Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just a plot device for sci-fi movies, it's become something we all interact with daily, from the AI assistant on your phone, to facial recognition, recommendation systems, and even the hiring tools we use. And with technologies that are becoming increasingly intelligent, we are starting to face very complicated ethical dilemmas involving fairness, safety, employment, and who gets to dictate the terms of its deployment.
If you are a high school student interested in research, these ethical dilemmas can make for incredibly powerful, real-world paper topics. Each one of these poses a unique perspective in the intersection of technology, philosophy, and current affairs, and gives the researcher the opportunity to scope out both the inner workings of AI, and how it interacts with people.
Below are ten pressing ethical dilemmas regarding AI, each of which makes for a good avenue for a high school research paper:
1. Are Algorithms Fair and Without Prejudice?
Bias is one of the most frequently talked about ethical issues in AI. While AI is often perceived as "neutral," it is only as good as the data on which it is trained, and that data often reflects the inequalities of the real world. For instance, if an AI hiring tool is trained on resumes that are predominately from male applicants, it learns that men are more favored than other genders which discriminates against women. This can also be seen in policing, housing, and banking where certain racial or social groups are actively discriminated against.
Researching this topic could involve exploring:
How bias enters AI systems
Real-life examples like Amazon’s failed hiring AI
Techniques used to make algorithms more fair
Students can also look at how bias in AI relates to larger social issues like systemic discrimination and inequality.
2. Keeping Data Private and Safe
AI runs on data. From what you search to your voice recordings, massive amounts of personal information feed into these systems. This raises major concerns about how data is collected, stored, and used.
For example:
Are users really giving “informed consent” when they click “I agree”?
What happens if private data leaks or gets hacked?
Should companies be allowed to track your behavior to make AI smarter?
This is a great research topic that mixes ethics with law and technology. You could also explore data protection laws like the GDPR in Europe or India’s upcoming Digital Personal Data Protection Act.
3. Can You See Through AI?
Some of the most powerful AI systems today, such as large language models and deep neural networks, are so complex that even their creators can't always explain how they work. These are known as “black box” models.
This lack of transparency raises a big issue: If no one can explain how AI made a decision, how do we trust it? This matters a lot when it comes to areas like:
Medical diagnoses
Legal sentencing
Loan approvals
High school students could explore:
The trade-off between AI performance and explainability
Efforts to make AI more “interpretable”
4. Who's Accountable?
Imagine a self-driving car hits a pedestrian. Who’s responsible? The programmer who coded it? The company that sold it? The passenger inside? With AI making more decisions on its own, figuring out who’s legally or morally accountable is getting harder. This dilemma is especially serious in areas like:
Autonomous vehicles
AI in medicine
Predictive policing
A good research paper can look at how responsibility is shifting and explore potential solutions, such as new legal frameworks or AI “audit trails” that track decisions.
5. Who's in Charge?
As AI grows more powerful, it’s making more decisions, sometimes without any human input. From military drones to AI judges that help with sentencing, the question becomes: How much control should humans give up?
Topics to explore here include:
AI in national security and warfare
Algorithmic decision-making in public services
How to balance efficiency with ethical oversight
You might also want to examine how “human-in-the-loop” systems work, where a person still has final approval, and whether that’s enough to prevent misuse.
6. Jobs Going Away?
AI is transforming the workplace. While some jobs are being automated (like cashier work or simple data entry), others are being changed or even created (like prompt engineers or AI ethics consultants). But this shift raises ethical questions:
What happens to workers whose jobs disappear?
Are companies doing enough to reskill their staff?
Will this increase the gap between tech-savvy people and everyone else?
Students can research:
The economic impact of AI
Case studies of industries affected by automation
Ethical arguments for and against universal basic income (UBI)
This topic mixes economics, policy, and ethics: great for students interested in all three.
7. AI Going Rogue
AI can be used to do some shady stuff. Think deepfakes, phishing scams powered by AI chatbots, and government-level surveillance. Since AI can be used both for good and bad, how do we keep it under control?
Ethical questions here include:
Who decides what's an ethical use of AI?
Can we build “ethical guardrails” into AI?
What kinds of laws or global agreements should govern AI weapons?
This is especially relevant given real-world examples like deepfake political videos or facial recognition being used to suppress protests. Your paper could explore how to balance innovation with protection from abuse.
8. AI in Health: Good or Bad?
In healthcare, AI can be incredibly useful, helping diagnose diseases, suggesting treatments, and even predicting outbreaks. But its use also raises some tough ethical questions:
Should an algorithm decide your cancer treatment?
What if the AI makes a mistake, who’s responsible?
How do you protect patient privacy?
This is a great research area for students interested in science or medicine. You could focus on:
How AI tools like IBM Watson Health or Google DeepMind work
The ethics of replacing human healthcare workers with machines
Laws and guidelines for using AI in healthcare
9. AI vs. Human Rights
AI is already challenging basic rights, like the right to privacy, freedom of speech, and protection from discrimination. For example, facial recognition software can:
Track people without their knowledge
Be used unfairly against minorities
Create a “surveillance state”
There are also concerns that AI is being used to control public opinion, such as:
Recommender systems feeding people misinformation
AI bots spreading propaganda
Students can dig into how AI affects human rights, especially for marginalized communities, and look at international guidelines like those from the UN or AI watchdog groups.
10. AI's Footprint on the Planet
It is easy to think of AI as being innocuous and not to be concerned about the environment, because we think of it as digital. However, training large AI models (like ChatGPT or image generators) requires immense computational power. Obviously, just like using your computers and phones, this means lots of electricity usage, often from higher polluting sources.
Some estimates suggest that training a big AI model can produce as much carbon as five cars do over their lifetime
A good research paper could explore:
The carbon cost of different AI models
The idea of “green AI”
Ways to reduce AI’s energy use, like better algorithms or renewable-powered data centers
This dilemma ties AI to global environmental issues: perfect for students passionate about climate action and sustainability.
Each of these ethical problems can be the base for a great high school research paper, pushing you to think hard about how tech shapes society and what responsibilities come with new inventions.
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With its independent research projects and mentors’ tailored guidance to each student, RISE Research allows for your work to lead to recognized publications, and to an academic profile that is conference-ready. There are flexible program dates and opportunities for ambitious students to apply all year, and family can travel anywhere in the world. If you want to learn more, to determine eligibility, costs and how to get involved, be sure to visit RISE Research’s official website and take your college prep experience to the next level!
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