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."

AI, ethics, and the lawyer's duty after Noland v. Land of the Free; Daily Journal, November 24, 2025

Reza Torkzadeh, Daily Journal; AI, ethics, and the lawyer's duty after Noland v. Land of the Free

"Noland establishes a bright line for California lawyers. AI may assist with drafting or research, but it does not replace judgment, verification or ethical responsibility. Technology may change how legal work is produced -- it does not change who is accountable for it."

GEORGE C. YOUNG AMERICAN INNS OF COURT EXPLORES ETHICS AND PITFALLS OF AI IN THE COURTROOM; The Florida Bar, November 26, 2025

The Florida Bar; GEORGE C. YOUNG AMERICAN INNS OF COURT EXPLORES ETHICS AND PITFALLS OF AI IN THE COURTROOM

"The George C. Young American Inns of Court continued its ongoing focus on artificial intelligence with a recent program titled, “The Use of AI to Craft Openings, Closings, and Directing Cross-Examination: Ethical Imperatives and Practical Realities.”...

Demonstrations showed that many members could not distinguish AI-generated narratives from those written by humans, highlighting the technology’s increasingly high-quality output. However, presenters also noted recurring drawbacks. AI-generated direct and cross-examinations frequently included prohibited or incorrect elements such as hearsay, compound questioning, and fabricated details — jokingly referred to as “ghost people” — distinguishing factual hallucinations from the better-known “phantom citation” problem.

The program concluded with a reminder that while AI may streamline drafting and help lawyers think creatively, professional judgment cannot be outsourced. The ultimate responsibility for accuracy, ethics, and advocacy remains with the lawyer."

Huckabee’s Copyright Claim Over AI Advances Against Bloomberg; Bloomberg Law, November 25, 2025

 

Aruni Soni

, Bloomberg Law; Huckabee’s Copyright Claim Over AI Advances Against Bloomberg

 "A federal judge declined to dismiss a copyright-infringement claim in a proposed class action led by Mike Huckabee, accusing Bloomberg LP of using a pirated dataset to train its AI model.

Judge Margaret M. Garnett said she couldn’t evaluate Bloomberg’s defense that its use of authors’ books to train BloombergGPT was fair use under US copyright law without a factual record, denying its motion to dismiss in a Monday opinion filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York."

Minister indicates sympathy for artists in debate over AI and copyright; The Guardian, November 23, 2025

Robert Booth, The Guardian; Minister indicates sympathy for artists in debate over AI and copyright

 "The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has indicated she is sympathetic to artists’ demands not to have their copyrighted works scraped by AI companies without payment and said she wanted to “reset” the debate.

In remarks that suggest a change in approach from her predecessor, Peter Kyle, who had hoped to require artists to actively opt out of having their work ingested by generative AI systems, she said “people rightly want to get paid for the work that they do” and “we have to find a way that both sectors can grow and thrive in future”.

The government has been consulting on a new intellectual property framework for AI which, in the case of the most common large language models (LLMs), requires vast amounts of training data to work effectively.

The issue has sparked impassioned protests from some of Britain’s most famous artists. This month Paul McCartney released a silent two-minute 45 second track of an empty studio on an album protesting against copyright grabs by AI firms as part of a campaign also backed by Kate Bush, Sam Fender, the Pet Shop Boys and Hans Zimmer."

Trump Hatches Creepy New Plot to Target ‘Suspicious’ Drivers; The Daily Beast, November 20, 2025

Tom Latchem  , The Daily Beast; Trump Hatches Creepy New Plot to Target ‘Suspicious’ Drivers

"Border Patrol agents armed with hidden cameras and AI-driven algorithms are flagging millions of American drivers as “suspicious” and triggering covert traffic stops across the country, according to a new investigation.

The Trump administration has quietly expanded a vast domestic surveillance web that tracks and analyzes the travel patterns of millions of drivers—feeding local police tips that lead to secretive traffic stops, searches, and arrests, the Associated Press reports.

The intelligence project, built and run by Border Patrol’s parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) gathers vehicle movements through a national network of covert license plate readers disguised inside roadside barrels, cones, and job-site equipment, AP reports...

Legal scholars warn that the scale of the data collection—tracking “patterns of life” for millions of ordinary drivers—could violate the Fourth Amendment. “Large-scale surveillance technology that’s capturing everyone and everywhere at every time” may be unconstitutional, Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University, told AP.

The program is powered by an enormous expansion of CBP’s intelligence capabilities since President Donald Trump returned to office. Congress has authorized more than $2.7 billion to layer artificial intelligence onto existing surveillance networks. 

