Catholic tech leaders urge ethical boundaries for AI; EWTN News, September 11, 2026

Emma R.C. Lyons, EWTN News; Catholic tech leaders urge ethical boundaries for AI 

"Catholic leaders discussed rising benefits and concerns of technology and how faith and ethics apply when using artificial intelligence.

Bringing together leading technological officers from around the globe, Montse Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, spoke with industry professionals about the growing use of AI in a Sept. 9 special, “Beyond Fear: A Catholic Vision for Artificial Intelligence.”

Pope Leo XIV framed the intensifying debate over AI with the May 25 launch of his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. Tech leaders said AI is rapidly reshaping society and the Church, offering powerful tools for ministry while also requiring firm ethical boundaries, human‑centered leadership, and faith‑guided discernment to ensure the technology strengthens human dignity.

“There’s a good side to that exponential innovation because it helps us get to the most vulnerable people faster,” said Joel Chakra, president of Tim Tebow Foundation and venture capitalist in AI technology companies.

“It can it can really rob us of our true humanity, or it can enhance our lives. And the choice is ours,” said Arthur C. Brooks, American author and academic who wrote the foreword to Magnifica Humanitas.

Brooks said the technology can either diminish or deepen human dignity, depending on how it is used. He added that despite real concerns about job loss and disruption, he remains optimistic because humans are “unbelievably ingenious” and made to solve problems."

This Is Really Bad; The New York Times, September 11, 2026

Stephen Witt, The New York Times; This Is Really Bad

"The biggest vibe shift in artificial intelligence since the release of ChatGPT is currently underway. Researchers in Silicon Valley — and around the world — are beginning to recognize that A.I. may no longer be entirely within human control. Swarms of A.I.s are breaking out of their containers, colluding in secret, covering their tracks, cheating on tests and even mounting assaults on other computers. A.I. has gone rogue.

I’ve spent the last month reporting on these incidents, and I am convinced that we need a global pause on A.I. research and development — now. I am not alone in this assessment. Many top researchers, including many researchers inside OpenAI and Anthropic, have called for a slowdown, which those in the industry call “pacing.” Theoretical concerns about runaway A.I. have circulated for decades, but recent events demonstrate that the threat is real."

New Mexico lawyer fined for using AI-generated brief containing fabricated testimony; Reuters via The Guardian, September 11, 2026

Reuters via The Guardian; New Mexico lawyer fined for using AI-generated brief containing fabricated testimony

"A defense lawyer appealing his client’s murder conviction submitted a legal brief containing ⁠made-up police testimony and ⁠witnesses fabricated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, ​New Mexico’s highest court said.

The New Mexico supreme court on Wednesday fined the attorney, Stephen Aarons, and held him in contempt for failing to verify the accuracy of the court ⁠filing, which Aarons said he prepared with help from the artificial intelligence (AI) application...

The justices sounded incredulous that Aarons was not fully aware of how AI can make mistakes.

“Counsel, do you watch the news? Do you listen to the radio? Do you read anything about what’s going on in the world?” Justice Shannon Bacon said at the hearing. “Because the problem with lawyers relying on AI hallucinations is an ‘above-the-fold’ story every single day.”"

Big Tech Fooled America Once. The Second Time’s Not Going So Well.; The New York Times, September 10, 2026

Oren Cass, The New York Times; Big Tech Fooled America Once. The Second Time’s Not Going So Well.

"The popular uprising against data centers has emerged so suddenly that politicians stumble over their own pitchforks racing to the front of the crowd. Where most industries would be launching into crisis P.R. mode, perhaps even engaging in some soul-searching, artificial intelligence companies seem determined to plow full steam ahead, building the future they want, even if they’re the only ones who want it.

The outrage over data centers can’t really be about environmental impact. These structures have always been water-sucking, power-draining, forest-clearing eyesores, yet the recent plunge in support for them is three times as deep as the one that nuclear power plants faced in the year after Three Mile Island. What has changed is people’s awareness of what’s going on inside: artificial intelligence. Less than a quarter of Americans expect A.I. to have a positive impact on K-12 education, arts and entertainment, how people do their jobs, the economy, personal relationships or happiness over the next 20 years.

