At the Oregon Ethics Bowl, students make room for gray areas in a world of hot takes; The Oregonian, Oregon Live, February 9, 2026

 Julia Silverman | The Oregonian/OregonLive; At the Oregon Ethics Bowl, students make room for gray areas in a world of hot takes

"We live in a world of snap judgments, rage-baiting and fleeting internet memes designed to hold our attention for 10 seconds or less.

But on a rainy Saturday inside classrooms at Lincoln High School in Southwest Portland, all of that was at bay — at least for a few hours.

Instead, several dozen middle and high school teams from the Portland metro area who have been studying the same set of ethical quandaries for months gathered to unpack them in Oregon’s annual Ethics Bowl competition."

An Essay Contest Winner Used A.I. Should She Return the $1,000 Award?; The Ethicist, The New York Times; September 10, 2025

 Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Ethicist, The New York Times ; An Essay Contest Winner Used A.I. Should She Return the $1,000 Award?

[Kip Currier: This is a thought-provoking and timely ethical dilemma, especially with the proliferation of AI into more and more aspects of our personal and professional lives.

The question posed to The Ethicist in this edition of his column is about students submitting essays for a contest. The questioner wonders if the students have used AI to write their essays. The contest winners are awarded a monetary scholarship. The questioner wonders if they should confront the winners. The beauty of this question is that we don't know for sure whether AI was or was not used. It's totally speculative. What would you do?

Does your thinking change as to whether using AI to write something is ethical or unethical if: 

• AI is used by a university professor to prepare a lecture
• AI is used by a university professor to create an essay exam
• AI is used by an elementary school teacher to prepare a lesson
• AI is used by an elementary school teacher to create a multiple choice test
• AI is used by your lawyer to write the legal brief for your lawsuit
• AI is used by your lawyer's paralegal to write the legal brief for your lawsuit
• AI is used to synthesize the court's verdict by the judge deciding your case
• AI is used by a library director to compose the library's strategic plan
• AI is used by a non-profit university to compose the university's strategic plan
• AI is used by a for-profit company to compose the company's strategic plan
• AI is used by a military branch to compose a strategy for military engagement
• AI is used by a government agency to compose a strategy for national security
• AI is used by local law enforcement to compose a strategy for public safety
• AI is used by a summer camp to compose a strategy for camp safety
• AI is used by your doctor to devise the treatment plan for your relative's cancer treatment
• AI is used by a scientist to devise treatments for helping patients with cancer
• AI is used to write a song for your significant other's birthday
• AI is used to write a song for a musical you are creating
• AI is used to write a song for a pharmaceutical company ad on TV
• AI is used by your clergy head to write an annual report
• AI is used by your clergy head to write a sermon
• AI is used by your clergy head to write the eulogy for the funeral of one of your parents

Questions: Are you able to identify any variations in your ethical reasoning and how you decide your positions in the scenarios above?

What are you basing your decisions on? 

Are some scenarios easier or harder for you than others? If so, why?

In which situations, if any, do you think it is okay or not okay to use AI?

What additional information, if any, would you like to know that might help you to make decisions about whether and when the uses of AI are ethical or unethical?

[Excerpt]

I volunteer with our local historical society, which awards a $1,000 scholarship each year to two high school students who submit essays about a meaningful experience with a historical site. This year, our committee noticed a huge improvement in the quality of the students’ essays, and only after announcing the winners did we realize that one of them, along with other students, had almost certainly used artificial intelligence. What to do? I think our teacher liaison should be told, because A.I. is such a challenge for schools. I also feel that this winner should be confronted. If we are right, that might lead her to confess her dishonesty and return the award. — Name Withheld"

Murkowski Casts Decisive Vote for G.O.P. Policy Bill, Making an ‘Agonizing’ Choice; The New York Times, July 1, 2025

 Annie Karni , The New York Times; Murkowski Casts Decisive Vote for G.O.P. Policy Bill, Making an ‘Agonizing’ Choice

"Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, on Tuesday cast the deciding vote for President Trump’s sprawling bill to slash taxes and social safety net programs, embracing a measure she acknowledged would harm Americans after securing carve outs to protect her constituents from its harshest impacts."

