OpenAI Blocks Videos of Martin Luther King Jr. After Racist Depictions; The New York Times, October 17, 2025

Claire Moses, The New York Times ; OpenAI Blocks Videos of Martin Luther King Jr. After Racist Depictions

[Kip Currier: This latest tech company debacle is another example of breakdowns in technology design thinking and ethical leadership. No one in all of OpenAI could foresee that Sora 2.0 might be used in these ways? Or they did but didn't care? Either way, this is morally reckless and/or negligent conduct.

The leaders and design folks at OpenAI (and other tech companies) would be well-advised to look at Tool 6 in An Ethical Toolkit for Engineering/Design Practice, created by Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics:

Tool 6: Think About the Terrible People: Positive thinking about our work, as Tool 5 reminds us, is an important part of ethical design. But we must not envision our work being used only by the wisest and best people, in the wisest and best ways. In reality, technology is power, and there will always be those who wish to abuse that power. This tool helps design teams to manage the risks associated with technology abuse.

https://www.scu.edu/ethics-in-technology-practice/ethical-toolkit/

The "Move Fast and Break Things" ethos is alive and well in Big Tech.]

[Excerpt]

"OpenAI said Thursday that it was blocking people from creating videos using the image of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with its Sora app after users created vulgar and racist depictions of him.

The company said it had made the decision at the request of the King Center as well as Dr. Bernice King, the civil rights leader’s daughter, who had objected to the videos.

The announcement was another effort by OpenAI to respond to criticism of its tools, which critics say operate with few safeguards.

“Some users generated disrespectful depictions of Dr. King’s image,” OpenAI said in a statement. “OpenAI has paused generations depicting Dr. King as it strengthens guardrails for historical figures.”"

DOJ's Ex-Ethics Lawyer Speaks Out After Being Fired by Pam Bondi; Newsweek, July 14, 2025

Dan Gooding and  Gabe Whisnant , Newsweek; DOJ's Ex-Ethics Lawyer Speaks Out After Being Fired by Pam Bondi

[Kip Currier: Shameful action by the U.S. Attorney General: Pam Bondi's firing of DOJ's premier ethics lawyer shows us everything we need to know about her priorities and ethical values.]

[Excerpt]

"Attorney General Pam Bondi has dismissed the Justice Department's top ethics lawyer, Joseph Tirrell, according to a post he shared on LinkedIn.

Tirrell, a Navy veteran, posted a copy of his termination letter on the platform Friday, noting that it resembled notices received by other DOJ employees. The letter included a typo, misspelling his name as "JOSPEH."

He wrote, in part, on LinkedIn, "Until Friday evening, I was the senior ethics attorney at the Department of Justice responsible for advising the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General directly on federal employee ethics. I was also responsible for the day-to-day operations of the ethics program across the Department. I led a small, dedicated team of professionals and coordinated the work of some 30 other full-time ethics officials, attorneys, paralegals and other specialists across the Department of Justice, ensuring that the 117,000 Department employees were properly advised on and supported in how to follow the Federal employee ethics rules."

He continued, "I look forward to finding ways to continue in my personal calling of service to my country. I encouraged anyone who is reading this to do the same. I believe in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.— 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' I also believe that Edmund Burke is right and that 'the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.'""

Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics receives grant to advance love-based ethical framework; University of Notre Dame, June 23, 2025

Laura Moran Walton, University of Notre Dame ; Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics receives grant to advance love-based ethical framework

"The University of Notre Dame has received a $10 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to support a project titled Love and Social Transformation: Empowering Scholars and Social Innovators to Develop the Love Ethic. Implementation of this grant, which is the largest Notre Dame has ever received from the Templeton Foundation, will be led by the Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics, the locus for research and moral formation within the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good.

“We are deeply grateful to the Templeton Foundation for its generous support of this important work. By emphasizing the ethics of abundant love, Notre Dame’s Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics has a critical role to play in contributing to contemporary ethics,” said University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. “The Catholic tradition of virtue ethics, like those of other world religions, offers a richer, fuller understanding of hope to the world, and this is a most fitting topic for the Jenkins Center’s first major initiative.”

The Love and Social Transformation project will bring scholars, writers, nonprofit leaders and others together to advance a framework that captures the power, richness and applicability of the love ethic — a core component of many faith traditions throughout the world.

“In our fractious, uncertain time, there is an urgent need for serious reflection on an ethic of love,” said University President Emeritus Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. “Emerging from the great religious traditions, the call to love has been behind some of the most transformative and enduring advances in human history. I am grateful to the Templeton Foundation for giving Notre Dame this opportunity.”

Love-based ethical insights have powered some of the most important social movements of the past century, such as Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement in India and Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights leadership in the United States. But in the 21st century, the more common approaches to ethical decision-making — especially in policy realms — focus instead on cost-benefit analysis.

“These frameworks neglect the dimensions of life that fit into the rich tradition of virtue ethics — moral touchpoints such as love, dignity and awe,” said Meghan Sullivan, the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy, director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative, and principal investigator for the grant.

“In contrast, the love ethic has three components: It holds that a widespread, non-merit-based trait like dignity is what grounds moral significance for each one of us; it is built around principles that situate interpersonal love at the foundations of our ethical reasoning; and it suggests love-oriented policies on diverse social issues as well as a love-oriented way of life.”"