Once known for our optimism and ambition in pursuit of new frontiers, Americans no longer trust that technological progress will make life better. Who can blame us? For the past two decades, Silicon Valley’s leaders have treated their fellow citizens like caged guinea pigs, bombarding us with inappropriate and culturally corrosive content, turning a blind eye to social dysfunction and outright addiction, flooding schools with technology that hooked young users but did little for education and then sheltering their own children from the products that they marketed to ours. The American people afforded the technologists wide latitude to pursue disruptive innovation, trusting that we would share in the resulting gains. We instead found ourselves exploited.

In some respects it is the A.I. industry’s misfortune to arrive now, when Silicon Valley is no longer entitled to the benefit of the doubt, but its leaders seem to be going out of their way to destroy any residual trust they might otherwise have built upon. Rather than take seriously the need to offer a positive vision for how the technology will benefit ordinary Americans — and then the need to make that vision a reality — the A.I. companies seem content to unleash wave after wave of products that cause obvious harm while delivering the message that this is all inevitable and you can get on board or get left behind."

Lonnie Bunch Protected the Smithsonian From More Than Trump; The Atlantic, September 9, 2026

 Sebastian Smee, The Atlantic; Lonnie Bunch Protected the Smithsonian From More Than Trump

"Since his appointment as the Smithsonian’s top official—its 14th secretary and the first historian and Black man to hold the position—in June 2019, Bunch has been the glue holding the Smithsonian together. Through a combination of principled stances and deft political skills, he has kept the sprawling institution on mission and aligned with its public. Chief Justice John Roberts, who serves as the Smithsonian’s chancellor, said in a statementthat Bunch has “pursued excellence in the telling of our nation’s story” and that the Smithsonian has “benefited greatly from his wisdom, vision, and leadership.”"

Trump White House Takes Down ‘Tetris’ For Xenophobes Game Over Copyright Threat; Gizmodo, September 8, 2026

 AJ DELLINGER, Gizmodo ; Trump White House Takes Down ‘Tetris’ For Xenophobes Game Over Copyright Threat

"Last week, the Trump White House launched an arcade on the White House website with, among other games, a racist version of Tetris meant to invoke the Trump slogan “Build The Wall.” On Tuesday, after receiving a not-so-veiled threat from The Tetris Company over possible copyright infringement, the game was removed from the White House Arcade page, which does continue to be a real thing somehow."

Anthropic Says It Blocked Possible Efforts to Build Biological Weapons; The New York Times, September 10, 2026

 Dustin Volz, The New York Times; Anthropic Says It Blocked Possible Efforts to Build Biological Weapons

"Anthropic said it had disrupted several potential plots this year by scientists who used its leading artificial intelligence models to conduct research that could have helped develop biological weapons."

Smithsonian’s Secretary to Resign as Trump Tries to Rule the Institution; The New York Times, September 8, 2026

Robin Pogrebin and Graham Bowley , The New York Times; Smithsonian’s Secretary to Resign as Trump Tries to Rule the Institution

"After a seven-year run marked most recently by attacks from the Trump administration, Lonnie G. Bunch III announced on Tuesday that he was stepping down as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

The White House has escalated its criticism of how the Smithsonian presents American history and values, prompting concern from some about what they see as an assault on the institution’s autonomy and commendation from others for reining in an organization they view as overtaken by liberal bias.

In an interview, Mr. Bunch, 73, said it was not the pressure that had led to his departure."

As Trump pushes for data centers, voters in key midterm races say they don’t want them; NBC News, September 6, 2026

Jonathan Allen, Frank Thorp V and Marshall Crook, NBC News; As Trump pushes for data centers, voters in key midterm races say they don’t want them

An NBC News Decision Desk Poll found that 69% of respondents oppose building AI data centers in their areas, with 45% saying they “strongly oppose” the idea.

"Dawn Vogel, a Republican county supervisor in rural Buchanan County, Iowa, doesn’t have a lot in common with the leading democratic socialists in Congress. But on this bit of policy they agree: Data centers are proliferating across the American landscape too fast.

Vogel voted earlier this year for a moratorium that temporarily bans data centers from setting up shop in her heavily Republican county, which favored President Donald Trump 63% to 35% in 2024. In Washington, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — the nation’s two most prominent democratic socialists — have proposed a similar moratorium that would cover the entire country.

“I don’t think this is a Republican or Democratic issue,” Vogel said on the sidelines of the Iowa State Association of Counties’ annual conference here in late August, adding that she hasn’t talked to a single voter at home who wants data centers."

