Mind the Ethics! The Overlooked Ethical Dimensions of GenAI in Software Modeling Education

Abstract: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly gaining momentum in software modeling education, embraced by both students and educators. As GenAI assists with interpreting requirements, formalizing models, and translating students' mental models into structured notations, it increasingly shapes core learning outcomes such as domain comprehension, diagrammatic thinking, and modeling fluency without clear ethical oversight or pedagogical guidelines. Yet, the ethical implications of this integration remain underexplored. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review across six major digital libraries in computer science (ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, and Web of Science). Our aim is to identify studies discussing the ethical aspects of GenAI in software modeling education, including responsibility, fairness, transparency, diversity, and inclusion among others. Out of 1,386 unique papers initially retrieved, only three explicitly addressed ethical considerations. This scarcity highlights the critical absence of ethical discourse surrounding GenAI in modeling education and raises urgent questions about the responsible integration of AI in modeling curricula, as well as it evinces the pressing need for structured ethical frameworks in this emerging educational landscape. We examine these three studies and explore the emerging research opportunities as well as the challenges that have arisen in this field.