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."

Tech Titans Amass Multimillion-Dollar War Chests to Fight AI Regulation: Some are battling state AI laws and threatening to punish candidates who oppose rapid deployment of the technology; The Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2025

Laura J. Nelson , The Wall Street Journal; Tech Titans Amass Multimillion-Dollar War Chests to Fight AI Regulation: Some are battling state AI laws and threatening to punish candidates who oppose rapid deployment of the technology

"Billionaires, tech titans and their opponents are amassing multimillion-dollar war chests for a chaotic, bruising battle over AI regulation ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Opponents of state-level regulation fear a patchwork of laws will slow America’s progress in the artificial-intelligence arms race with China. They argue that the U.S. must spend trillions of dollars and build quickly in the coming years to maintain supremacy."

The Supreme Court’s Ethics Code Is a Joke. Big Oil Knows That.; The National Review, November 28, 2025

Aaron Regunberg , The National Review; The Supreme Court’s Ethics Code Is a Joke. Big Oil Knows That.

"I don’t have access to Big Oil’s internal emails about this. But they sure look wildly desperate to dodge the growing array of lawsuits over the damage caused by their decades-long scheme to deceive the public about climate change. Oil companies are doing whatever they possibly can to keep the plaintiffs in these suits (cities, counties, states, and Native American tribes) from having their day in court—and as some of the most powerful corporations in the world, there’s a lot they can do. They’re pushing Congress to pass a blanket waiver of liability for climate-related damages. They’ve deputized the Trump administration to threaten states that are bringing suits. And they have tried—again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again—to get the Supreme Court to step in and dismiss the cases against them, based on an often contradictory set of legal theories claiming that the state laws they’re being sued under are preempted—i.e., nullified by federal law.

Big Oil has tried five times since 2021 to get the Supreme Court to step in and dismiss these lower court cases, and so far the court has rejected them all. But now the industry is trying once again, petitioning the justices to take up a case filed by the City and County of Boulder against ExxonMobil and Suncor. Last spring, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that, after seven long years of delay tactics by the industry, this case could finally advance to discovery and trial...

What do judicial ethics codes have to do with climate deception? It all comes down to simple math. Every year, the Supreme Court receives many thousands of cert petitions. To grant a writ of certiorari, four of the nine justices must agree to take one of these cases. Given that lower threshold, any time a justice recuses themselves based on conflicts of interest it reduces the likelihood that a case will be heard. In this case, multiple justices have conflicts of interest that should take them out of the running to consider these suits—if such principles matter to the Supreme Court’s Republican majority.

One of these conflicted justices is Amy Coney Barrett...

Another justice, Samuel Alito, has a more traditional conflict of interest: He owns thousands of dollars of stock in the oil giants ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66. Unlike Barrett, Alito has recused himself from considering most, though not all, of the fossil fuel industry’s previous climate deception cert petitions...

We are, after all, living in an age of elite impunity. More and more Americans are asking whether the wealthy and powerful can do whatever they want—even participate in underage sex trafficking—and get away with it. That’s the same question at the center of these climate deception cases: Can Big Oil knowingly destroy the livability of our one and only planet, yet face zero consequences for exposing untold numbers to financial ruin, death, and the chaos of increasingly likely civilizational collapse?...

Big Oil wants us to succumb to nihilism when it comes to climate change. Disappoint them: Don’t give in."

Ukraine’s inspiring democratic resilience; The Washington Post, November 28, 2025

Editorial Board, The Washington Post; Ukraine’s inspiring democratic resilience

"Democracy and martial law make strange bedfellows. In Russia, where President Vladimir Putin’s hierarchical power is never contested, authoritarianism is entrenched. Repressive measures imposed for the sake of the war are unlikely to ever be lifted.

In Ukraine, however, the democratic spirit never bridled under wartime restrictions. Most Ukrainians understand that emergency measures have been necessary but remain skeptical of permanent centralized rule.

Isolationists in Washington may try to use Yermak’s resignation as an excuse to ditch Ukraine, citing it as evidence of endemic corruption. In truth, his ouster is evidence of resiliency and maturity that should hearten the Trump administration. Friday’s news shows Zelensky’s willingness to sideline even his closest aide to do what’s best for his country in its fight for national survival."