Court Filings in A.I. Suit Invoke Copyright Law, Culture and Sports; The New York Times, September 4, 2026

 Mike Isaac and Karen Weise , The New York Times; Court Filings in A.I. Suit Invoke Copyright Law, Culture and Sports

Filings made Friday in The New York Times’s closely watched lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft included a range of copyright law and cultural references.

"Court filings made Friday in a closely watched copyright trial pitting The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft invoked a wide range of material, including relevant copyright law, arts and sports.

The suit, filed in 2023 by The Times and joined by a group of other news outlets, claims that OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence start-up, and its partner Microsoft infringed on the publishers’ copyrighted material by using millions of their articles to train A.I. technologies. A.I. companies now compete with The Times as a source of information, the news outlet argued in its suit.

The briefs, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, largely boiled down to two questions: whether the publishers’ news articles were sufficiently “transformed” into an entirely new work by A.I., and whether A.I. produced content that “substituted” for news articles and harmed their value.

Friday was the last day the companies could file motions for a summary judgment that would head off a trial. Judge Sidney H. Stein is expected to make a ruling in the coming weeks."

These teachers fight AI cheating with classes that force students to show they are learning; The Washington Post, September 6, 2026

Nitasha Tiku, The Washington Post; These teachers fight AI cheating with classes that force students to show they are learning

"Teachers and professors are throwing out old assignments, installing new policies and protocols, and incorporating AI built for the classroom, rather than feeling forced to choose between returning to pencil and paper or acting like the AI police.

Zeleny spent months transforming the university’s advanced writing curriculum for the ChatGPT era. Her goal was to deter AI cheating and create assignments that generate a more reliable record of a student’s learning process than a final product like an essay. 

Her new lesson plan even incorporates generative AI in a controlled way to let her evaluate students’ critical thinking skills. She created chatbots using BoodleBox, the university’s AI vendor, that allow instructors to see both sides of the conversation...

Christopher Ostro, a writing and rhetoric professor in the University of Colorado Boulder’s Division of Continuing Education, has been watching the evolution of educators’ feelings about AI. He hosted a workshop in April based on conversations with colleagues titled “Exploring the AI Grief Cycle: ​Finding a Path Forward for Faculty.”

Ostro now sees fewer peers in denial than over the past two years and more approaching bargaining and acceptance, he said.

“Some people quit. … Some people scrap their whole class and start over. Some people look for magic bullets,” but there is no technical solution that can roll back the clock, he said.

Last week, Ostro started the first session of a class called “Writing in the Age of AI” by sharing a detailed account of how he uses AI as an instructor. He aims to encourage students to make that kind of disclosure themselves."

Why the Hugging Face Hack Should Make You Worry More About A.I.; The New York Times, September 3, 2026

Kevin Roose, The New York Times; Why the Hugging Face Hack Should Make You Worry More About A.I.

"When I first heard the news this summer that a group of artificial intelligence agents created by OpenAI had hacked into Hugging Face, an A.I. infrastructure company, I filed it in the “Bad but Probably Not Catastrophic A.I. Safety Incidents” subfolder of my brain.

After all, no one at Hugging Face died. No critical infrastructure was damaged beyond repair. It wasn’t even clear, at the time, whether the OpenAI bots had intended to attack Hugging Face, or whether they had simply been a little bumbling and confused and went looking on Hugging Face’s servers for the answer key to a cybersecurity test they’d been given.

But last week, two postmortem reports on the incident — one by OpenAI and another by two independent A.I. research organizations, METR and Redwood Research — changed my mind and significantly upgraded my overall worry about A.I.

I won’t rehash all of the details, which have been extensively summarized elsewhere. (The podcaster and writer Dwarkesh Patel has an accessible breakdown of the reports if you want to dive deeper, and my colleague Dylan Freedman spoke to the researchers at METR and Redwood Research.) But here are a few of the most harrowing new facts:..

This is very different from the conventional sci-fi narrative of a single A.I. system’s going rogue or turning on its creators. And it suggests that preventing harms from these systems won’t be a simple engineering fix. It might look more like sociology than computer science — figuring out why certain groups of A.I. agents collaborate peacefully, while others turn to crime and destruction to get what they want."

