AI Literacy and Ethical Decisions: The Mediating Role of Digital Confidence and the Moderating Effect of Responsible AI Use of College Students

Abstract

The research investigates how college students use AI literacy skills to make ethical choices, while digital confidence serves as a linking factor, and responsible AI use acts as a regulating element. The researchers collected data from 483 students at a Philippine state university using a quantitative-correlational design with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis performed through WarpPLS (Version 8.0). The study found that AI literacy directly affects both digital confidence and ethical decision-making processes, while digital confidence serves as a partial mediator between the two variables. The results demonstrate that responsible AI use strengthens the connection between AI literacy and digital confidence, highlighting how ethical technology use affects digital trust. The study shows that AI-enabled learning environments require competence, confidence, and responsibility to work together as essential components for students to make ethical decisions. The results demonstrate that Open and Distance Learning (ODL) providers should establish three core areas, which contain AI literacy, ethical training, and confidence-building methods, to create digital learning systems that enable responsible and efficient technology operation.