Media Mentions

A now-defunct website called Wyldfyre, offered simulated bets under the tagline “you can’t predict wildfire,” “but you can trade on it,” reports The Press Democrat.

The prospect of betting on wildfires raises a number of ethical issues, according to Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics at Santa Clara University.

"As soon as you place a contract on a certain event that involves the potential loss of life, you’re kind of monetizing human life, and in a way that reduces its value,” Skeet said.

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by The Press Democrat. (The article is also running in the Mercury News, East Bay Times, Sacramento Bee, and Silicon Valley.com)

Moving healthcare upstream sounds like progress. But earlier isn't necessarily better.

Guadalupe Hayes-Mota, director of the Bioethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, worries about what happens when medicine answers that question too aggressively.

“If moving healthcare upstream allows us to identify risk before illness begins,” Hayes-Mota asked, “how do we make sure we are creating healthier lives rather than simply creating patients earlier?”

Guadalupe Hayes-Mota, quoted in a Substack from The Care Capitalist.

Who are the people behind the scenes in AI? 'Taskers' could be your kids, students and neighbors, and they are being worn down for little pay and no security from the third party companies and subcontractors who hire them, while AI firms benefit from the work they perform.

Irina Raicu, director of internet ethics, addresses the need to recognize the hundreds of thousands of people around the world performing a kind of piecework in training and fine-tuning AI models. She says without their labor, these AI products or services would not exist.

Raicu says there is an increase in calls for regulation of various aspects of AI, conversations about “AI governance,” and many programs, in universities and other organizations, focusing on “responsible AI.”

"Any such programs should address the role of taskers, and the need for protection of human dignity and the dignity of labor," Raicu writes.

Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, published by Mercury News.

A July survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found that voters overwhelmingly oppose extreme power and water consuming data center construction in their cities, and that has local officials worried about their economic development plans.

“I think part of the problem has been a lack of information and communities just feeling besieged,” observes Irina Raicu, an Internet ethics program director and the co-author of a new study on water availability and data center regulation. “How do data centers compare to certain agricultural uses or with other things that might be more problematic? There are some real trade-offs involved here that are not easy to make.”

Iris Stewart-Frey, co-author of the study, professor and head of the Santa Clara University Water and Climate Justice Lab, and Ethics Center faculty scholar added, "I think the public debate has gotten loud enough that it’s going to be hard to ignore...so hopefully that will push [the thinking about data centers] and develop some of the regulations and policies that are needed at the state and federal level.”

Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, and Iris Stewart-Frey, professor, environmental studies and sciences, quoted by Western City, a monthly publication provided by the League of California Cities.

Many arguments against migration suggest that only certain groups of people (the “blood”) are suitable to live on this land (the “soil”) and that only those belonging to those groups are true Americans. This is intellectually refined Trumpism—it is also immoral and un-American.

In their article, DeCosse and Fr. O'Neill write,

"That baseline doesn’t mean that every migrant must become a member. But it requires that the equal dignity and equal human rights of every migrant be recognized and respected as they are considered for membership. The common good demands no less. Such a requirement stands as a contradiction to the heritage American story."

David DeCosse, director, religious and Catholic ethics, and William O'Neill, S.J., published by America Magazine.

Politico reports on Brittany Kelm’s departure from the White House to lead the Washington office of a Houston oil company, and the ethics questions now raised about the connection between her role as a government official and corporate interests.

While departing government for the private sector is not inherently improper, “the ethics concern arises when that distance between an official’s public responsibilities and the private employment is so exceptionally close together, particularly when the official moves directly to a company whose interests she personally worked on while exercising governmental authority,” said Davina Hurt, director of government ethics.

Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by Politico.

San Jose Spotlight reports San Jose’s will return online public comment to City Council meetings and for its various commissions and committees. The change is part of a broader package of reform measures intended to streamline commission operations, including the appointment process for commissioners. The proposal also calls for removing a requirement which mandates background checks for those applying to serve on advisory bodies.

“Protecting public trust isn’t as simple as removing a requirement,” Davina Hurt, director of government ethics told San José Spotlight. “It requires scaffolding other accountability measures in its place: a clear public complaint and referral pathway, clearly articulated recusal policy, and consistent enforcement.”

Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by San Jose Spotlight.

People are betting on wildfires. Wagers include questions about when a wildfire could start, the duration of a fire, how far it will spread, and if homes will burn. Prediction marketplace Kalshi says their service prohibits betting on these types of events. Other marketplaces don't have restrictions.

Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics questions what allowing these types of bets says about society.

"The fabric of society is fraying a little bit when we're betting on the harm and demise of our neighbors," Skeet told CBS News.

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by CBS News.