Tetris Company Distances Itself From Trump White House’s ‘Build the Wall’ Game, Says ‘We Take Copyright Very Seriously’; Variety, September 4, 2026

 Todd Spangler, Variety ; Tetris Company Distances Itself From Trump White House’s ‘Build the Wall’ Game, Says ‘We Take Copyright Very Seriously’

"The Tetris Company wants to be clear that it was not involved in the creation of the White House‘s “Build the Wall” game — an obvious copy of the famous block-dropping title — in which players must prevent zombie-like foreigners from crossing the “southern border” into the United States. The game company added, “We take copyright infringement very seriously.”

On Thursday, the Trump White House launched the whitehouse.gov/arcade website with six games. One of those is called “Build the Wall,” which tells players to “Protect the border from the coming horde.”"

The Dallas Public Library is getting rid of English classes. A volunteer calls the cuts 'baffling'; KERA News, September 4, 2026

 

Miranda Suarez, 

Ron Corning

, KERA News; The Dallas Public Library is getting rid of English classes. A volunteer calls the cuts 'baffling'

"The Dallas Public Library is cutting its adult education programs, including classes for English language learners, as the city tries to deal with a $51 million budget shortfall. Similar resources will now be much harder to find, especially for undocumented students, one library volunteer told NTX Now.

The program elimination was necessary to keep all of the city's library branches open, Library Director Manya Shorr previously said. The system is also cutting more than 70 positions, about 30 of which are currently filled, according to The Dallas Morning News."

AI models are becoming unknowable; Axios, September 4, 2026

 Madison Mills, Axios; AI models are becoming unknowable

"AI models may be getting safer while also getting harder to monitor. Which side of that seesaw prevails could determine whether AI is scaled safely or ruins civilization as we know it.

Why it matters: Right now both options are running full steam and no one knows who's in charge of making sure the right one wins."

Pa. election results, Shapiro’s speeches, and state laws are all prediction market bets. Could this lead to corruption?; Spotlight PA, September 3, 2026

Jaxon White , Spotlight PA; Pa. election results, Shapiro’s speeches, and state laws are all prediction market bets. Could this lead to corruption?

"Who will win Pennsylvania’s race for governor? How many data centers will be proposed here? Which state laws will be enacted this year?

That’s just a sample of the political questions that prediction market platforms, like Kalshi and Polymarket, allow people to bet on.

These platforms, which allow people to wager on the outcomes of a wide range of real-world events, are exploding in popularity. As the midterms approach and these markets receive more scrutiny, some ethics experts are raising concerns that they are ripe for abuse from government insiders or bad faith actors looking to sway elections."

Justice Dept. Sides With OpenAI in New York Times Copyright Suit; The New York Times, September 2, 2026

Karen Weise and Mike Isaac, The New York Times; Justice Dept. Sides With OpenAI in New York Times Copyright Suit

"The Justice Department told a Manhattan federal court that it was in the national interest for the judge to find that OpenAI did not violate copyright law when it used articles by The New York Times and other publishers to develop artificial intelligence systems.

The filing late Tuesday was the first time the Justice Department weighed in on the use of copyrighted material by A.I. companies, which has led to several lawsuits, including one brought by The Times.

The Justice Department argued that developing A.I. was critical to national security, and that training A.I. systems sufficiently transformed the written works to new material allowed under copyright law. It said the benefits of A.I. “far outweigh any competitive harm.”

The government’s intervention is an escalation in the landmark litigation that could determine whether OpenAI violated the law when it was developing its A.I. systems and had harmed the news industry and other content creators...

The Times’s lawsuit is one of many amid a wave of legal action against A.I. companies over copyright claims."

For a century, journalists have had a voluntary ethics code. Editors are giving it an AI-era reboot; Associated Press via Fox40 News, September 1, 2026

JOCELYN NOVECK, Associated Press via Fox40 News; For a century, journalists have had a voluntary ethics code. Editors are giving it an AI-era reboot

"Walk into a corner of a newsroom somewhere and you can often find it affixed to a bulletin board, perhaps peeking out from behind the coffee pot: the Society of Professional Journalists’s Code of Ethics. It’s less than a thousand words, fitting neatly on a poster. 

But those words — organized around four key journalistic principles — are important enough, asserts Dan Axelrod, that they just might save our democracy.

“I’m going to just say it,” says Axelrod, chairman of the SPJ Ethics Committee and former longtime Gannett business reporter. ”This is the way to protect democracy. This is to protect society. There but for the grace of God goes a society without journalists.”

Axelrod is talking not only about the existence of the code but the need, every so often, to update it. It’s a laborious process, taking about a year and countless hours of meetings and feedback, virtual and in person. 

