The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
@iethics.bsky.social
Irina Raicu behind the keyboard.
Pinned
When It’s About Power/Justice/Human Rights, It IS about Ethics
There is nothing about applied ethics that inherently leaves out social-political matters.
scu.edu
ICYMI: "When It’s About Power/Justice/Human Rights, It IS about [#tech and other] #Ethics": scu.edu/ethics/focus... #internet #law #AI
ICYMI: "A Guide to #AI #Ethics Literacy" (to which we keep adding new pieces): www.scu.edu/ethics/focus... #education #highered #tech
A Guide to AI Ethics Literacy
A growing list of AI ethics issues and links to relevant materials from the Ethics Center.
www.scu.edu
November 10, 2025 at 11:36 PM
ICYMI: "A Guide to #AI #Ethics Literacy" (to which we keep adding new pieces): www.scu.edu/ethics/focus... #education #highered #tech
📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms).
It’s also concerning. 1/
It’s also concerning. 1/
PSA: we're aware that Signal is down for some people. This appears to be related to a major AWS outage. Stand by.
November 10, 2025 at 11:34 PM
The question isn’t "why does Signal use AWS?" It’s to look at the infrastructural requirements of any global, real-time, mass comms platform and ask how it is that we got to a place where there’s no realistic alternative to AWS and the other hyperscalers. 3/
November 10, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
2/Last month, NSO got hit with very consequential injunction barring them from targeting WhatsApp users with Pegasus spyware.
Now, NSO Group is asking the US court to give them a carveout, saying it's "reasonably foreseeable" that a US agency might use Pegasus...
therecord.media/judge-bars-n...
Now, NSO Group is asking the US court to give them a carveout, saying it's "reasonably foreseeable" that a US agency might use Pegasus...
therecord.media/judge-bars-n...
Judge bars NSO from targeting WhatsApp users with spyware, reduces damages in landmark case
Spyware manufacturer NSO Group will have to pay Meta $4 million instead of $168 million, but will also be barred from targeting the messaging platform in the future.
therecord.media
November 7, 2025 at 8:43 PM
2/Last month, NSO got hit with very consequential injunction barring them from targeting WhatsApp users with Pegasus spyware.
Now, NSO Group is asking the US court to give them a carveout, saying it's "reasonably foreseeable" that a US agency might use Pegasus...
therecord.media/judge-bars-n...
Now, NSO Group is asking the US court to give them a carveout, saying it's "reasonably foreseeable" that a US agency might use Pegasus...
therecord.media/judge-bars-n...
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
YIKES: NSO floats Pegasus spyware used in hypothetical "time of domestic crisis" in 🇺🇸America.
I believe they won't stop lobbying until they get Pegasus into USA.
To hack Americans. 1/
I believe they won't stop lobbying until they get Pegasus into USA.
To hack Americans. 1/
November 7, 2025 at 8:36 PM
YIKES: NSO floats Pegasus spyware used in hypothetical "time of domestic crisis" in 🇺🇸America.
I believe they won't stop lobbying until they get Pegasus into USA.
To hack Americans. 1/
I believe they won't stop lobbying until they get Pegasus into USA.
To hack Americans. 1/
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
8/ I believe NSO does not change.
They've churned through countless lobbyists to persuade you that they are turning over a new leaf
But in the end it's always the same story.
Activists, elections, politicians, dissidents getting their lives turned upside down.
Story
www.wsj.com/tech/israeli...
They've churned through countless lobbyists to persuade you that they are turning over a new leaf
But in the end it's always the same story.
Activists, elections, politicians, dissidents getting their lives turned upside down.
Story
www.wsj.com/tech/israeli...
November 9, 2025 at 10:16 PM
8/ I believe NSO does not change.
They've churned through countless lobbyists to persuade you that they are turning over a new leaf
But in the end it's always the same story.
Activists, elections, politicians, dissidents getting their lives turned upside down.
Story
www.wsj.com/tech/israeli...
They've churned through countless lobbyists to persuade you that they are turning over a new leaf
But in the end it's always the same story.
Activists, elections, politicians, dissidents getting their lives turned upside down.
Story
www.wsj.com/tech/israeli...
"The suits claim that OpenAI 'knowingly released GPT-4o prematurely, despite internal warnings that the product was dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative'": abcnews.go.com/US/lawsuit-a... #ethics #law #AI #chatbots #health #business #tech #research
Lawsuit alleges ChatGPT convinced user he could 'bend time,' leading to psychosis
A Wisconsin man with no previous diagnosis of mental illness is suing OpenAI and its CEO, claiming the firm's AI chatbot led him to be hospitalized for harmful delusions.
abcnews.go.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:32 PM
"There have been many efforts over the years to train #AI systems in moral reasoning... The problem is that moral concepts are some of the most complex, subtle, context-sensitive, and culturally dependent of all human concepts": aiguide.substack.com/p/magical-th... #ethics #tech #media #research
Magical Thinking on AI
A Response to Thomas Friedman's Recent AI Columns in the New York Times
aiguide.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:31 PM
"Character. AI says its in-house tool will work to identify minors based on the nature of their interactions with the platform, as well as information gathered from shared accounts like email": futurism.com/artificial-i... #ethics #law #internet #tech #health #privacy #security
Character.AI Users in Full Meltdown After Minors Banned From Chats
The embattled chatbot company Character.AI is banning minors from its platform. Unsurprisingly, the site's users have a lot of thoughts.
