DEFIA Statement: A joint responsibility to ensure sound use of chatbots in education

Chatbots are rapidly becoming part of everyday learning. They can explain complex ideas, provide examples, offer feedback and help students explore new questions. But their educational value depends on how they are used—and on whether they strengthen learning or simply make it easier to produce an answer. 

The new GeSI’s DEFIA statement, A joint responsibility to ensure sound use of chatbots in education, argues that the right response is neither uncritical adoption nor simple prohibition. The task is to shape chatbot use so that it supports understanding, critical judgment, learner autonomy and responsible participation in society. 

The statement was developed through the Digital Education for Impact Alliance (GeSI’s DEFIA), co-founded by GeSI, the University of Coimbra in Portugal and Huanghe Science and Technology University in China. Its central message is clear: education should move “from unregulated access to answers toward responsible practices of understanding”, while chatbots should help learners become “more capable, more critical, more autonomous, and more responsible”. The statement also records endorsements from educators, researchers and technology leaders across institutions and regions. 

From answers to understanding 

When answers become easy to obtain, education must place greater emphasis on the reasons and methods behind learning. Students need to understand how to ask better questions, evaluate information, identify errors, compare explanations and take responsibility for what they produce. 

Chatbots should therefore support—not replace—the learner’s activity. Their value should be judged not only by the quality of the final output, but also by the quality of the learner’s engagement with the process. 

Making thinking visible 

Used well, chatbots can become tools for reflection. Students can compare alternative answers, challenge a chatbot’s reasoning, improve their prompts, explain why they accept or reject a response, and document how their understanding develops. This turns the chatbot from a shortcut into an opportunity to make thinking more visible. 

Verification is equally important. Chatbot outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete or misleading, even when they appear fluent and convincing. Responsible use requires students to check sources, identify assumptions and recognise when human or expert judgment is needed. 

A shared responsibility 

Teachers remain central to this process. Their role is becoming more important as they design meaningful learning environments, guide the use of technology, interpret student difficulties and protect the human dimension of education. 

Technology providers also have responsibilities beyond technical performance. They should work with educators and institutions to develop tools that encourage explanation, questioning, formative feedback, source checking and progressive learning support. Transparency, privacy, local context and learner agency must be part of the design. 

The future of education in the age of chatbots will not be decided by technology alone. It will be shaped by the choices made by educators, institutions, families, policymakers and companies. The goal is not to use chatbots as much as possible or as little as possible, but to use them in ways that help learners become more capable, more critical, more autonomous and more responsible.