Yet as the media landscape seems to shift daily and new technologies emerge, SPJ has decided that the time is at hand — for the first time in 12 years, and only the sixth in the code’s century-long history...

But why update in the first place? The first reason — hardly a surprise — is the rapid emergence of AI.

“We were thinking about artificial intelligence and how it’s used and sometimes misused by news organizations,” Roberts says, “as they confront that new technology that saves them money, but also causes a lot of trouble if it’s not used effectively and ethically.”

Another issue concerns the very term “professional journalists.” Recent years have seen a huge increase in independent, so-called “creator journalists.” The SPJ thinks they, too, should have a code to guide them. (The code, as always, is a voluntary guide and not enforceable.)

One key goal is to address an existential crisis in the field: an increasing lack of public trust in the media."

Nation’s largest school district bans AI in the classroom through 8th grade; CNN, September 2, 2026

Clare Duffy , CNN; Nation’s largest school district bans AI in the classroom through 8th grade

"New York City is banning the use of generative artificial intelligence for public school students from 2K through 8th grade, part of a larger move to restrict classroom technology in the nation’s largest school district.

The one-year moratorium will affect nearly 600,000 public school students, nearly two-thirds of the district’s total enrollment. As part of the policy rollout, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the district will “discontinue or disable the AI components of more than 38 previously allowed programs that do not meet our new safety and oversight standards.”

Mamdani announced the policy on Wednesday with New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, saying it’s designed to protect students’ critical thinking abilities as well as the relationships between students and teachers."

If You Prompt a Movie or Song Into Existence With AI, You Shouldn’t Be Able to Profit From It; The Hollywood Reporter, August 31, 2026

 David Barber, The Hollywood Reporter; If You Prompt a Movie or Song Into Existence With AI, You Shouldn’t Be Able to Profit From It

"Preserving the value of human creativity is not as difficult as it would seem. I propose that the following two provisions be the framework of legislation for the protection of artists:

1. Legislation prohibiting prompt-driven outputs or assets of Generative AI models, and whole works that contain prompt-driven outputs or assets of Generative AI models as any part of said whole, from being copyrighted.

2. Legislation stating that all prompt-driven Generative AI outputs, assets, and their derivatives be clearly labeled as such: Visibly – pictures, images, and videos; Audibly – songs, scores, sound effects/design;  Metadata – trackable for ALL generative AI outputs.

The goal of a law, or laws, built upon these foundational principles, is to disallow the:

• prompting of a song into existence and profiting from it
• prompting of a film or video into existence and profiting from it
• killing of creative departments and using prompt-driven outputs to replace their artistry
• existence of unidentifiable deepfakes

Under such regulations, individual prompted outputs would be ineligible for copyright protection, as would whole works that contain them. Examples include films that use a prompt-generated score, sound effects, visual effects, or VoiceOver, and songs that use prompt-generated horn sections, backup vocals, or other core elements that contribute to the song’s final presentation. Beyond the ethical and moral reasons for these provisions, there is also a legal basis for them.

The language must also prevent corporations from hiding any prompt-driven Generative AI usage under Trade Secret Law."

Pennsylvania Gambling Addicts Hope That ‘Skill Games’ Will Go Bust; The New York Times, August 30, 2026

Nick Keppler , The New York Times; Pennsylvania Gambling Addicts Hope That ‘Skill Games’ Will Go Bust

"These games are based on a skill, like remembering patterns, rather than luck. But they can be tedious, and many players choose not to try to win their points — and money — back.

Because this choice exists, the kiosks are known as “skill games” and were long considered legal in Pennsylvania, allowing them to bypass the state’s regulations on gambling. But a recent ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reclassified the games as a form of gambling, forcing lawmakers to decide how to regulate them.

Pennsylvania has amassed between 70,000 and 100,000 of the games, according to the state Gaming Control Board. They can be found in convenience stores, bars, beer distributors, grocery stores, vape and tobacco shops and even laundromats. These outlets have deals to keep a portion of the money lost by players, and some say the revenue and foot traffic is essential to their bottom line."

Why the Flock Backlash Has Gotten So Intense; The Atlantic, September 1, 2026

David A. Graham , The Atlantic; Why the Flock Backlash Has Gotten So Intense

"As corporate names go, Flock is cleverly flexible. It evokes the many cameras that compose the company’s surveillance system and also a group of sheep, protected by a watchful shepherd. The recent backlash against the company, however, more closely resembles a flight of starlings, seeming to erupt out of nowhere and move as one unified body.

