Class Of 2026 Faces A Hard Truth: AI Isn’t The Threat—Ignoring It Is; Forbes, May 20, 2026

Tim Bajarin,, Forbes; Class Of 2026 Faces A Hard Truth: AI Isn’t The Threat—Ignoring It Is

"We moaned about the Internet when it first started, ridiculed the first smartphones and considered social media a passing fad. Yet all these technologies not only survived but thrived in a relatively short period after launch. The only commonality between them was that those who were quick to embrace the changes and learn to leverage their new capabilities came out on top – sometimes with dramatic results.

AI is no different in this respect. Only this time, the stakes are higher."

Thousands of CEOs admit AI had no impact on employment or productivity—and it has economists resurrecting a paradox from 40 years ago; Fortune, April 19, 2026

  

Sasha Rogelberg

, Fortune; Thousands of CEOs admit AI had no impact on employment or productivity—and it has economists resurrecting a paradox from 40 years ago

"In 1987, economist and Nobel laureate Robert Solow made a stark observation about the stalling evolution of the Information Age: Following the advent of transistors, microprocessors, integrated circuits, and memory chips of the 1960s, economists and companies expected these new technologies to disrupt workplaces and result in a surge of productivity. Instead, productivity growth slowed, dropping from 2.9% from 1948 to 1973, to 1.1% after 1973."

Americans Didn’t Panic About the Telephone. We Didn’t Need To.; The New York Times, March 10, 2026

 Andrew Heisel, The New York Times; Americans Didn’t Panic About the Telephone. We Didn’t Need To.

"The telephone wrought great changes, and yet in reviewing over 40,000 articles — including every headline in a newspaper database containing “telephone” or “phone” for the technology’s first 30 years of existence — I found no evidence of panic. There was nothing like the current alarm over, say, smartphones. Histories of the phone don’t show much distress, either. “There was little serious controversy about the telephone,” Claude Fischer wrote in his study “America Calling.”

Yet the telephone offered plenty to dislike."

Sergeant Bluff library utilizes virtual reality to showcase preserved Holocaust survivors’ stories; KTIV.com, January 21, 2026

 Taylor Deckert , KTIV.com; Sergeant Bluff library utilizes virtual reality to showcase preserved Holocaust survivors’ stories

"The Sergeant Bluff Public Library is preserving one of history’s darkest chapters for a generation that will never meet a Holocaust survivor face-to-face. 

They’re using virtual reality. The headsets are from the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, a trunk full of technology that brings history to life with a 360-degree view...

When visitors come to try the virtual reality experience at the Sergeant Bluff Public Library, they have multiple options of stories with different time lengths for different experiences...

“We’re at a time where most of the survivors are gone. And we’re really down to very, very few. And we are at a desperate place where we need to remember what happened because it’s so easy to repeat the past,” Torgerson said. “So it was really important to me because I feel like we are, it’s so easy to forget what has happened in the past.”

While the library has a selection of books on the Holocaust, it’s hoped the virtual reality experience will bring a new perspective on this time in history."

The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year; Time, December 11, 2025

 Charlie Campbell.  Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo , Time; The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year

"For decades, humankind steeled itself for the rise of thinking machines. As we marveled at their ability to beat chess champions and predict protein structures, we also recoiled from their inherent uncanniness, not to mention the threats to our sense of humanity. Leaders striving to develop the technology, including Sam Altman and Elon Musk, warned that the pursuit of its powers could create unforeseen catastrophe.

This year, the debate about how to wield AI responsibly gave way to a sprint to deploy it as fast as possible. “Every industry needs it, every company uses it, and every nation needs to build it,” Huang tells TIME in a 75-minute interview in November, two days after announcing that Nvidia, the world’s first $5 trillion company, had once again smashed Wall Street’s earnings expectations. “This is the single most impactful technology of our time.” OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which at launch was the fastest-growing consumer app of all time, has surpassed 800 million weekly users. AI wrote millions of lines of code, aided lab scientists, generated viral songs, and spurred companies to re-examine their strategies or risk obsolescence. (OpenAI and TIME have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI to access TIME’s archives.)...