Amy Dickinson says goodbye in her final column; The Washington Post, June 30, 2024

 Amy Dickinson , The Washington Post; Amy Dickinson says goodbye in her final column

"Dear Readers: Since announcing my departure from writing this syndicated column, I have heard from scores of people across various platforms, thanking me for more than two decades of offering advice and wishing me well in my “retirement.” I am very touched and grateful for this outpouring of support...

The questions raised in this space have been used as teaching tools in middle schools, memory care units, ESL classes and prisons. These are perfect venues to discuss ethical, human-size dilemmas. On my last day communicating with you in this way, I feel compelled to try to sum up my experience by offering some lasting wisdom, but I’ve got no fresh insight. Everything I know has been distilled from wisdom gathered elsewhere...

Boxer Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan, until they get punched ...” Punches are inevitable. But I do believe I’ve learned some universal truths that might soften the blows.

They are:...

Identify, develop, or explore your core ethical and/or spiritual beliefs...

I sometimes supply “scripts” for people who have asked me for the right words to say, and so I thought I would boil these down to some of the most important statements I believe anyone can make.

They are:

I need help.

I’m sorry.

I forgive you.

I love you, just as you are.

I’m on your side.

You’re safe.

You are not alone."

‘Good Place’ creator Michael Schur asks: How can we live a more ethical life?; The Washington Post, March 4, 2022

 Michael Schur , The Washington Post; ‘Good Place’ creator Michael Schur asks: How can we live a more ethical life?

"For every conscientious citizen, there’s a whole bunch of cheaters and liars and Wolf of Wall Street maniacs who see ethical rules as annoying obstacles to getting whatever they want — not, you know, once a month, but literally all the time. Perhaps we can break down this whole confusing morass into four simple questions that we can ask ourselves whenever we encounter any ethical dilemma, great or small:

What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Is there something we could do that’s better? Why is it better?...

“Trying to do the right thing” means we are bound to fail. Even making our best efforts to be good people, we’re gonna screw up. Constantly. We’ll make a decision we think is right and good, only to find out it was wrong and bad. We’ll do something we don’t think will affect anyone, only to find out it sure as hell did, and man are we in trouble. We will hurt our friends’ feelings, harm the environment, support evil companies, accidentally help an elderly Nazi cross the street. We will fail, and then fail again, and again, and again. On this test, which we take daily whether we want to or not, failure is guaranteed — in fact, even getting like a C-plus often seems hopelessly out of reach. All of which can make caring about what we do seem pointless.

But that failure means more, and has more potential value, if we do care. Because if we care about doing the right thing, we will also want to figure out why we failed, which will give us a better chance to succeed in the future. Failure hurts, and it’s embarrassing, but it’s also how we learn stuff — it’s called “trial and error,” not “one perfect trial and we nail it and then we’re done.” Plus, come on — the alternative to caring about our ethical lives is really no alternative at all. We’re supposed to just ignore all questions about our behavior? Phone it in, morally speaking? I can’t believe that’s the right move. If we care about anything in this life, we ought to care about whether what we’re doing is good or bad."

Emerging technologies pose ethical quandaries. Where does IT leadership fit in?; CIO Dive, February 22, 2021

 Katie Malone, CIO Dive; Emerging technologies pose ethical quandaries. Where does IT leadership fit in?

""More organizations are seeing that trust is a measurement of profitability, of organizational health, of success," said Catherine Bannister, Tech Savvy and ethical tech leader at Deloitte. "This notion of ethics is becoming much more visible to stakeholders across the board and they are using that as a measure of trust, both internally and externally."

But there's no common definition for what ethical technology looks like and the conversation is ongoing. Instead, CIOs and other members of IT leadership are responsible for figuring out what tech ethics mean for their organizations in the near- and long-term. 

If an organization doesn't do its ethical due diligence, customers will catch on and trust will be diminished, according to Bannister."