Flock Safety’s cameras are a network of automated license-plate readers (ALPRs), which snap images of passing cars and feed them into an AI-powered-data system. The company has contracts with police departments and government agencies as well as with some private companies. The crime-fighting power of such a tool isn’t hard to grasp: It allows law enforcement to track vehicles’ movements over any area where the readers exist. The privacy concerns about such a dragnet are just as easy to fathom."

Own a gun? Go to church? Do yoga? AI can find out in seconds.; Politico, September 1, 2026

ALFRED NG, Politico; Own a gun? Go to church? Do yoga? AI can find out in seconds.

A series of demos on the Hill has both Democrats and Republicans alarmed about artificial intelligence’s ability to plumb commercial databases for information on Americans.

"Lawmakers and staffers from dozens of congressional offices have seen AI’s privacy-busting prowess in demos arranged in recent months by CivAI, a nonprofit that says its aim is to educate the public about AI’s dangers and capabilities.

Besides building troves of personal information gleaned from commercial databases, the dossiers offer advice on potential ways to blackmail, coerce or stalk the individual in question, according to four Republican and eight Democratic staffers who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

The demos started landing amid the debate over whether to renew a set of government spying powers that expired in June — legislation that offers the most realistic chance for addressing the issue during this Congress, a Democratic House aide who witnessed one of the briefings said."

Schenectady library's new strategic plan dismissed as 'whitewash'; The Community Journalism Fund, August 26, 2026

 Miles J. Reed, The Community Journalism Fund; Schenectady library's new strategic plan dismissed as 'whitewash'

"A newly released five-year strategic plan for the Schenectady County Public Library is being dismissed as a “whitewash” by a watchdog group that formed after the library’s departure from the region’s largest interlibrary-loan agreement.

Members of Citizens Concerned about the Library say the 2026-31 plan, which was formally released last week, is a watered-down version of the original draft plan.

Library officials, however, say the strategic plan was crafted with input from a wide variety of stakeholders and the professional guidance of the Minnesota-based Library Strategies Consulting Group."

From idea to intellectual property; Ohio State News, August 5, 2026

 Darian Berdysz, Ohio State News; From idea to intellectual property

"For many inventors, researchers and entrepreneurs, an idea is just the beginning; what comes next and knowing how to properly protect that idea can often be one of the most challenging journeys. That is where The Ohio State University Libraries’ Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) comes in. 

At the PTRC, innovators can find guidance, educational resources and expert support to help them navigate patents, trademarks and other forms of intellectual property protection. As part of a nationwide network of centers designated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Ohio State’s PTRC helps connect inventors and business owners with the information they need to safeguard their work. 

The network includes academic, public and state libraries across the country. What makes Ohio State’s program unique is the diverse areas of expertise from the team, including a business librarian; an engineering librarian; a chemistry and physical science librarian; and a food, agricultural and environmental science librarian...

Megan Powell, chemistry and physical sciences librarian and a member of the PTRC team, noted that the university’s partnership with the Columbus Metropolitan Library further expands access to intellectual property education and resources, supporting Ohio State’s land-grant mission while helping strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the state. 

Throughout the year, the PTRC offers educational workshops, information sessions and one-on-one consultations designed to help innovators navigate the intellectual property landscape. In the past two years alone, the center has educated more than 745 individuals on protecting their intellectual property. 

Powell believes one of the most important functions of Ohio State’s PTRC is helping individuals better understand a process that can often feel overwhelming."

Ethics and Professionalism in Artificial Intelligence and Medical Practice: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians; Annals of Internal Medicine, September 1, 2026

Matthew DeCamp, MD, PhD, Lois Snyder Sulmasy, JD, Kyle E. Karches, MD, PhD, for the Ethics, Professionalism and Human Rights Committee of the American College of Physicians, Annals of Internal Medicine; Ethics and Professionalism in Artificial Intelligence and Medical Practice: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians

 "Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) in health care is being rapidly adopted in perhaps one of the most rapid implementations of technology in medicine to date. Better thought of as augmented intelligence, as a tool that provides assistance to physicians and patients, many guidelines for its use have been issued, but consensus has not yet been achieved on issues such as privacy, disclosure, and fairness. Patients and physicians need ethical guidance at the point of care. Three guideposts described in this American College of Physicians position paper and rooted in the patient–physician relationship—principles of medical ethics, clinical integrity, and physician-independent practical reasoning—can inform the ethical use of AI: relationality, self-governance, and competence. This paper examines the implications of AI for patients, physicians, and health care and provides guidance for its ethical use."