This is the story of how AI changed our world in 2025, in new and exciting and sometimes frightening ways. It is the story of how Huang and other tech titans grabbed the wheel of history, developing technology and making decisions that are reshaping the information landscape, the climate, and our livelihoods. Racing both beside and against each other, they placed multibillion-dollar bets on one of the biggest physical infrastructure projects of all time. They reoriented government policy, altered geopolitical rivalries, and brought robots into homes. AI emerged as arguably the most consequential tool in great-power competition since the advent of nuclear weapons."

Fordham Offers Certificate Focused on AI Ethics; Fordham Now, November 17, 2025

 Alex Williamson, Fordham Now; Fordham Offers Certificate Focused on AI Ethics

"As new technologies like artificial intelligence become increasingly embedded in everyday life, questions about how to use them responsibly have grown more urgent. A new advanced certificate program at Fordham aims to help professionals engage with those questions and build expertise as ethical decision-makers in an evolving technological landscape. 

The Advanced Certificate in Ethics and Emerging Technologies is scheduled to launch in August 2026, with applications due April 1. The 12-credit program provides students with a foundation for understanding not only how technologies such as AI work, but also how to evaluate their social and moral implications to make informed decisions about their use. 

A Long History of Ethical Education

The program’s development was guided by faculty in Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education, which has been a part of the University community for roughly three decades. According to Megan Bogia, associate director for academic programs and strategic initiatives at the center, the certificate program was developed in response to a growing need for ethical literacy among professionals working with new technologies—whether that means weighing questions of bias in AI-driven hiring tools, navigating privacy concerns in health data, or understanding the societal effects of automation. 

“As technologies rapidly advance and permeate more deeply into our daily lives, it’s important that we simultaneously build up the fluency to interrogate them,” said Bogia. “Not just so that we can advance a more just society, but also so we can be internally confident in navigating an increasingly complicated world.”

Flexible Options for a Variety of Fields

Students will complete courses that examine ethical issues related to technology, as well as classes that provide technical grounding in the systems behind it. One required course, currently under development by the Department of Computer and Information Science, will cover artificial intelligence for non-specialists, Bogia said, helping students understand “all of the machinations of LLMs—large language models—so they can be fully informed interlocutors with the models.”

Other courses will explore questions of moral responsibility and social impact. Electives such as “Algorithmic Bias” and “Technology and Human Development” will allow students to dig more deeply into specialized areas. 

Bogia said the program—which can be completed full-time or part-time, over the course of one or two years—was designed to be flexible and relevant for students across a wide range of fields and career stages. It may appeal to professionals working in areas such as business, education, human resources, health care, and law, as well as those in technology-focused fields like data science and cybersecurity. 

“These ethical questions are everywhere,” Bogia said. “We’ll have learning environments that meet students where they’re at and allow them to develop fluency in a way that’s most useful for them.”

She added that Fordham is an especially fitting place to pursue this kind of inquiry.

“As a Jesuit institution, Fordham is well-positioned to be concerned and compassionate in the face of hard problems,” said Bogia. 

To learn more, visit the program’s webpage."

CEO Andy Jassy says Amazon’s 14,000 layoffs weren’t about cutting costs or AI taking jobs: ‘It’s culture’; Fortune, November 1, 2025

 MARCO QUIROZ-GUTIERREZ, Fortune; CEO Andy Jassy says Amazon’s 14,000 layoffs weren’t about cutting costs or AI taking jobs: ‘It’s culture’

[Kip Currier: Nah...I'm not buying this "culture-washing" rationale.

Are you?

I wonder if the 14,000 displaced Amazon workers are buying it.]

[Excerpt]

"Speaking during the company’s quarterly earnings call Thursday, CEO Andy Jassy said laying off those employees was about a mismatched cultural fit—and nothing else.

“The announcement that we made a few days ago was not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI-driven, not right now at least,” he said about the job cuts. “It’s culture.”

The job cuts this week, which mostly affected middle managers, follow a June memo in which Jassy said Amazon will need fewer employees thanks to the “efficiency gains” brought on by AI. In a separate memo announcing this week’s layoffs, Amazon’s senior vice president of people said the layoffs were about adapting to “transformative technology.” 

Universal Music settles copyright dispute with AI firm Udio; Reuters, October 29, 2025

 Rishabh Jaiswal , Reuters; Universal Music settles copyright dispute with AI firm Udio

"Universal Music Group said on Wednesday it has settled a copyright infringement case with artificial intelligence company Udio and that the two firms will collaborate on a new suite of creative products.