What Do I Do if My Employer Does Something I Can’t Abide?; The New York Times, June 12, 2020

Roxane Gay, The New York Times; What Do I Do if My Employer Does Something I Can’t Abide?

You have to calibrate the difference between dumb and unacceptable, what you can live with and what you cannot.

"You have to pick your battles. You have to calibrate the difference between stupid and unacceptable, what you can live with and what you cannot. Because you work for a newspaper that will always publish a range of content, some of which you agree with and some of which you do not, you also have to calibrate the difference between disagreement and disgust.

That’s the tidy answer that doesn’t really force you to make the difficult decision. But now, more than ever, with so much at stake, we have to be willing to make difficult decisions. We have to be willing to make ourselves uncomfortable in service of what’s right. When the Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, three of his co-workers stood by and did nothing. When a police officer in Buffalo shoved a 75-year-old man to the ground, dozens of his co-workers walked past that fallen man, bleeding from his ear. They did nothing.

Most situations in which you object to your employer’s conduct won’t be so extreme. But something terrible happened in this country, something that has happened with horrifying frequency. Each time we think maybe this time, something will change. For a few days or even a few weeks, change seems possible — and then we all get comfortable again. We forget about whatever terrible thing once held our attention. A new terrible thing happens. We get outraged. It’s a vicious cycle, but it is one we can break. When your employer does something that violates your ethical code, when it does something that endangers employees or the greater community, you have to ask yourself if you are going to do nothing — or get angry, vent and hold your employer accountable in whatever ways you can. I am, perhaps, simplifying the choices you can make, but maybe doing the right thing is far simpler than we allow ourselves to believe."

Silicon Valley needs a new approach to studying ethics now more than ever; TechCrunch, April 24, 2020

Lisa Wehden, TechCrunch; Silicon Valley needs a new approach to studying ethics now more than ever

"These are fresh concerns in familiar debates about tech’s ethics. How should technologists think about the trade-off between the immediate need for public health surveillance and individual privacy? And misformation and free speech? Facebook and other platforms are playing a much more active role than ever in assessing the quality of information: promoting official information sources prominently and removing some posts from users defying social distancing.

As the pandemic spreads and, along with it, the race to develop new technologies accelerates, it’s more critical than ever that technology finds a way to fully examine these questions. Technologists today are ill-equipped for this challenge: striking healthy balances between competing concerns — like privacy and safety — while explaining their approach to the public...

If the only students are future technologists, though, solutions will lag. If we want a more ethically knowledgeable tech industry today, we need ethical study for tech practitioners, not just university students...

Over half of the class came from a STEM background and had missed much explicit education in ethical frameworks. Our class discussed principles from other fields, like medical ethics, including the physician’s guiding maxim (“first, do no harm”) in the context of designing new algorithms. Texts from the world of science fiction, like “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, also offered ways to grapple with issues, leading students to evaluate how to collect and use data responsibly."

Veterinarians pledge ventilators, supplies to human medicine; American Veterinary Medical Association, April 15, 2020

Greg Cima, American Veterinary Medical Association; Veterinarians pledge ventilators, supplies to human medicine

Shortages of personal protective equipment cause practitioners to make tough decisions

"Veterinarians pledged hundreds of ventilators for human use as a surge of COVID-19 cases risked shortages.

Some also described efforts to conserve or donate personal protective equipment, such as gloves and masks, amid supply chain issues as the stress on human health care strained supplies. That threat of shortages expanded as the coronavirus causing the disease spread to more communities daily this spring.

As COVID-19’s spread accelerated—the U.S. leading the world in confirmed coronavirus cases with about 400,000 people as of April 7, according to Johns Hopkins University—leaders of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care started a database of ventilators that could potentially be used for human health care. The zoo veterinarian and veterinary anesthesiology colleges added to the effort in the days afterward.

Dr. Elizabeth B. Davidow, president-elect of the ACVECC, led the effort to create the ventilator database."