Retired judges warn that the rule of law is unraveling; The Washington Post, November 28, 2025

Brianna Tucker , The Washington Post; Retired judges warn that the rule of law is unraveling

"In a dozen interviews with The Washington Post, former judges and one soon-to-be-retired judge described a judiciary under incredible strain and its integrity threatened by partisan attacks, antagonistic rhetoric from public officials and ambiguous decisions handed down by the nation’s highest court.

Many judges said the politicization of judges, the Supreme Court’s expanding use of emergency dockets and sustained criticism from the Trump administration have pushed the courts and democracy to a fragile tipping point — one where cooperation with rulings and adherence to the rule of law can no longer be assumed.

“There’s not a person in our country that, whether they think about it or not, does not depend upon the ability of these fundamental rights and liberties to be protected in an action in court if there is someone who violates that,” said Paul Grimm, a retired judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

The consequences, judges warn, are already becoming visible in who’s willing to serve as a jurist, global shifts in judicial norms and the types of justice the U.S. system can still deliver."

Libraries become the last refuge for Washington’s homeless; EL PAÍS, November 28, 2025

 CRISTÓBAL VÁSQUEZ,  EL PAÍS; Libraries become the last refuge for Washington’s homeless

"Librarians as social workers

Even before the destruction of encampments ordered by Trump, libraries were shelters for the homeless, but they are playing an even more central role. “Since day shelters can only accommodate less than 5% of the homeless population, libraries become the only indoor public space they can access without being evicted during the day,” explains Francesca Emanuele, a doctoral candidate in anthropology at American University and an urban researcher.

At the city’s 26 public libraries, people experiencing homelessness can use computers to apply for jobs, communicate, find entertainment, access training, and find resources to address homelessness. In fact, the library system offers a program called We Care that provides emotional support, housing referrals, assistance with obtaining identification documents, and clothing donations, among other services.

The homeless community’s growing reliance on libraries has led librarians to expand their roles, with many taking on social work tasks to better serve this population, explains researcher Emanuele. “The government treats them as if they were social service personnel, trying to hide the city’s structural problems and distortions, such as high rental costs, the limited number of public housing units, and inflation, among others.”

Several librarians anonymously told Emanuele that “there are so many fights, drug overdoses, and unusual behavior in libraries” that they need to call on the DC Library Police to handle these situations. “There are more and more opioid overdoses on the premises, and we’ve received invitations to be trained in the use of Narcan,” one librarian shared, referring to the medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. “I don’t see any problem with being trained, but I’m not sure if I want the library to become a safe place for drug use.”

Equipping libraries with overdose medication has been attempted elsewhere in the United States. In October, a New York City borough passed a law requiring public libraries to have naloxone [the generic name for Narcan] rescue kits mounted on the walls. “Libraries are more than book repositories — they’re community centers, classrooms, senior hubs, youth spaces, workforce training sites, and now, lifesaving access points,” said State Senator Steve Rhoads, who signed the legislation into law.

“We’ve been implementing what they have in New York for some time now. In fact, our Health Department has been providing Narcan for a while. Also, through the library, we have specialists who work specifically with homeless people,” says Reginald Black, who as a homeless person frequently visited libraries and now works as a housing liaison for the nonprofit organization Serve Your City/Ward 6 Mutual Aid, which connects homeless Washington residents with support and services.

The Washington, D.C. Department of Human Services maintains that a peer mentoring program operates in the city’s public libraries. Certified professionals, trained by the Department of Mental Health, connect homeless individuals and other citizens with services offered by the district.

For Emanuele, the new roles librarians are taking on are side effects and symptoms of a structural economic problem that, if not addressed by offering a decent housing option, will continue to push more people onto the streets and condemn the few public spaces and libraries to be the daytime refuge for those who are becoming homeless."

Artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and human rights: mapping the legal landscape in European health systems; npj Health Systems, November 25, 2025

 

Robin van Kessel, Jelena Schmidt, 

Hannah van Kolfschooten, 

Sam Feudo, 

Katie Young, 

Laura Valtere, 

Timo Minssen & 

Elias Mossialos 

, npj Health Systems ; Artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and human rights: mapping the legal landscape in European health systems

