A selection of articles, op-eds, TV segments, and other media featuring Ethics Center staff and programs.
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"Ethics experts are raising concerns after state Treasurer Stacy Garrity campaigned at a gala hosted by a firm from which she purchased millions in bonds in her official state role," Spotlight PA reports.
Davina Hurt, Ethics Center's director of government ethics says, “It's positive she had this self-reflective movement,” said
As an elected official, Hurt said, “You want to be in every room to see everybody. But when you arrive to this role, you need to be very thoughtful about what rooms you sit in and how you separate the individual from the public benefit.”
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by Spotlight PA.
In a city with many dogs and few public trash cans, this is the question dividing one San Francisco community. Seven ethicists, including Ethic Center's Senior Director of Leadership Ethics, Ann Skeet, weighed in.
The unanimous conclusion? All seven ethicists agreed that dog owners need to take their poop baggies home or put them in a public bin.
Skeet says, it comes down to two ethical considerations: virtue and the common good.
“Virtue framing asks, is this option that I am considering going to make me the person that I want to be?” Skeet explained. The common good framework asks you to consider whether putting the poop in someone else’s bin is good just for you or for everyone.
Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by The San Francisco Standard.
Ethics Center Director of Technology Ethics, Brian Patrick Green, is among a group of Catholic Moral Theologians and Ethicists who filed a "friends of the court brief," or amici curiae in support of Anthropic in its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of War.
The scholars position is that Anthropic "was acting as a responsible and moral corporate citizen" and "not as a threat to the safety of the American supply chain," reports the National Catholic Reporter, and they argue that "lethal autonomous weapons problematically obscure human agency, dangerously shifting responsibility away from human decision-makers to machines."
Brian Green, director, technology ethics, featured in National Catholic Reporter.
Donald Trump, Jr.'s involvement with predication markets has raised concerns from experts about a potential conflict of interest.
“Just the perception that people have that Donald Jr. himself might have inside information because of his easy access to the president, I think presents a problem for the prediction market companies, because you also want the people that are participating in them to feel like the information flow there is free flowing,” said Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics.
Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by NJ.com.
Despite a surge in AI use, public trust of AI is in decline, reports Kate Wieczorek via Forbes.
"Even prior to Defense Department negotiations, many are concerned about ethical AI. A survey of 3,000 Americans by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics found that 82% of people care if AI is ethical and 55% believe AI companies are not considering ethics when developing AI."
"Ethics in the age of AI," a survey commissioned by the Markkula Center, is referenced by Forbes.
Joan Harrington, a former director and current fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, called the financial dealings between the California Partners Project and the other entities linked to Siebel Newsom and the governor “very tangled.”
“Why didn’t those other organizations donate directly to the nonprofit? Why did they go through Newsom?” Harrington said, referring to the governor soliciting behested payments to his wife’s political nonprofit.
“If they are truly caring about those issues, they should be giving directly, and if they’re not giving directly, we come to a natural conclusion.”
Joan Harrington, Ethics Center Fellow, quoted by the California Post.
In 2024, Sen. Dan Craven pulled off a rare fundraising triumph for a lawmaker who had only served one full term - he attracted more than $1.3 million in contributions to his campaign. A fifth of those donations were from a single lobbyist source, Kevin Wilkinson.
Simultaneously, Craven's campaign finance reports show he paid a business owned by Wilkinson’s wife Megan Wilkinson nearly $59,000 in fees for campaign consulting–a role she had not previously held with any other clients.
“Public service operates on trust, and when you have financial, professional and social relationships overlapping, leaders have the responsibility to tell, to demonstrate independence clearly. It shouldn’t be assumed,” said Davina Hurt, director of government ethics. “Here, there’s no transparency about what these relationships are, or are not.”
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by The Charlotte Observer.
With the rise of AI, many feel that we are in danger of losing deeper human connection and interaction. Irina Raicu, director of internet ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, acknowledges this risk however remains hopeful about keeping these technologies human focued.
"We do have to be really thoughtful about how this technology changes us," Raicu said. But, "this is not God-given. This is technology that was shaped by other human beings who made certain choices. We can make different choices."
Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, featured in National Catholic Reporter.