Meanwhile, Operation Stonegarden—a two-decade-old federal grant scheme—now channels hundreds of millions of dollars to local sheriff’s offices to buy license-plate readers and drones, and to fund overtime that effectively deputizes local cops into Border Patrol’s mission. Under Trump, congressional Republicans increased Stonegarden to $450 million over four fiscal years."

Can You Believe the Documentary You’re Watching?; The New York Times, November 18, 2025

Alissa Wilkinson , The New York Times; Can You Believe the Documentary You’re Watching?

"Like a surging viral outbreak, A.I.-generated video has suddenly become inescapable. It’s infiltrated our social feeds and wormed its way into political discourse. But documentarians have been bracing for impact since before most of us even knew what the technology could do.

Documentaries fundamentally traffic in issues of truth, transparency and trust. If they use so-called synthetic materials but present them as if they’re “real,” it’s not just a betrayal of the tacit contract between filmmaker and audience. The implications are far broader, and far more serious: a century of shared history is in jeopardy.

At a time when the idea of facts and shared reality is assaulted from every side, the turning point has arrived. The stakes couldn’t be higher. And we all need to pay attention."

Inside the old church where one trillion webpages are being saved; CNN, November 16, 2025

Hadas Gold , CNN; Inside the old church where one trillion webpages are being saved

"The Wayback Machine, a tool used by millions every day, has proven critical for academics and journalists searching for historical information on what corporations, people and governments have published online in the past, long after their websites have been updated or changed.

For many, the Wayback Machine is like a living history of the internet, and it just logged its trillionth page last month.

Archiving the web is more important and more challenging than ever before. The White House in January ordered vast amounts of government webpages to be taken down. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is blurring the line between what’s real and what’s artificially generated — in some ways replacing the need to visit websites entirely. And more of the internet is now hidden behind paywalls or tucked in conversations with AI chatbots.

It’s the Internet Archive’s job to figure out how to preserve it all."

Pope Leo Doesn’t Want to Be the Anti-Trump. But He Is.; The New York Times, November 16, 2025

DAVID FRENCH, The New York Times; Pope Leo Doesn’t Want to Be the Anti-Trump. But He Is.

"Serving the most marginalized is fundamental to the Christian faith. By one count, more than 2,000 scriptural passages mandate or endorse service to the poor and the work of justice.

In May, just after the pope’s election, I wrote that the most important American in the world was no longer named Donald Trump. The president has less than four years left at the center of the international stage. The pope will present a global moral witness for years to come, and it’s a moral witness that is fundamentally incompatible with the cruelty and corruption of Trumpism.

If you examine the new pope’s pronouncements, there is a consistent through line. He defends human dignity and condemns government brutality. In addition to his defense of the human rights of migrants, he’s decried Russian abuses in Ukraine, and he’s called for a cease-fire, hostage release and compliance with international humanitarian law in Gaza.

His concern for human dignity extends to the world of technology and commerce as well. On Nov. 7, for example, he posted on social media: “Technological innovation can be a form of participation in the divine act of creation. It carries an ethical and spiritual weight, for every design choice expresses a vision of humanity. The Church therefore calls all builders of #AI to cultivate moral discernment as a fundamental part of their work—to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and a genuine reverence for life.”

The pope’s comment drew an immediate rebuke from Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist and Trump supporter, who posted (and then deleted) a meme mocking the pope’s statement.

Each of the pope’s statements is part of a consistent ethic of life. I love the Catholic writer Mark Shea’s description of what this ethic means — that “all human beings, without any exception whatsoever, are made in the image and likeness of God and that Jesus Christ died for all human beings, without any exception whatsoever. Therefore each human person — without any exception whatsoever — is sacred and is the only creature that God wills for its own sake.”"

Pope Leo XIV’s important warning on ethics of AI and new technology; The Fresno Bee, November 15, 2025

Andrew Fiala , The Fresno Bee; Pope Leo XIV’s important warning on ethics of AI and new technology

"Recently, Pope Leo XIV addressed a conference on artificial intelligence in Rome, where he emphasized the need for deeper consideration of the “ethical and spiritual weight” of new technologies...

This begins with the insight that human beings are tool-using animals. Tools extend and amplify our operational power, and they can also either enhance or undermine who we are and what we care about. 

Whether we are enhancing or undermining our humanity ought to be the focus of moral reflection on technology.