"Abstract

Intellectual property (IP) rights and IP-related rights, such as trade secrets and regulatory exclusivities, play a crucial role in the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. However, possible interactions may be anticipated when comparing the legal relationships formed by these rights with those established by human rights. This study synthesises 53 laws and treaties illustrating the IP landscape for AI in health systems across Europe and examines their intersections with health-focused human rights. Our analysis reveals that a great variety of datasets, software, hardware, output, AI model architecture, data bases, and graphical user interfaces can be subject to IP protection. Although codified limitations and exceptions on IP and IP-related rights exist, interpretation of their conditions and scope permits for diverse interpretations and is left to the discretion of courts. Comparing these rights to health-focused human rights highlights tensions between promoting innovation and ensuring accessibility, quality, and equity in health systems, as well as between human rights ideals and the protection of European digital sovereignty. As these rights often pursue conflicting objectives and may involve trade-offs, future research should explore new ways to reconcile these objectives and foster solidarity in sharing the risks and benefits among stakeholders."

Copyright Piracy at the Supreme Court In Cox v. Sony: is an internet provider liable for digital thieves?; The Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2025

 The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal; Copyright Piracy at the Supreme Court" In Cox v. Sony, is an internet provider liable for digital thieves?

"If a college student pirates music files, can his broadband provider be liable for his copyright infringement? That’s the question before the Supreme Court on Monday in Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment, which tugs at the tension between protecting intellectual property and the internet."

For Trump, there’s Columbus Day and Victory Day, but no World Aids Day; The Guardian, November 27, 2025

Lucy Campbell, The Guardian ; For Trump, there’s Columbus Day and Victory Day, but no World Aids Day

[Kip Currier: Not recognizing December 1st's World AIDS Day is another clear indication of what Trump 2.0 values and prioritizes and what it doesn't.

Ask yourself why Trump wouldn't continue acknowledging this public health and humanitarian effort that began in 1988.

As an interesting side note, Trump's mentor Roy Cohn -- who, as the BBC noted in 2024, taught Trump to "attack, counterattack and never apologise" -- passed away from AIDS in 1986 at the age of 59. 

Seeing the examples cited in this Guardian article of topics Trump has commemorated makes the administration's explanation even more unconvincing.]

[Excerpt]

"For the first time since 1988 the US government said it will no longer commemorate World Aids Day, which honors those who have lost their lives to the disease, celebrates efforts to combat the epidemic and raises awareness.

“An awareness day is not a strategy,” a state department spokesperson, Tommy Pigott, told the New York Times.

However, since returning to office Donald Trump has signed multiple proclamations for awareness days – and awareness weeks and awareness months – on topics that are apparently more to his liking. They include:"

‘Traitor’: US representatives call for Trump envoy Witkoff to be fired after leaked Kremlin call; The Guardian, November 26, 2025

Joseph Gedeon, The Guardian ; ‘Traitor’: US representatives call for Trump envoy Witkoff to be fired after leaked Kremlin call: Republicans and Democrats warn Witkoff ‘cannot be trusted’ after reportedly advising officials on peace plan

"A handful of US representatives have reacted furiously to a leaked recording in which the special envoy to Ukraine reportedly coached Moscow on how to handle Donald Trump, but most have so far remained mute on the revelation that American officials were advising a US adversary.

Don Bacon, a Republican representative, called for Steve Witkoff’s immediate dismissal. “For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” the Nebraska lawmaker wrote on X.

“He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired.”

Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican wrote that the leak represented “a major problem” and “one of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop”. He urged that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, be allowed to “do his job in a fair and objective manner”.

Democratic representative Ted Lieu went further, calling Witkoff an “actual traitor,” and adding: “Steve Witkoff is supposed to work for the United States, not Russia.”

In a recording obtained by Bloomberg of a 14 October phone call between Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Witkoff said peace would require Moscow gaining control of Donetsk and potentially additional Ukrainian territory."

How To Practice Gratitude (Even When You Don’t Feel It): GRATITUDE IS MORE ABOUT ACTION THAN FEELING.; Christianity Today, November 24, 2025

O. ALAN NOBLE, Christianity Today ; How To Practice Gratitude (Even When You Don’t Feel It): Gratitude is more about action than feeling.

"We must often practice and embody gratitude before we feel and experience it in our hearts. The key is choosing to practice gratitude as a habit, not an emotional state. Gratitude may come spontaneously, but more often, it is a habit, choice, and action in response to what we know to be true."

