The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

X’s messy About This Account rollout has caused utter chaos X’s About This Account location data is either completely useless, or everyone is a foreign troll.

"The reaction from users on X was, of course, totally level-headed. They immediately recognized that the #data was flawed and definitely didn’t spend the last 24 hours trying to score political points": theverge.com/news/827279/... #ethics #internet #socialmedia #tech

"The fading away of DOGE is in sharp contrast to the government-wide effort over months to draw attention to it, with Trump, his advisers and cabinet secretaries posting about it on #socialmedia": reuters.com/world/us/dog... #ethics #internet

Trump signs executive order launching AI initiative being compared to the Manhattan Project The order announced the “Genesis Mission” for AI, a new federal push to mobilize the federal government's research and data to create artificial intelligence models.

"The Genesis Mission will... harness Federal scientific datasets... to train scientific foundation models and create #AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate #research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs": nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne... #ethics #tech #gov #data #business #highered

I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking. "Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."

"To be brief, I inserted hidden text into an assignment’s directions that the students couldn’t see but that #ChatGPT can": huffpost.com/entry/histor... #ethics #tech #AI #education #highered

We Used to Read Things in This Country | Noah McCormack Technology changes us—and it is currently changing us for the worse.

I read this while on a 10 hour road trip with my kids. I used to do these road trips when I was a kid and I would read books the whole time. My kids did read books but they spent more time watching an iPad. Felt more guilty about that than normal thanks to this: thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...

For everyone writing yearend stories about AI lovers, don't make the mistake of thinking the number of weekly visitors to the /MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit (which is what gets displayed now) is the number of members.

Have seen two major pubs now make this mistake. And I get it! I did too (on Bluesky).

Over on the other site, OpenAI’s head of model behavior said they changed the appearance of the nudge soon after it was released 👇

The company essentially turned a dial that made ChatGPT more appealing and made people use it more, but sent some of them into delusional spirals.

OpenAI has since made the chatbot safer, but that comes with a tradeoff: less usage.

Elon Musk’s Grokipedia Is a Warning The centibillionaire’s Wikipedia clone is ridiculous. It’s also a glimpse of the future.

A "new piece of a claustrophobically referential informational system: A database of articles written by a #chatbot so they can later be referenced as authoritative sources by the same chatbot, and maybe help train another one": nymag.com/intelligence... #ethics #AI #internet

Google boss issues warning ahead of Gemini 3.0 launch Sundar Pichai has warned against an overreliance on artificial intelligence and said the tech remains "prone to errors."

"[R]egardless of the intent to mitigate #AI risks, safeguarding #LLMS remains 'an unsolved computer science problem'": newsweek.com/google-boss-... #ethics #tech #business #gov #education

Australia's social media ban for kids under 16 - how will it work? The world-first law aims to reduce the "risks" children face online - but it's received pushback.

"[I]t's hard to say whether the #socialmedia ban will be effective... The #government's own report found that facial assessment #technology, for example, is least reliable for the exact demographic it's needed to target": bbc.com/news/article... #ethics #law #business

Meet the Group Breaking People Out of AI Delusions In this Discord server, people impacted by AI delusions and psychosis share their experiences — and even help users out of delusional spells.

NEW: A Discord community with nearly 200 members serves as a support group for people whose minds and lives have been upended by episodes of AI delusion and psychosis.

In some cases, members say, the group has helped people climb out of their destructive AI "spirals."

futurism.com/artificial-i...

I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.

Australia's social media ban for kids under 16 - how will it work? The world-first law aims to reduce the "risks" children face online - but it's received pushback.

"[I]t's hard to say whether the #socialmedia ban will be effective... The #government's own report found that facial assessment #technology, for example, is least reliable for the exact demographic it's needed to target": bbc.com/news/article... #ethics #law #business

Google boss issues warning ahead of Gemini 3.0 launch Sundar Pichai has warned against an overreliance on artificial intelligence and said the tech remains "prone to errors."

"[R]egardless of the intent to mitigate #AI risks, safeguarding #LLMS remains 'an unsolved computer science problem'": newsweek.com/google-boss-... #ethics #tech #business #gov #education

A Framework for Ethical Decision Making

ICYMI: "A Framework for Ethical Decision-Making," from the Markkula Center for Applied #Ethics at Santa Clara University: scu.edu/ethics/ethic...
#highered

The "Goodbye Fears Monster" A new toy records the fears of young children and passes them along to parents.

