As most technologies AI offers a high number of opportunities – especially by making work more efficient, thus increasing the output of individuals. Yet, also as most technologies, there are some risks included, which are especially relevant in research and science. 

AI interferes with the ways in which we produce knowledge in many ways and challenges researchers’ professional ethics. The ways we use AI in our daily research should be guided by normative principles related to the scientific ethics that have been laid down by the DFG in the Code of Conduct "Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice"(externer Link) and that have been specified for geography in VGDH’s Code of ethics for geographical research. 

All AI related scientific activities should be guided the following normative prinicples: Accountability, carefulness, objectivity, reproducibility, rigor, transparency, honesty, social responsibility, fairness, fair attribution of credit, legality, Protection of and respect for human subjects, confidentiality of peer review (cf. Resnik/Hosseinini 2024). 

A couple of sources can provide students and scientists an overview on the dynamic field. This collection of sources is purposely kept short and will be updated regularly.

For a detailed reflection on the ethical implications and clear recommendations, we suggest the article by David Resnik and Mohammad Hosseini (2024): The ethics of using artificial intelligence in scientific research: new guidance needed for a new tool. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-024-00493-8

The European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation implemented a clearly structured living document on the responsible use of generative AI in research, which also provides clear guidelines for researchers, research organisations and funding agencies: https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/document/download/2b6cf7e5-36ac-41cb-aab5-0d32050143dc_en?filename=ec_rtd_ai-guidelines.pdf

For a broader reflexion on the ethics of AI, we recommend UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence that apply a human rights based approach and strongly argues for human oversight of AI systems: https://www.unesco.org/en/artificial-intelligence/recommendation-ethics

In German language we can recommend one chapter by Heinrichs and Heinrichs (2026), that reflects the ethical challenges while doing research with AI: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-72839-0_12

Further an online course by KI-Campus provides some fundamental overviews on AI and ethics (in German language with some videos in English language): https://ki-campus.org/lernangebote/kurse/ki-ethik