Under the agreement, the companies will launch a platform next year that leverages generative AI trained on authorized and licensed music.

UMG Chairman Sir Lucian Grainge said the agreements "demonstrate our commitment to do what's right by our artists and songwriters, whether that means embracing new technologies, developing new business models, diversifying revenue streams or beyond.""

As Trump Weighs Sale of Advanced A.I. Chips to China, Critics Sound Alarm; The New York Times, October 29, 2025

  Ana Swanson and Tripp Mickle, The New York Times; As Trump Weighs Sale of Advanced A.I. Chips to China, Critics Sound Alarm

"Mr. Trump’s comments signaled a major potential change for U.S. policy that many Washington officials warn poses a national security risk. Selling such advanced A.I. chips to China is currently banned, and U.S. officials have worked for years to restrain Beijing’s access to the cutting-edge technology.

The president’s reversal, if it comes to pass, would have widespread implications. Nvidia, which has emphasized the importance of maintaining access to the Chinese market, would reap new sales. But critics have argued that A.I. technology is important enough to potentially shift the balance of power in a strategic competition between the United States and China."

Dogs and drones: how scientists are saving Washington’s endangered orcas; The Guardian, October 2, 2025

The Guardian; Dogs and drones: how scientists are saving Washington’s endangered orcas

"Dressed in a bright orange lifejacket – and sometimes goggles – Eba perches atop Giles’s research boat, scanning the wind. When she catches a whiff of orca faeces, she raises her nose, sometimes whimpering or wagging her tail to point Giles in the right direction. Orca-detecting dogs have become an unlikely ally in the fight to save the whales.

“We wanted to use Eba because it allows us to stay really far away from the whales and not stress them out,” says Giles, a member of the marine conservation organisation SeaDoc Society.

Through the study of whale faeces, researchers can uncover a wealth of biological insights from a single sample, including diet, hormone levels, exposure to toxins, pregnancy, gut microbiome composition and the amount of microplastics in their system, as well as the presence of parasites, bacteria and fungi...

Out on the boat with Giles are James Sheppard, a scientist at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and Charlie Welch, an SDZWA volunteer and head of Proper Voltage, a company focused on sustainable battery technology. Together, they have spent a decade developing conservation drones that can capture samples of the cloud-like plumes of breath from orcas’ blowholes with mounts holding petri dishes.

Sheppard says: “We need to get data that is robust and as close to real-time as possible, so that we can find out if there’s a real problem. Then the animal-care staff can go in and stage an intervention if it’s needed.”"

AI Ethics Lab Explores Impacts of the Technology’s Rapid Growth; Rutgers-Camden, March 17, 2025

 Christina Lynn, Rutgers-Camden; AI Ethics Lab Explores Impacts of the Technology’s Rapid Growth

"A global research initiative has emerged at Rutgers–Camden to tackle the pressing ethical challenges and opportunities posed by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, or AI. 

Launched last fall, the AI Ethics Lab, housed in the Digital Studies Center under the Department of English and Communication, examines artificial intelligence’s ethical and legal implications across the AI life cycle, from what kind of data is collected to the monitoring of this emerging technology. 

Leading the charge is Lecturer of Philosophy and Religion Nathan C. Walker, a First Amendment and human-rights expert with an international AI research pedigree and experience working with one of the world’s leading AI platforms. 

“Studying civil liberties and human rights uniquely positions me to identify where AI can go wrong,” Walker said. “If we go back to the basics—our core principles and our core values—we can actually remind humanity that eight decades of human-rights law have prepared us for this moment."

At the Intersection of A.I. and Spirituality; The New York Times, January 3, 2025

 Eli Tan, The New York Times; At the Intersection of A.I. and Spirituality

"For centuries, new technologies have changed the ways people worship, from the radio in the 1920s to television sets in the 1950s and the internet in the 1990s. Some proponents of A.I. in religious spaces have gone back even further, comparing A.I.’s potential — and fears of it — to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

Religious leaders have used A.I. to translate their livestreamed sermons into different languages in real time, blasting them out to international audiences. Others have compared chatbots trained on tens of thousands of pages of Scripture to a fleet of newly trained seminary students, able to pull excerpts about certain topics nearly instantaneously.