futurism.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:30 PM
"A small team armed with #opensource models and local #data can now build solutions once reserved for well-funded labs in the West... #AI can be tweaked for new regions, new dialects, or novel uses at low marginal cost": restofworld.org/2025/malawi-... #ethics #tech #nonprofit #language #WhatsApp
Malawi’s new farmhand: AI that speaks the local language
Ulangizi AI combines ChatGPT’s power with traditional know-how and government data to help crops — and families — flourish.
restofworld.org
November 10, 2025 at 11:29 PM
"A small team armed with #opensource models and local #data can now build solutions once reserved for well-funded labs in the West... #AI can be tweaked for new regions, new dialects, or novel uses at low marginal cost": restofworld.org/2025/malawi-... #ethics #tech #nonprofit #language #WhatsApp
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
If you missed our event last Friday--or even if you didn't--you can find more information in Steven Adler's "Clear-Eyed #AI" posts (on Substack).
#ethics #law #chatbots #research #business #gov #education #tech #health #design #contentmoderation #LLMs
#ethics #law #chatbots #research #business #gov #education #tech #health #design #contentmoderation #LLMs
"Chatbot psychosis and various responses to it (technical, regulatory, etc.) confront us with a whole range of ethical issues": scu.edu/ethics/inter... #ethics #law #AI #tech #business #gov #health #research #education
On Chatbot Psychosis and What Might Be Done to Address It
Do chatbots sometimes lead their users to "break with reality"? And what might be done about it?
scu.edu
November 9, 2025 at 6:11 PM
If you missed our event last Friday--or even if you didn't--you can find more information in Steven Adler's "Clear-Eyed #AI" posts (on Substack).
#ethics #law #chatbots #research #business #gov #education #tech #health #design #contentmoderation #LLMs
#ethics #law #chatbots #research #business #gov #education #tech #health #design #contentmoderation #LLMs
"Chatbot psychosis and various responses to it (technical, regulatory, etc.) confront us with a whole range of ethical issues": scu.edu/ethics/inter... #ethics #law #AI #tech #business #gov #health #research #education
On Chatbot Psychosis and What Might Be Done to Address It
Do chatbots sometimes lead their users to "break with reality"? And what might be done about it?
scu.edu
November 9, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
"[U]sers harmed by the prior scandal, at least on some level, 'had to actively share' their leaked chats. In the more recent case, 'nobody clicked share' or had a reasonable way to prevent their chats from being exposed" arstechnica.com/tech-policy/... #ethics #chatbots #privacy #AI #OpenAI #ChatGPT
Oddest ChatGPT leaks yet: Cringey chat logs found in Google analytics tool
ChatGPT leaks seem to confirm OpenAI scrapes Google, expert says.
arstechnica.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:20 PM
"[U]sers harmed by the prior scandal, at least on some level, 'had to actively share' their leaked chats. In the more recent case, 'nobody clicked share' or had a reasonable way to prevent their chats from being exposed" arstechnica.com/tech-policy/... #ethics #chatbots #privacy #AI #OpenAI #ChatGPT
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
"If #app #developers are also diligent about turning on the MIE feature, fixing bugs, and pushing out new versions, entire classes of memory safety bugs could be eliminated": innovation.consumerreports.org/apples-new-i... #ethics #internet #privacy #cybersec #Apple #business #tech
Apple’s New iPhone Memory Protections Safeguards Devices Against Sophisticated Attacks - Innovation at Consumer Reports
Apple’s new Memory Integrity Enforcement aligns hardware and software to block memory safety exploits before they start, raising the bar for phone security
innovation.consumerreports.org
November 7, 2025 at 9:23 PM
"If #app #developers are also diligent about turning on the MIE feature, fixing bugs, and pushing out new versions, entire classes of memory safety bugs could be eliminated": innovation.consumerreports.org/apples-new-i... #ethics #internet #privacy #cybersec #Apple #business #tech
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
"[S]he grew increasingly reliant on #ChatGPT, talking to it in Russian for up to six hours a day. 'We had such a friendly communication,' she says. 'I'm telling it everything [but] it doesn't respond in a formal way--it was amusing'" www.bbc.com/news/article... #ethics #AI #chatbots #tech #business
I wanted ChatGPT to help me. So why did it advise me how to kill myself?