Two links: 1) an #ethics case study: scu.edu/ethics/focus...; 2) "Sales of AI-enabled teddy bear suspended after it gave advice on BDSM sex and where to find knives": edition.cnn.com/2025/11/19/t... #tech #business #toys #AI #internet

TikTok will let you choose how much AI-generated content you want to see | TechCrunch With the new AI-generated content control, users who want to see less of this sort of content can dial things down, while those who enjoy it can choose to see more of it.

A new #TikTok setting "lets users choose how much AI-generated content they want to see in their For You feed. The company is also introducing more advanced labeling technologies for AI-generated content": techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/t... #ethics #tech #AI #socialmedia #contentmoderation #business

Google and Meta delay undersea cable projects over security concerns — Red Sea corridor carries a fifth of global internet traffic, but risk to crews and ships stalls plans Ongoing threats in a critical corridor push major infrastructure projects off schedule.

On delays to undersea cable projects "over #security concerns--Red Sea corridor carries a fifth of global #internet traffic, but risk to crews and ships stalls plans": tomshardware.com/tech-industr... #ethics #tech #access #business #gov

Microsoft, Google say their data centers create thousands of jobs. Their permit filings say otherwise Chile and tech giants promise economy-wide impact but permits show fewer onsite jobs after construction.

"An analysis of 17 data center projects that underwent environmental review since 2012 shows they would directly hire no more than 1,547 full-time operations employees... The facilities on average offer about 90 positions": restofworld.org/2025/data-ce... #ethics #AI #labor #tech #gov

"Another 32 #data centers are planned to be built by 11 international firms by 2028, according to InvestChile... Data obtained through an information request... shows those... would add only 909 permanent positions during the operational phase, which lasts about 30 years." #ethics #AI #gov #tech

"The Senate voted 99-1 against an effort to block #AI #laws earlier this year... The issue took on new life after Trump on Tuesday threw his weight behind a proposal... to add a similar provision to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)" reuters.com/business/urg... #ethics #AI #gov #business

ChatGPT is huge in India. These locally focused startups found a way to compete Indian founders are building digital data sets for low-resource languages by involving the community, and count on local relevance to go against big tech platforms.

A few Indian startups "are building #AI tools for so-called low-resource #languages such as Tulu, Bodo, and Kashmiri, which have a limited online presence and few written records. The startups are having to build data sets nearly from scratch": restofworld.org/2025/chatgpt... #ethics #tech

Next time when you don't know how to decide, start with this:

I’m kind of fascinated by these services. This is the first time that major companies have taken a stand on adding IP privacy to their offerings. It’s as big a deal as the rise of end-to-end encryption or TLS, but everyone noticed those things. Nobody is talking about this.

One of the most interesting recent privacy developments is the deployment of big two-hop IP blinding VPNs by companies like Apple and Google. These systems are designed to ensure that even those companies can’t link web requests to IP addresses.

ChatGPT is huge in India. These locally focused startups found a way to compete Indian founders are building digital data sets for low-resource languages by involving the community, and count on local relevance to go against big tech platforms.

A few Indian startups "are building #AI tools for so-called low-resource #languages such as Tulu, Bodo, and Kashmiri, which have a limited online presence and few written records. The startups are having to build data sets nearly from scratch": restofworld.org/2025/chatgpt... #ethics #tech

"The Senate voted 99-1 against an effort to block #AI #laws earlier this year... The issue took on new life after Trump on Tuesday threw his weight behind a proposal... to add a similar provision to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)" reuters.com/business/urg... #ethics #AI #gov #business

"Another 32 #data centers are planned to be built by 11 international firms by 2028, according to InvestChile... Data obtained through an information request... shows those... would add only 909 permanent positions during the operational phase, which lasts about 30 years." #ethics #AI #gov #tech

Microsoft, Google say their data centers create thousands of jobs. Their permit filings say otherwise Chile and tech giants promise economy-wide impact but permits show fewer onsite jobs after construction.

"An analysis of 17 data center projects that underwent environmental review since 2012 shows they would directly hire no more than 1,547 full-time operations employees... The facilities on average offer about 90 positions": restofworld.org/2025/data-ce... #ethics #AI #labor #tech #gov