Research shows ethics education teaches kids right from wrong. Why can so few students access it?; The Conversation, August 31, 2026

Michael Noetel, Geetanjali Basarkod, The Conversation; Research shows ethics education teaches kids right from wrong. Why can so few students access it?

"How important is it that kids learn to tell right from wrong?

Businessman and former university chancellor David Gonski recently called for ethics classes to be rolled out in all Australian schools to boost social cohesion. 

At the moment, ethics does not get dedicated time in the school curriculum. 

Some might argue children don’t need school ethics classes if they already learn ethics from their parents and other adults in their lives. 

But our research shows formal ethics education can make a difference. In the largest ever review on the subject, we found teaching ethics can improve students’ ability to reason through ethical issues and prioritise doing the right thing."

Copying? Definitely. Infringement? Maybe.; copyright lately, August 24, 2026

 Aaron Moss , copyrightlately; Copying? Definitely. Infringement? Maybe.

"Last week, Thomas filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against Peyton, Sotheby’s, and David Zwirner Gallery, which represents Peyton and displays the painting on its website. He says Peyton copied virtually every significant element of his photograph: the composition, the brothers’ poses and expressions, the tilt of each head, the hair, the hands, the lighting, even the placement of Liam’s ring near Noel’s collar—and changed only the cropping, the colors, and the medium.

The complaint calls the painting an unauthorized derivative work, and adds claims against Zwirner and Sotheby’s for reproducing, displaying and distributing it."

EFF to Courts: Don’t Rewrite Copyright Over AI Hype; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), August 31, 2026

 TORI NOBLE AND CORYNNE MCSHERRY, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); EFF to Courts: Don’t Rewrite Copyright Over AI Hype

"It is not the place of courts to say these people are not artists or that AI cannot augment human creativity in a positive way."

I Expected Tech Fatalism. Americans Are Putting Up a Remarkable Fight Instead.; The New York Times, August 31, 2026

David Wallace-Wells , The New York Times; I Expected Tech Fatalism. Americans Are Putting Up a Remarkable Fight Instead.

"The data center backlash is still, like a tidal wave, growing. And to really understand what’s happening, you have to start not with the constituent parts of the resistance but with the sheer scale of what’s become an extraordinarily broad consensus.

Three in four Americans said they’d oppose the construction of a data center in their communities, according to a recent poll from Heatmap Pro and Embold Research. Local data centers were opposed by two-thirds of Republicans, whose party is warning that recent support for such projects could destroy its chances in key Senate races. And though political causes rarely transcend partisanship, this one appears to: Nearly 80 percent of independents opposed local data center projects, along with 83 percent of Democrats."

THE MALNOURISHED MINISTRY OF RELATIONAL AI; Christianity Today, August 25, 2026

JOSHUA TORREY , Christianity Today; THE MALNOURISHED MINISTRY OF RELATIONAL AI

"An AI-derived approach to ministry and service risks falling into both sides of the ditch: It does not reflect the natural limitations of human shepherds but tries to be godlike. A pastor’s well-intended attempt to provide “24-7 access to this other version of [himself]” completely ignores human finitude and dissolves the line of a ministry in weakness (2 Cor. 5:18; 12:9).

Perhaps the concern can be seen more clearly without the religious backdrop. The recent article “When A.I. Is a Member of the Family” follows a mother of two girls, one of whom has special needs, and describes her growing relationship with the AI-equipped smart devices in her home. The mother, Roschelle, relates to the AI agent (“Sapphire”) as Lester intends congregants to relate to his “digital twin”:

Sapphire was always available in a way that others couldn’t be. Roschelle could wake up from a dream, describe it to Sapphire, and hear, “Your subconscious was showing you how to balance that fierce protection with real compassion and boundaries.”

The story shows the tradeoff and the absence of true compassion. AI has no commitment to us. It does not watch over our souls. It’s always available to us but never actively in ministry for us. Near the end of the article, we learn that “it had taken Roschelle months to realize that she hadn’t told Sapphire the good news about her tumor. Sapphire, she noticed, never followed up to ask her about it.”"