A selection of articles, op-eds, TV segments, and other media featuring Ethics Center staff and programs.
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics does not advocate for any product, company, or organization. Our engagements are intended to provide training, customized materials, and other resources. The Markkula Center does not offer certifications or seals of approval.
KQED reports that California lawmakers tried to address the water issue last year through legislation, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the proposed measure. New bills mandating disclosures about water use and planning are in progress.
“We have this huge build out, and we have very little data,” said Irina Raicu, who directs the Internet Ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, quoted by KQED.
Vicki Schmidt, the Kansas insurance commissioner and a pharmacist by trade, is running to be governor. Schmidt is facing scrutiny over campaign contributions she received from interested parties prior to a key regulatory decision. The act is raising ethical questions about a potential influence campaign.
“When it comes to ethics, it’s always about public trust and the appearance of independence — making sure there is not an appearance of impropriety,” said Davina Hurt, director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
“Ethics exists because trust is fragile and in instances just like this, they have to maintain public confidence that these decisions are being made on policies of public interest and not on donor relationships,” Hurt said.
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by The Kansas City Star.
Artificial intelligence may imitate the miracle of human life, but it cannot replace it. Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics talks to Decode39 about the conviction that lies at the heart of Magnifica Humanitas, the Pope Leo XIV encyclical.
Green says, "Most technology companies are at least aware that if they behave in ways considered too unethical, they will eventually pay a financial price for it, and therefore they try — in most cases — to respect some fundamental moral obligations. Some companies are far more attentive to ethics than others. But, as Christopher Olah observed in his remarks, we cannot leave everything in the hands of technology companies. All of us must work to ensure that technology is necessarily ethical — otherwise it will not be."
Brian Green, director, technology ethics, interviewed by Decode 39.
“Moral formation has been a topic that religions have been talking about for thousands of years,” says Brian Green, director, technology ethics. “What insights can they give us that we can use to hopefully produce a model which will be better at doing what we want it to do, which is to be good and not do bad things?”
Brian Green, director, technology ethics, quoted by Scientific American.
When Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On the Protection of Human Dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” released last Monday, five Santa Clara University scholars, including several ethicists and faculty scholars from the Markklua Center for Applied Ethics, went straight to work reading, annotating, discussing, and debating the 42,000+ word document.
And then they held a public panel to share their findings with the SCU campus community.
Brian Green, director, technology ethics, says, “Right now, everyone’s not just talking about artificial intelligence. It’s artificial general intelligence, which is going to be as good as a human being. So what are the rest of us to do? Well, we get replaced. And what the Pope is saying is that that isn’t the future we’re aiming for. We’re not looking to replace people. We’re looking to have technology help us do things that are going to make a better future together.”
Ann Skeet, Ethics Center senior director of leadership ethics, shared, “The business community is offering up a vision of AI that a lot of people can’t relate to or don’t really want. And so here comes Pope Leo offering a much more palatable vision—one that puts us, the human, at the center of it.”
Brian Green, director of technology ethics, and Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics, quoted by Santa Clara News.
President Trump’s Truth Social platform announced last year that it was partnering with Crypto.com to bring prediction markets to the social media site.
“A president using the public power of the office to shape a regulatory outcome that directly benefits his son’s financial interests is, at minimum, a profound conflict-of-interest concern,” Davina Hurt, director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said in a statement to The Hill.
“That is not a political attack — it is simply a description of the structure, the ethical risk, and why stronger guardrails matter.” said Hurt.
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by The Hill.
In his Encyclical released this week, Pope Leo calls for more regulation and safeguards to protect humanity from the negative impacts of artificial intelligence.
Brian Green, Ethics Center director of technology ethics, says the encyclical aims at asking, "What is AI doing to us as human beings? Are we using AI for the right purposes?"
Green says the Pope has given a lot of people hope for something maybe perhaps happening when it comes to AI.
"There are ethical values that are more important than money."
Brian Green, director, technology ethics, interviewed by KQED.
Pope Leo XIV in his first encyclical, took aim at big tech. The Pope warns that artificial intelligence poses impact to inequality, democracy, and what it means to be human.
"This is a landmark opportunity for the world to look at a new technology and really think about what it is for," said Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics at Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
Brian Green, director, technology ethics, quoted by NPR.