Supreme Court Defers Ruling on Trump’s Effort to Oust Copyright Official; The New York Times, November 26, 2025

 Ann E. Marimow, The New York Times ; Supreme Court Defers Ruling on Trump’s Effort to Oust Copyright Official

"The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred a decision about whether President Trump could remove the government’s top copyright official until after the justices resolved a pair of related cases testing the president’s power to fire independent regulators.

The court’s order is a placeholder and means that Shira Perlmutter, the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, can remain in her role as an adviser to Congress at least until January. The order represents a rare departure from recent cases in which the conservative majority has allowed Mr. Trump to immediately remove agency leaders while litigation over their status continues in the lower courts.

The justices said they were putting off a decision in Ms. Perlmutter’s case until after the court heard arguments in December and January in cases testing the president’s authority to fire other government officials, despite laws generally prohibiting their dismissals that were meant to protect them from political interference."

DWP employee made assistants run personal errands, buy her Snoop Dogg tickets, ethics enforcer says; Los Angeles Times, November 26, 2025

Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times ; DWP employee made assistants run personal errands, buy her Snoop Dogg tickets, ethics enforcer says

"Hardy accused Anderson of seven counts of misusing her city position to create a personal benefit for herself. If the parties do not come to an agreement, the Ethics Commission will hold a hearing and decide what penalties to impose. Each count comes with a potential $5,000 fine."

Prosecutor Used Flawed A.I. to Keep a Man in Jail, His Lawyers Say; The New York Times, November 25, 2025

Shaila Dewan, The New York Times ; Prosecutor Used Flawed A.I. to Keep a Man in Jail, His Lawyers Say

"On Friday, the lawyers were joined by a group of 22 legal and technology scholars who warned that the unchecked use of A.I. could lead to wrongful convictions. The group, which filed its own brief with the state Supreme Court, included Barry Scheck, a co-founder of the Innocence Project, which has helped to exonerate more than 250 people; Chesa Boudin, a former district attorney of San Francisco; and Katherine Judson, executive director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, a nonprofit that seeks to improve the reliability of criminal prosecutions.

The problem of A.I.-generated errors in legal papers has burgeoned along with the popular use of tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, which can perform a wide range of tasks, including writing emails, term papers and legal briefs. Lawyers and even judges have been caught filing court papers that were rife with fake legal references and faulty arguments, leading to embarrassment and sometimes hefty fines.

The Kjoller case, though, is one of the first in which prosecutors, whose words carry great sway with judges and juries, have been accused of using A.I. without proper safeguards...

Lawyers are not prohibited from using A.I., but they are required to ensure that their briefs, however they are written, are accurate and faithful to the law. Today’s artificial intelligence tools are known to sometimes “hallucinate,” or make things up, especially when asked complex legal questions...

Westlaw executives said that their A.I. tool does not write legal briefs, because they believe A.I. is not yet capable of the complex reasoning needed to do so...

Damien Charlotin, a senior researcher at HEC Paris, maintains a database that includes more than 590 cases from around the world in which courts and tribunals have detected hallucinated content. More than half involved people who represented themselves in court. Two-thirds of the cases were in United States courts. Only one, an Israeli case, involved A.I. use by a prosecutor."

Estate of Johnny Cash suing Coca-Cola for using tribute act in advert; The Guardian, November 27, 2025

Laura Snapes, The Guardian; Estate of Johnny Cash suing Coca-Cola for using tribute act in advert

"The estate of Johnny Cash is suing Coca-Cola for illegally hiring a tribute act to impersonate the late US country singer in an advertisement that plays between college football games.

The case has been filed under the Elvis Act of Tennessee, made effective last year, which protects a person’s voice from exploitation without consent. The estate said that while it has previously licensed Cash’s songs, Coca-Cola did not approach them for permission in this instance."

What Is Agentic A.I., and Would You Trust It to Book a Flight?; The New York Times, November 25, 2025

Gabe Castro-Root, The New York Times ; What Is Agentic A.I., and Would You Trust It to Book a Flight?

"A bot may soon be booking your vacation.

Millions of travelers already use artificial intelligence to compare options for flights, hotels, rental cars and more. About 30 percent of U.S. travelers say they’re comfortable using A.I. to plan a trip. But these tools are about to take a big step.

Agentic A.I., a rapidly emerging type of artificial intelligence, will be able to find and pay for reservations with limited human involvement, developers say. Companies like Expedia, Google, Kayak and Priceline are experimenting with or rolling out agentic A.I. tools.

