over 52 percent in 2024, from about 14 percent in 2014. Although these figures seem relatively low, it meant that more than half of the population of 1.4 billion people had internet access that year. This also ranked the country second in the world in terms of active internet users. But it means nearly half of the population is lacking accessibility to the internet, which conflicts with their fundamental right u/s 21A if AI is used excessively in education.
Suggestions
The suggestions given below are with the aim of protecting the personal data of individuals and narrowing down who will be the owner of the content created by AI.
Protection of personal data - AI is a tool that learns to answer prompts in a human-like fashion by learning from the information either from (a) its users or that (B) available on open source. The information collected from its users are at times personal data of the users that the AI uses to teach and update itself and later show those data as results to other users. Hence, at all times when AI wishes to use such personal data of the users, it should ask for the users permission to (1) store or use that data or (2) to forgot the users data (under right to be forgotten u/a 21) and should only use such personal data with the consent of the user.
Owner of content created by AI - Protection of literary work is a legal right and it is essential to identify the owner/author of the piece of work created by AI using other literary work. In the light to protect the rights of the original creator of data it is crucial to acknowledge them as the owner as a mere coalition of numerous literary works should not amount to change of ownership and in bare sense it can be inferred that the work is copied and slightly modified. Hence, the sources from where the data is collated from AI must be considered the original owners of data with a view to uphold the continued creative efforts and prioritize parent creator.
Conclusions
The adoption of Artificial Intelligence and technology in education brings both advantages and challenges. While AI improves accessibility, efficiency, and personalized learning experiences, it also introduces critical legal, ethical, and societal concerns. Uncertainties regarding copyright ownership, data privacy breaches, intellectual property violations, and the accountability of AI-generated content highlight the need for strong legal frameworks. Additionally, biases in AI systems and the digital divide create barriers to equitable education.
To navigate these challenges, policymakers must establish well-defined regulations that ensure ethical AI use, data security, and intellectual property protection. Balancing AI-driven learning with human skill development is essential to prevent over-reliance on technology at the expense of critical thinking and creativity. As AI continues to advance, a proactive regulatory approach is necessary to safeguard stakeholders while encouraging innovation in education. Rather than resisting AI integration due to potential drawbacks, a strategic and well-regulated implementation will help maximize its benefits while addressing associated risks.
References
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Westfall, C. (2025, Jan 28). Survey: 37% Of Managers Would Rather Hire AI Than Offer Jobs To Gen Z. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2025/01/28/survey-37-of-managers-would-rather-hire-ai-than-offer-jobs-to-gen-z/
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Huang, R., & Zhang, H. (2021). AI and education: A guidance for policymakers. UNESCO Publishing. https://doi.org/10.54675/PCSP7350
https://www.juscorpus.com/legal-implications-of-artificial-intelligence-in-education/
About Authors:-
1) Prathamesh Vijaykumar Nikam
2) Anup Chandra Pujari