ChatGPT wrote a woman a suicide note and another AI chatbot role-played sexual acts with children, BBC finds.
www.bbc.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
A young man's parents are "now suing OpenAI--ChatGPT’s creator--alleging the #tech giant put his life in danger by tweaking its design last year to be more humanlike and by failing to put enough safeguards on interactions with users in need of emergency help" www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u... #ethics #law
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:32 PM
A young man's parents are "now suing OpenAI--ChatGPT’s creator--alleging the #tech giant put his life in danger by tweaking its design last year to be more humanlike and by failing to put enough safeguards on interactions with users in need of emergency help" www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u... #ethics #law
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
"A small advertiser would have to get flagged for promoting financial fraud at least eight times before Meta blocked it... Some bigger spenders--known as 'High Value Accounts'--could accrue more than 500 strikes without Meta shutting them down": www.reuters.com/investigatio... #ethics #law #business
Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.
www.reuters.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:20 PM
"A small advertiser would have to get flagged for promoting financial fraud at least eight times before Meta blocked it... Some bigger spenders--known as 'High Value Accounts'--could accrue more than 500 strikes without Meta shutting them down": www.reuters.com/investigatio... #ethics #law #business
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
"A high-quality [but relatively small] image data set shows that #tech companies can obtain informed consent and avoid #data bias without breaking the bank": nature.com/articles/d41... #ethics #law #AI #business
Images for AI use can be sourced responsibly
A high-quality image data set shows that tech companies can obtain informed consent and avoid data bias without breaking the bank.
nature.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:46 PM
"A small advertiser would have to get flagged for promoting financial fraud at least eight times before Meta blocked it... Some bigger spenders--known as 'High Value Accounts'--could accrue more than 500 strikes without Meta shutting them down": www.reuters.com/investigatio... #ethics #law #business
Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.
www.reuters.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:20 PM
"A small advertiser would have to get flagged for promoting financial fraud at least eight times before Meta blocked it... Some bigger spenders--known as 'High Value Accounts'--could accrue more than 500 strikes without Meta shutting them down": www.reuters.com/investigatio... #ethics #law #business
A young man's parents are "now suing OpenAI--ChatGPT’s creator--alleging the #tech giant put his life in danger by tweaking its design last year to be more humanlike and by failing to put enough safeguards on interactions with users in need of emergency help" www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u... #ethics #law
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:32 PM
A young man's parents are "now suing OpenAI--ChatGPT’s creator--alleging the #tech giant put his life in danger by tweaking its design last year to be more humanlike and by failing to put enough safeguards on interactions with users in need of emergency help" www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u... #ethics #law
"[S]he grew increasingly reliant on #ChatGPT, talking to it in Russian for up to six hours a day. 'We had such a friendly communication,' she says. 'I'm telling it everything [but] it doesn't respond in a formal way--it was amusing'" www.bbc.com/news/article... #ethics #AI #chatbots #tech #business
I wanted ChatGPT to help me. So why did it advise me how to kill myself?
ChatGPT wrote a woman a suicide note and another AI chatbot role-played sexual acts with children, BBC finds.
www.bbc.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:25 PM
"If #app #developers are also diligent about turning on the MIE feature, fixing bugs, and pushing out new versions, entire classes of memory safety bugs could be eliminated": innovation.consumerreports.org/apples-new-i... #ethics #internet #privacy #cybersec #Apple #business #tech
Apple’s New iPhone Memory Protections Safeguards Devices Against Sophisticated Attacks - Innovation at Consumer Reports
Apple’s new Memory Integrity Enforcement aligns hardware and software to block memory safety exploits before they start, raising the bar for phone security
innovation.consumerreports.org
November 7, 2025 at 9:23 PM
"If #app #developers are also diligent about turning on the MIE feature, fixing bugs, and pushing out new versions, entire classes of memory safety bugs could be eliminated": innovation.consumerreports.org/apples-new-i... #ethics #internet #privacy #cybersec #Apple #business #tech
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
"The #privacy changes web browsers will be required to make under a new California #law could set the de facto standard for the entire country, changing how Americans control their #data when using the #internet": themarkup.org/privacy/2025... #ethics #privacy #gov #business #tech
Why a new California law could change the way all Americans browse the internet – The Markup
Legislation recently enacted in California will make it easier for consumers nationwide to protect their data
themarkup.org
November 7, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
#Facebook group admins "can now make their private groups public... When a group changes from private to public, all members are notified about the change" (and past content "stays private"): about.fb.com/news/2025/11... #ethics #privacy #socialmedia #internet #business #tech
New Facebook Update Gives Group Admins More Flexibility While Protecting Member Privacy
We’re giving Facebook Group admins the option to change their group from private to public while still protecting the privacy of members.
about.fb.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:18 AM
#Facebook group admins "can now make their private groups public... When a group changes from private to public, all members are notified about the change" (and past content "stays private"): about.fb.com/news/2025/11... #ethics #privacy #socialmedia #internet #business #tech
Reposted by The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
"[H]ealth-informed #AI is not limited to #technology companies operating their own data centers; it also applies to any organization (or even individuals) deploying cloud-based AI that can strategically run AI tasks in regions with lower public #health impacts." #ethics #business #ESG
"While the overall public #health burden of #AI is relatively modest nationally, its local health risks are increasingly pronounced and unevenly distributed, often felt the most in disadvantaged communities": hbr.org/2025/11/miti... #ethics #tech #business #gov
Mitigating the Public Health Impacts of AI Data Centers
The rapid growth of AI isn’t just a power challenge—it’s also impacting public health with an annual cost of up to $20 billion in the U.S. by 2028. As public health begins to take center stage in glob...
hbr.org
November 7, 2025 at 12:19 AM