This is a crucial question in the AI-era. The AI-revolution should lead us to ask fundamental questions about the ethical and spiritual side of technological development. AI is already changing how we think about intellectual work, such as teaching and learning. Human beings are already interacting with artificial systems that provide medical, legal, psychological and even spiritual advice. Are we prepared for all of this morally, culturally and spiritually?...

At the dawn of the age of artificial intelligence, we need a corresponding new dawn of critical moral judgment. Now is the time for philosophers, theologians and ordinary citizens to think deeply about the philosophy of technology and the values expressed or embodied in our tools. 

It will be exciting to see what the wizards of Silicon Valley will come up with next. But wizardry without wisdom is dangerous."

‘This Is the War Against Human Nature’ Paul Kingsnorth argues technology is killing us - physically and spiritually.; The New York Times, November 14, 2025

 

Hosted by Ross Douthat

Produced by Victoria Chamberlin

; ‘This Is the War Against Human Nature’: Paul Kingsnorth argues technology is killing us - physically and spiritually. 

"A lot of people, myself included, are worried about where technology is taking the human race, and especially how we can stay human in an age of artificial intelligence.

But my guest this week thinks we’re not worried enough. That some kind of apocalypse is all but inevitable — if it isn’t already upon us. That what’s needed now are strategies of resistance, endurance and escape.

And he practices what he preaches, having retreated to the west of Ireland with his family — the better to keep them out of the clutches of what he calls the machine.

But he’s come back to us, for a time, bearing a prophetic message.

Paul Kingsnorth is a novelist and a critic, an environmental activist and a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy. His new book is “Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity.”

Meet chatbot Jesus: Churches tap AI to save souls — and time; Axios, November 12, 2025

Russell Contreras , Isaac Avilucea, Axios; Meet chatbot Jesus: Churches tap AI to save souls — and time

 "A new digital awakening is unfolding in churches, where pastors and prayer apps are turning to artificial intelligence to reach worshippers, personalize sermons, and power chatbots that resemble God. 

Why it matters: AI is helping some churches stay relevant in the face of shrinking staff, empty pews and growing online audiences. But the practice raises new questions about who, or what, is guiding the flock.

• New AI-powered apps allow you to "text with Jesus" or "talk to the Bible," giving the impression you are communicating with a deity or angel. 
• 
  
• Other apps can create personalized prayers, let you confess your sins or offer religious advice on life's decisions.
• 
  
• "What could go wrong?" Robert P. Jones, CEO of the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, sarcastically asks. 
• 
  

State of play: The U.S. could see an unprecedented 15,000 churches shut their doors this year as a record number of Americans (29%) now are identifying as religiously unaffiliated.

• Megachurches are consolidating the remaining faithful, but even the most charismatic pastors struggle to offer private counseling with such large congregations.
• 
  

Zoom in: In recent months, churches have been deploying chatbots to answer frequently asked questions such as service times and event details, and even to share scripture.

• EpiscoBot, a chatbot developed by the TryTank Research Institute for the Episcopal Church, responds to spiritual or faith-related queries, drawing on church resources.
• 
  
• Other AI apps analyze congregational data (attendance and engagement) to tailor outreach and communications.
• 
  
• And more pastors are admitting that they use AI to assist in creating sermons or reduce writing time."

AI Has Sent Copyright Laws Into Chaos. What You Need to Know About Your Rights Online; CNET, November 11, 2025

 Katelyn Chedraoui, CNET ; AI Has Sent Copyright Laws Into Chaos. What You Need to Know About Your Rights Online

"You might not think about copyright very often, but we are all copyright owners and authors. In the age of generative AI, copyright has quickly become one of the most important issues in the development and outputs of chatbots, image and video generators...

What does all of this mean for the future?

Copyright owners are in a bit of a holding pattern for now. But beyond the legal and ethical implications, copyright in the age of AI raises important questions about the value of creative work, the cost of innovation and the ways in which we need or ought to have government intervention and protections."

A.I. Is on Its Way to Something Even More Remarkable Than Intelligence; The New York Times, November 8, 2025

 Barbara Gail Montero, The New York Times; A.I. Is on Its Way to Something Even More Remarkable Than Intelligence

"Some worry that if A.I. becomes conscious, it will deserve our moral consideration — that it will have rights, that we will no longer be able to use it however we like, that we might need to guard against enslaving it. Yet as far as I can tell, there is no direct implication from the claim that a creature is conscious to the conclusion that it deserves our moral consideration. Or if there is one, a vast majority of Americans, at least, seem unaware of it. Only a small percentage of Americans are vegetarians."