But the ethical questions around using generative A.I. for religious tasks have become more complicated as the technology has improved, religious leaders say. While most agree that using A.I. for tasks like research or marketing is acceptable, other uses for the technology, like sermon writing, are seen by some as a step too far."

'The Calculator Mistake': Denial, hostility won't help lawyers deal with emergence of AI; ABA Journal, October 23, 2024

 TRACY HRESKO PEARL , ABA Journal; 'The Calculator Mistake': Denial, hostility won't help lawyers deal with emergence of AI

"There are two ways to deal with this kind of uncertainty. The first is denial and hostility. Legal news outlets have been filled with articles in recent months about the problems with AI-generated legal briefs. Such briefs may contain fake citations. They miss important points. They lack nuance.

The obvious solution, when the problem is framed in this way, is to point lawyers away from using AI, impose strong sanctions on attorneys who misuse it, and redouble law school exam security and anti-plagiarism measures to ensure that law students are strongly disincentivized from using these new forms of technology. “Old school” law practice and legal teaching techniques, in this view, should continue to be the gold standard of our profession.

The problem, of course, is that technology gets better and does so at an increasingly (and sometimes alarmingly) rapid rate. No lawyer worth their salt would dare turn in an AI-generated legal brief now, given the issues listed above and the potential consequences. But we are naive to think that the technology won’t eventually overtake even the most gifted of legal writers.

That point may not be tomorrow; it may not be five years from now. But that time is coming, and when it does, denial and hostility won’t get us around the fact that it may no longer be in the best interests of our clients for a lawyer to write briefs on their own. Denial and hostility won’t help us deal with what, at that point, will be a serious existential threat to our profession.

The second way to deal with the uncertainty of emerging technology is to recognize that profound change is inevitable and then do the deeper, tougher and more philosophical work of discerning how humans can still be of value in a profession that, like nearly every other, will cede a great deal of ground to AI in the not-too-distant future. What will it mean to be a lawyer, a judge or a law professor in that world? What should it mean?

I am increasingly convinced that the answers to those questions are in so-called soft skills and critical thinking."

Corporate directors weigh AI ethics at first-of-its-kind forum; Harvard Gazette, July 11, 2024

 Harvard Gazette; Corporate directors weigh AI ethics at first-of-its-kind forum

"As artificial intelligence surges, corporate directors face a set of urgent ethical considerations. What role can they play in fostering responsible practices for using AI in the workplace? Are they already using the bias-prone technology to sort through job applications?

At the inaugural Directors’ AI Ethics Forum, leaders from the business, government, and nonprofit sectors pondered these questions and more. Convening the group on the Harvard Business School campus was the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics’ Business AI Ethics research team, an initiative that promotes thoughtful approaches to the rapidly evolving technology."

AI lab at Christian university aims to bring morality and ethics to artificial intelligence; Fox News, June 17, 2024

  Christine Rousselle  , Fox News; AI lab at Christian university aims to bring morality and ethics to artificial intelligence

"A new AI Lab at a Christian university in California is grounded in theological values — something the school hopes will help to prevent Christians and others of faith from falling behind when it comes to this new technology.

"The AI Lab at Biola University is a dedicated space where students, faculty and staff converge to explore the intricacies of artificial intelligence," Dr. Michael J. Arena told Fox News Digital...

The lab is meant to "be a crucible for shaping the future of AI," Arena said via email, noting the lab aims to do this by "providing education, fostering dialogue and leading innovative AI projects rooted in Christian beliefs." 

While AI has been controversial, Arena believes that educational institutions have to "embrace AI or risk falling behind" in technology. 

"If we don't engage, we risk falling asleep at the wheel," Arena said, referring to Christian and faith-centered institutions. 

He pointed to social media as an example of how a failure to properly engage with an emerging technology with a strong approach to moral values has had disastrous results."