Travelers using agentic A.I. would set parameters like dates and a price range for their travel plans, then hand over their credit card information to the bot, which would monitor prices and book on their behalf...

Think of agentic A.I. as a personal assistant, said Shilpa Ranganathan, the chief product officer at Expedia Group, which is developing both generative and agentic A.I. trip-planning tools.

While the more familiar generative A.I. can summarize information and answer questions, agentic tools can carry out tasks. Travelers benefit by deputizing these tools to perform time-consuming chores like tracking flight prices."

Why Does Steve Witkoff Keep Taking Russia’s Side?: Trump’s envoy isn’t promoting peace. His interventions are helping Vladimir Putin.; The Atlantic, November 26, 2025

Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic ; Why Does Steve Witkoff Keep Taking Russia’s Side?: Trump’s envoy isn’t promoting peace. His interventions are helping Vladimir Putin.

"I’ve written this before, but it cannot be repeated often enough: This war will end only when Russia stops fighting. The Russians need to halt the invasion, recognize the sovereignty of Ukraine, and drop their imperial ambitions. Then Ukraine can discuss borders, prisoners, and the fate of thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children.

But the only way to persuade Russia to stop fighting is to put pressure on Russia. Not Ukraine, Russia. The Ukrainians have already said they will stop fighting and agree to a cease-fire right now, on the current lines of conflict. Yet Witkoff is seeking to persuade Trump not to put pressure on Russia, and we don’t really know why.

Witkoff has no previous diplomatic experience, so perhaps he is naive. He spent many years in New York real estate, at a time when Russians were spending fortunes on property, so perhaps he feels gratitude. Maybe he’s helping Russia win because he has “the deepest respect for President Putin,” as he told Ushakov, and admires his brutality. Maybe he, or others in the White House entourage, have business interests tied to Russia—or hope to. In addition to discussing “peace,” Witkoff has also been, according to the document made public last week, talking with the Russians about American investments “in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centers, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic.”

Whatever the reason, Witkoff is prolonging the conflict. He is not promoting peace. His call to Ushakov was not, as Trump said last night, a normal negotiating tactic. Every time he intervenes, advocating for Putin’s positions, he encourages the Russians to think they can get Trump on their side, pull America away from Europe, break up NATO, and win the war. In other words, every time he intervenes on behalf of the Russians, he contributes to the deaths of Ukrainians, the attacks on infrastructure, the ongoing tragedy that affects millions of people.

If this were a normal American administration, he would be fired immediately. But nothing about this negotiation, or this administration, is normal at all."

Trump Administration Will No Longer Commemorate World AIDS Day; The New York Times, November 26, 2025

Apoorva Mandavilli, The New York Times; Trump Administration Will No Longer Commemorate World AIDS Day

[Kip Currier: How disconcerting it is to see the Trump 2.0 administration make this policy change from years of recognizing December 1st's World AIDS Day, particularly when many other proclamations have been issued this year for "World Autism Awareness Day, National Manufacturing Day and World Intellectual Property Day", as reported in the New York Times article.]

[Excerpt]

"Every year since 1988, the United States has marked Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day, when people mourn those who died of the disease, honor efforts to contain the epidemic and raise awareness among the general public.

Not this year.

The State Department this month instructed employees and grantees not to use funds from the United States government to commemorate the day. The directive is part of a broader policy “to refrain from messaging on any commemorative days, including World AIDS Day,” according to an email viewed by The New York Times.

Employees and grantees may still “tout the work” being done through various programs “to counter this dangerous disease and other infectious diseases around the world,” the email said. And they may attend events related to the commemoration.

But they should “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels, including social media, media engagements, speeches or other public-facing messaging."...

So far this year, the White House has issued proclamations for dozens of other observances, including World Autism Awareness Day, National Manufacturing Day and World Intellectual Property Day.

The Trump administration froze foreign aid early in the year, derailing many public health programs dedicated to fighting H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Modeling studies have suggested that cuts by the United States and other countries could result in 10 million additional H.I.V. infections, including one million among children, and three million additional deaths over the next five years.

To some activists, the administration’s decision was a painful reminder of the early days of the epidemic, when H.I.V. was neglected as a public health crisis...

World AIDS Day is when the State Department sends data to Congress from the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, which provides money for H.I.V. programs worldwide. The program’s budget was sharply cut back earlier this year, and the administration is reported to be planning to end it."