2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics education is essential since it prepares future AI practitioners to understand and respond to various moral, social, and ecological consequences of AI. Integrating content on social and environmental implications within AI ethics syllabi is especially important, as it is observed that AI systems are increasingly impacting societal structures and contributing to challenges such as structural inequality and environmental degradation due to massive energy consumption for maintenance. Addressing these dimensions ensures that students are able to recognize AI as part of a wider social and ecological system rather than just a purely technical domain or a purely philosophical domain. Additionally, those concerns also align with global goals for sustainability and justice to promote global responsibility and long-term thinking about the role AI plays in society. This study examines how AI is represented through social and environmental dimensions by analyzing AI ethics syllabi. With the assistance of the prior AI Ethics Topics Classification framework presented by Tuovinen and Rohunen (2021). I conduct a systematic content analysis of a sample of 24 publicly available AI ethics syllabi (from 2023 – 2025) to gauge how the wider societal and ecological dimensions are represented across the framework's four categorical areas. The analysis found that social and environmental dimensions were most prominently represented in the category of "Here and Now" which provide more direct connection to social and environmental concerns as present issues . This highlights the emerging awareness of the interconnectedness that AI has regarding communities and ecosystems. Therefore, it is critical to strengthen AI ethics education to support students in evaluating and responding to the social and environmental implications of AI in complex real-world contexts. Lastly, this study provides a checklist of AI ethics topics that cover the frameworks and dimensions discussed.