Using AI Responsibly; American Libraries, January 21, 2024

 Diana Panuncial , American Libraries; Using AI Responsibly

"Navigating misinformation and weighing ethical and privacy issues in artificial intelligence (AI) were top of mind for the panelists at “AI and Libraries: A Discussion on the Future,” a January 21 session at the American Library Association’s 2024 LibLearnX Conference in Baltimore. Flowers was joined by Virginia Cononie, assistant librarian and coordinator of research at University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg; Dray MacFarlane, cofounder of Tasio, an AI consulting company; and Juan Rubio, digital media learning program manager for Seattle Public Library (SPL). 

Rubio, who used AI to create a tool to help teens at SPL reflect on their mental health and well-being, said there is excitement behind the technology and how it can be harnessed, but there should also be efforts to educate patrons on how to use it responsibly. 

“I think ethical use of AI comes with creating ethical people,” he said, adding that SPL has been thinking about implementing guidelines for using AI. “Be very aware of your positionality [as librarians], because I think we are in a place of privilege—not necessarily of money or power, but of knowledge.”"

Trademark and copyright considerations for NFTs; Reuters, May 2, 2022

Sharon Urias, Reuters ; Trademark and copyright considerations for NFTs

"NFTs are mostly used to verify ownership of digital goods. An easy way to understand NFTs is to think of them as unalterable certificates of authenticity for digital goods. For example, if someone purchases a piece of digital art, the NFT acts to validate and verify ownership and authenticity of the artwork. In the "real world," the closest analogy is an autographed original painting that is authenticated by the artist's signature or a certificate of authenticity issued by a reputable source...

One common question asked by clients is whether, when they purchase NFTs, they also obtain the copyright associated with it. The answer is: Not necessarily. It is important to understand what is included in the smart contract that confers the purchaser's rights to the digital asset. Similar to the purchase of a physical painting in our analogy above, although the purchaser has acquired the right to display the work, and to resell it, ownership of the copyright is not automatically conveyed.

The artist owns the copyright unless the author assigns it to the purchaser...

NFTs present interesting and novel questions for trademarks as well...

One of the questions to be resolved is whether traditional trademark legal doctrines, such as the first-sale doctrine, protects a seller, such as StockX, or whether the NFTs are new, distinct products that seek to capitalize on the trademark owners' marks...

It is always challenging for the law to keep pace with the expansion and development of new technologies and innovations. It is no different with NFTs. With the increased growth of NFTs, the need for protection also grows. Although NFTs present many opportunities for businesses, it is essential that NFT sellers clearly delineate in the smart contract what is and is not permitted with respect to intellectual property rights. In that way, both NFT sellers and buyers will be able to protect themselves and best monetize these assets." 

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."

15 Ethical Crises In Technology That Have Industry Leaders Concerned; Forbes Technology Council, July 9, 2020

Forbes Technology Council; 15 Ethical Crises In Technology That Have Industry Leaders Concerned

"Growing technologies such as artificial intelligence have incredible potential. However, they also can come with ethical concerns, such as privacy violations and data safety. These issues must be addressed before people can safely implement emerging technologies in their daily lives.

As industry leaders, the members of Forbes Technology Council keep a close eye on issues impacting the field. Below, they share 15 ethical crises they’re concerned about and what can be done to remedy them."

Why “Move Fast and Break Things” Doesn’t Work Anymore; Harvard Business Review, December 10, 2019

Greg Satell, Harvard Business Review; Why “Move Fast and Break Things” Doesn’t Work Anymore

"Shift 2: From Rapid Iteration to Exploration. Over the past 30 years, we’ve had the luxury of working with technologies we understand extremely well. Every generation of microchips opened vast new possibilities, but worked exactly the same way as the last generation, creating minimal switching costs. The main challenge was to design applications.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that rapid iteration emerged as a key strategy. When you understand the fundamental technology that underlies a product or service, you can move quickly, trying out nearly endless permutations until you arrive at an optimized solution. That’s often far more effective than a more planned, deliberate approach.

Over the next decade or two, however, the challenge will be to advance technology that we don’t understand well at all. Quantum and neuromorphic computing are still in their nascent stages. Exponential improvements in genomics and materials science are redefining the boundaries of those fields. There are also ethical issues involved with artificial intelligence and genomics that will require us to tread carefully.

So in the future, we will need to put greater emphasis on exploration. We will need to spend time understanding these new technologies and how they relate to our businesses. Most of all, it’s imperative to start exploring early. By the time many of these technologies hit their stride, it may be too late to catch up."