The ethics of AI, from policing to healthcare; KPBS; November 3, 2025

 Jade Hindmon / KPBS Midday Edition Host,  Ashley Rusch / Producer, KPBS; The ethics of AI, from policing to healthcare

"Artificial intelligence is everywhere — from our office buildings, to schools and government agencies.

The Chula Vista Police Department is joining cities to use AI to write police reports. Several San Diego County police departments also use AI-powered drones to support their work. 

Civil liberties advocates are concerned about privacy, safety and surveillance. 

On Midday Edition, we sit down with an expert in AI ethics to discuss the philosophical questions of responsible AI.

Guest:

• David Danks, professor of data science, philosophy and policy at UC San Diego"

Staying Human in the Age of AI; Duquesne University, Grefenstette Center for Ethics, November 6-7, 2025

Duquesne University, Grefenstette Center for Ethics; 2025 Tech Ethics Symposium: Staying Human in the Age of AI

"The Grefenstette Center for Ethics is excited to announce our sixth annual Tech Ethics Symposium, Staying Human in the Age of AI, which will be held in person at Duquesne University's Power Center and livestreamed online. This year's event will feature internationally leading figures in the ongoing discussion of ethical and responsible uses of AI. The two-day Symposium is co-sponsored by the Patricia Doherty Yoder Institute for Ethics and Integrity in Journalism and Media, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Albert P. Viragh Institute for Ethics in Business.

We are excited to once again host a Student Research Poster Competition at the Symposium. All undergraduate and graduate student research posters on any topic in the area of tech/digital/AI ethics are welcome. Accepted posters will be awarded $75 to offset printing costs. In addition to that award, undergraduate posters will compete for the following prizes: the Outstanding Researcher Award, the Ethical PA Award, and the Pope Francis Award. Graduate posters can win Grand Prize or Runner-Up. All accepted posters are eligible for an Audience Choice award, to be decided by Symposium attendees on the day of the event! Student Research Poster submissions will be due Friday, October 17. Read the full details of the 2025 Student Research Poster Competition.

The Symposium is free to attend and open to all university students, faculty, and staff, as well as community members. Registrants can attend in person or experience the Symposium via livestream. Registration is now open!"

Professors Press SCOTUS to Affirm Copyright Protection for AI-Created Works; IP Watchdog, November 3, 2025

 ROSE ESFANDIARI , IP Watchdog; Professors Press SCOTUS to Affirm Copyright Protection for AI-Created Works

"On Friday, October 31, Professors Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid, Lawrence Lessig and a number of other professors and researchers filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Dr. Stephen Thaler’s petition for a writ of certiorari in Thaler v. Perlmutter, urging the Court to grant certiorari and recognize copyright protection for works generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

The brief argued that “excluding AI-generated works from copyright protection threatens the foundations of American creativity, innovation, and economic growth,” warning that the lower court’s interpretation, which requires human authorship, disregards the “spirit of the Copyright Act.”"

With AI technology rapidly advancing, ethics must evolve as well - opinion; The Jerusalem Post, November 2, 2025

 AVI JORISCH, The Jerusalem Post; With AI technology rapidly advancing, ethics must evolve as well - opinion

"Wisdom over intelligence

Whether this century becomes our renaissance or our ruin will depend on a quality that can’t be coded or automated: wisdom.

For all our progress, we have not yet learned to match our technological power with moral imagination. We’ve achieved abundance without equilibrium, connection without community, knowledge without humility. The danger isn’t that machines will become more human – it’s that humans will become more machine-like, optimizing for speed and efficiency while forgetting the soul.

Humanity’s story has always been shaped by invention. The wheel, the compass, the printing press, the microchip – each expanded what we could do, but not necessarily who we could be. The Industrial Revolution lifted billions from poverty, yet it also gave us the mechanized wars of the twentieth century. Nuclear energy promised limitless power – and then birthed Hiroshima.

Today, as we stand on the edge of quantum computing, gene editing, and artificial general intelligence, the pattern repeats. The tools evolve. The ethics lag behind.

We need a new kind of moonshot – not just of science, but of spirit."

On Chatbot Psychosis and What Might Be Done to Address It; Santa Clara Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, October 31, 2025

Irina Raicu , Santa Clara Markkula Center for Applied Ethics; On Chatbot Psychosis and What Might Be Done to Address It

"Chatbot psychosis and various responses to it (technical, regulatory, etc.) confront us with a whole range of ethical issues. Register now and join us (online) on November 7 as we aim to unpack at least some of them in a conversation with Steven Adler."

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.”