Generative AI (GenAI) is a subsect of AI and is increasing in popularity within the education sector. GenAI can generate new content or imitate old content when given an input. To understand the benefits and challenges related to the use of GenAI, this paper investigated several research questions, including: how GenAI is used in the education system; whether there are any ethical, social, technical, security, legal, regulatory, economic and workforce challenges present with the use of GenAI, and how they affect students, educators, and institutions; and what guidelines exist for students, educators and academic institutions to follow when interacting with GenAI to ensure the effective and ethical use of GenAI. The primary purpose of this study was to educate conscientious students, educators, or academic institutions that seek ethical ways to integrate GenAI into their academic work, about the challenges and consequences related to the use of GenAI by exploring how it is used within education. The secondary purpose was to provide research-supported guidelines for students, educators, and academic institutions to guide their approach when integrating GenAI into their processes. This research was conducted using peer-reviewed and media articles published within the last 10 years to ensure current viewpoints were included. While research identified many benefits of using GenAI in educational settings, such as visually explaining or understanding concepts, and completing tasks more efficiently, several challenges and issues were also identified. Some of the issues identified include difficulty discerning what content was generated by AI versus a human, intellectual property rights issues, the potential for over-reliance on GenAI tools and the gradual loss of one’s skill set. This paper concludes that it is imperative for stakeholders of the education sector to update themselves on emerging technologies, to enjoy their beneficial aspects, and to proactively avoid or mitigate their negative aspects.