Skip to main content
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Homepage
A ballot box with a ballot. Promotion for Voting for Ethics: A Guide for U.S. Voters, Second Edition.

Voting for Ethics: A Guide for U.S. Voters

“Voting for Ethics” is a non-partisan, how-to guide for U.S. voters. It will help you identify the hallmarks of an ethical candidate and make a more informed decision -- whether for your local school board or a national election.

Continue Reading

Recordings from 4 Webinars about AI and "Magnifica Humanitas," the Encyclical from Pope Leo XIV

The webinars focus on four distinct topics: AI and education, AI and labor, AI and consciousness, and disarming AI.

Access the Webinar Recordings

Teaching Note: Interview of Theranos Whistleblower, Tyler Shultz

This teaching module for business ethics, leadership and management courses includes two videos, homework assignments, and class discussion, all designed to spark conversation about ethical issues associated with whistleblowers and corporate governance.

View the Teaching Module

An aerial view of a large data center overlaid with the words The Intersection of Data Center Development, Water Availability, and Environmental Justice In California.Logos for Santa Clara University and supporting departments are present.

The Intersection of Data Center Development, Water Availability, and Environmental Justice In California

A new report by Next 10, led by researchers Iris Stewart-Frey and Irina Raicu at Santa Clara University, finds that data centers are expanding into water-stressed, vulnerable communities across California.

California has the opportunity to align data center growth with its climate, water, and environmental justice goals — but it requires stronger transparency and integrated planning.

Access the Full Report from Next 10

All About Ethics: Perspectives From Across the Center

Workers at computers, facing in different directions

In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV highlighted the "silent work of millions of people engaged in essential yet largely unseen activities"

Brush and Tree Landscape Burning with Flame and Smoke During California Wildfire. By Erin via Adobe Stock.

The Markkula Center argues that prediction markets fail ethical and policy standards because making bets on active wildfires undermines public safety, creates insider trading concerns, and reduces community wellbeing to mere financial speculation.

Profile of a statue head with threads attached to it and being pulled by hands, with a panel with knobs behind it. Hanna Barakat  & Cambridge Diversity Fund betterimagesofai. org cropped: Licenses by CCBy4.0

Resources highlighting various views on AI consciousness

AI Ethics Literacy

A list of AI ethics issues and relevant materials (articles and video recordings) from the Center’s website. 

Access AI Ethics Literacy Resources

Students at computers with screens that include a representation of a retinal scanner with pixelation and binary data overlays and a brightly coloured datawave heatmap at the top.

Featured Ethics Spotlights

Pair of red dice.

The growth of prediction markets begs the question, is it wrong to benefit from someone else’s misfortune? Ethics Center staff and faculty interrogate the moral and ethical issues associated with prediction markets.

An arm outstretched holding a heart with words Digital Dignity Day across the top. Design by Tiffany Yu/Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

This Ethics Spotlight explores the impact AI is having on human dignity, part of the Markkula Center’s work in the international project New Humanism in the time of Neurosciences and Artificial Intelligence (NHNAI).

Families with young children protest the separation of immigrant families with a sit-in at the Hart Senate Office Building, Thursday, July 26, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

This Ethics Spotlight explores the ethical dimensions of immigration enforcement and detention in the United States—particularly the role of ICE under the current administration.

Center News

Brush and Tree Landscape Burning with Flame and Smoke During California Wildfire. By Erin via Adobe Stock.

The Markkula Center argues that prediction markets fail ethical and policy standards because making bets on active wildfires undermines public safety, creates insider trading concerns, and reduces community wellbeing to mere financial speculation.

Taara Kahn ’26 (center, holding certificate), recipient of the 2026 Markkula Prize in Applied Ethics with her parents Anwar Khan and Selma Vukotic at Vari Hall.

A warm send off to the Ethics Center Class of 2026 and awarding this year's Markkula Prize for outstanding commitment to ethics.

An aerial view of a large data center overlaid with the words The Intersection of Data Center Development, Water Availability, and Environmental Justice In California.Logos for Santa Clara University and supporting departments are present.

The report suggests ways to make the planning and deployment of data centers in the state both more sustainable and more equitable.

Santa Clara University Juniors Annie Schloss and Rebecca An.

2025-26 Hackworth Fellow Annie Schloss ’27, and Rebecca An ’27, a 2025-26 Health Care Ethics Intern, Earn National Research Awards

ITEC Book Cover Light Background

Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap

By José Roger Flahaux, Brian Patrick Green, and Ann Skeet

"Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap,” or, more briefly, the “ITEC Handbook,” offers organizations a strategic plan to enhance ethical management practices, empowering them to navigate the complex landscape of disruptive technologies such as AI, machine learning, encryption, tracking, and others while upholding strong ethical standards.

Download the ITEC Handbook

Hands in a circle with text Culture Self-Assessment Practice.

Evaluating Culture for Ethics

Our Culture Self-Assessment Practice recommends approaches to evaluating culture for ethics within companies and other types of organizations. The materials are primarily for members of an organization’s leadership team, including human resources and legal, but designed to engage a cross-section of leaders from various disciplines.

Get Started

Media Commentary

OSV News Logo

Brian Green, director, technology ethics, quoted by OSV News.

NBC Bay Area logo with a blue background.

Subbu Vincent, director, journalism and media ethics, quoted by NBC Bay Area.

NBC Bay Area logo with a blue background.

Ann Skeet, Ethics Center interim executive director, quoted by NBC Bay Area.

Logo for Religion News Service. Orange background with white letters RNS.

Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, S.J., dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, and Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, published by Religion News Service.

An Industry Leader in Ethics Consultation

For more than 35 years, the Ethics Center has helped individuals and organizations make better decisions and includes offering fee-for-service options for organizations that want a customized approach to building training programs, case studies, and other materials.