The Ethical Dilemma at the Heart of Big Tech Companies; Harvard Business Review, November 14, 2019

Emanuel Moss and Jacob Metcalf, Harvard Business Review; The Ethical Dilemma at the Heart of Big Tech Companies

"The central challenge ethics owners are grappling with is negotiating between external pressures to respond to ethical crises at the same time that they must be responsive to the internal logics of their companies and the industry. On the one hand, external criticisms push them toward challenging core business practices and priorities. On the other hand, the logics of Silicon Valley, and of business more generally, create pressures to establish or restore predictable processes and outcomes that still serve the bottom line.

We identified three distinct logics that characterize this tension between internal and external pressures..."

AI Ethics Guidelines Every CIO Should Read; Information Week, August 7, 2019

John McClurg, Information Week; AI Ethics Guidelines Every CIO Should Read

"Technology experts predict the rate of adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning will skyrocket in the next two years. These advanced technologies will spark unprecedented business gains, but along the way enterprise leaders will be called to quickly grapple with a smorgasbord of new ethical dilemmas. These include everything from AI algorithmic bias and data privacy issues to public safety concerns from autonomous machines running on AI.

Because AI technology and use cases are changing so rapidly, chief information officers and other executives are going to find it difficult to keep ahead of these ethical concerns without a roadmap. To guide both deep thinking and rapid decision-making about emerging AI technologies, organizations should consider developing an internal AI ethics framework."

MIT Now Has a Humanist Chaplain to Help Students With the Ethics of Tech; The Atlantic, May 16, 2018

Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic; MIT Now Has a Humanist Chaplain to Help Students With the Ethics of Tech

"Even some of the most powerful tech companies start out tiny, with a young innovator daydreaming about creating the next big thing. As today’s tech firms receive increased moral scrutiny, it raises a question about tomorrow’s: Is that young person thinking about the tremendous ethical responsibility they’d be taking on if their dream comes true?

Greg Epstein, the recently appointed humanist chaplain at MIT, sees his new role as key to helping such entrepreneurial students think through the ethical ramifications of their work. As many college students continue to move away from organized religion, some universities have appointed secular chaplains like Epstein to help non-religious students lead ethical, meaningful lives. At MIT, Epstein plans to spark conversations about the ethics of technology—conversations that will sometimes involve religious groups on campus, and that may sometimes carry over to Harvard, where he has held (and will continue to hold) the same position since 2005.

I recently spoke with Epstein about how young people can think ethically about going into the tech industry and what his role will look like..."

Bad behavior and rise in ethical dilemmas are an advantage to Denver’s Convercent, which just raised $25M; Denver Post, December 19, 2017

Tamara Chuang, Denver Post; 

Bad behavior and rise in ethical dilemmas are an advantage

 to Denver’s Convercent, which just raised $25M

"Ethics software developer Convercent said Tuesday it raised $25 million in new funding. The investment was led by Rho Ventures.

The Denver firm has seen interest in its software surge as tech companies and others battle ethical issues that went public, such as Uber’s problems with workplace harassment. Uber is reportedly a new client. Convercent’s software can pop up a reminder to employees when they’re facing a potential issue, such as rules that kick in when traveling overseas. But closer to home, companies are reaching out to Convercent in the wake of celebrity sexual harassment scandals."

What You Can Do to Improve Ethics at Your Company; Harvard Business Review (HBR), 12/29/16

Christopher McLaverty

Annie McKee, Harvard Business Review (HBR); 

What You Can Do to Improve Ethics at Your Company:

"Enron. Wells Fargo. Volkswagen. It’s hard for good, ethical people to imagine how these meltdowns could possibly happen. We assume it’s only the Ken Lays and Bernie Madoffs of the world who will cheat people. But what about the ordinary engineers, managers, and employees who designed cars to cheat automotive pollution controls or set up bank accounts without customers’ permission? We tell ourselves that we would never do those things. And, in truth, most of us won’t cook the books, steal from customers, or take that bribe.

But, according to a study by one of us (Christopher) of C-suite executives from India, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and the U.K., many of us face an endless stream of ethical dilemmas at work. In-depth interviews with these leaders provide some insight and solutions that can help us when we do face these quandaries."