Dr. Braver is an assistant professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies civil military relations. , The New York Times; The Military May Find Itself in an Impossible Situation
Nature; Ethical considerations for the age of non-governmental space exploration
"Abstract
Mounting ambitions and capabilities for public and private, non-government sector crewed space exploration bring with them an increasingly diverse set of space travelers, raising new and nontrivial ethical, legal, and medical policy and practice concerns which are still relatively underexplored. In this piece, we lay out several pressing issues related to ethical considerations for selecting space travelers and conducting human subject research on them, especially in the context of non-governmental and commercial/private space operations."
Dolores Tropiano, Arizona State University (ASU) News; Where AI and property law intersect
"Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that has the potential to be used to revolutionize education, creativity, everyday life and more.
But as society begins to harness this technology and its many uses — especially in the field of generative AI — there are growing ethical and copyright concerns for both the creative industry and legal sector.
Tyson Winarski is a professor of practice with the Intellectual Property Law program in Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He teaches an AI and intellectual property module within the course Artificial Intelligence: Law, Ethics and Policy, taught by ASU Law Professor Gary Marchant.
“The course is extremely important for attorneys and law students,” Winarski said. “Generative AI is presenting huge issues in the area of intellectual property rights and copyrights, and we do not have definitive answers as Congress and the courts have not spoken on the issue yet.”"
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Irina Raicu, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University ; Age Verification Online: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Considerations
"On December 1st, as part of the “IT, Ethics, and Law” lecture series (co-sponsored by MCAE and the High Tech Law Institute), I moderated an online panel; the title of our event was “Determining Users’ Ages Online: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Considerations.” The panelists were Eric Goldman (from Santa Clara University’s School of Law), Jennifer King (from the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence), and Sarah Krehbiel (from SCU’s Computer Science department). You can now watch the recording of that conversation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPqX2I98eL0"
Irina Raicu, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University; An Upcoming Webinar on AR/VR, Ethics, and Law
Thursday, March 10, 2022 12 Noon PST/3 PM EST
"Irina Raicu is the director of the Internet Ethics program (@IEthics) at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Views are her own.
On Thursday, March 10, we will be hosting an online webinar titled “Virtual Reality, Real Virtues, and Augmented Norms and Laws.” It’s not too late to register and add your questions to this conversation about ethical and legal issues associated with the widening adoption of VR and AR technology!
The panelists presenting will be attorney Brittan Heller—who advises companies on issues such as privacy, content moderation, online harassment, and civic engagement; was the founding director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Technology and Society; and previously worked for the International Criminal Court and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division—and Erick Ramirez, who is an associate professor in Santa Clara University’s Philosophy department, a co-creator of VR analogs of well-known philosophical thought experiments, and the author of a recently published textbook titled The Ethics of Virtual and Augmented Reality: Building Worlds.
The event is part of Santa Clara University’s “IT, Ethics, and Law” lecture series, which is co-sponsored by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and the High Tech Law Institute. (Please join our Internet/Technology ethics mailing list if you’d like to be notified of future events in the series.)
For a preview of some of the issues likely to be mentioned in our conversation, see Heller’s 2020 report titled “Reimagining Reality: Human Rights and Immersive Technology,” and Ramirez’s “It’s Dangerous to Think Virtual Reality Is an Empathy Machine.”
Whether or not VR and AR can serve as “empathy machines,” constitute “the future of corporate training,” create new “kids' issues,” require new standards of privacy protection, or do all of the above and more, they are bound to require careful analysis and ongoing conversations."
MATT SIMON, Wired; Want to Get Along With Robots? Pretend They’re Animals
Robotics ethicist Kate Darling surveys our history with animals—in work, war, and companionship—to show how we might develop similar relationships with robots.
"WIRED: That brings us nicely to the idea of agency. One of my favorite moments in human history was when animals were put on trial—like regularly.
KD: Wait. You liked this?
WIRED: I mean, it's horrifying. But I just think that it's a fascinating period in legal history. So why do we ascribe this agency to animals that have no such thing? And why might we do the same with robots?
KD: It's so bizarre and fascinating—and seems so ridiculous to us now—but for hundreds of years of human history in the Middle Ages, we put animals on trial for the crimes they committed. So whether that was a pig that chewed a child's ear off, or whether that was a plague of locusts or rats that destroyed crops, there were actual trials that progressed the same way that a trial for a human would progress, with defense attorneys and a jury and summoning the animals to court. Some were not found guilty, and some were sentenced to death. It’s this idea that animals should be held accountable, or be expected to abide by our morals or rules. Now we don't believe that that makes any sense, the same way that we wouldn't hold a small child accountable for everything.
In a lot of the early legal conversation around responsibility in robotics, it seems that we're doing something a little bit similar. And, this is a little tongue in cheek—but also not really—because the solutions that people are proposing for robots causing harm are getting a little bit too close to assigning too much agency to the robots. There's this idea that, “Oh, because nobody could anticipate this harm, how are we going to hold people accountable? We have to hold the robot itself accountable.” Whether that's by creating some sort of legal entity, like a corporation, where the robot has its own rights and responsibilities, or whether that's by programming the robot to obey our rules and morals—which we kind of know from the field of machine ethics is not really possible or feasible, at least not any anytime soon."
Rob Dube, Forbes; Why Ethics Matter For Social Media, Silicon Valley And Every Tech Industry Leader
"At one time, the idea of technology and social media significantly influencing society and politics would’ve sounded crazy. Now, with technology so embedded into the fabric of our lives, it’s a reality that raises legitimate questions about Silicon Valley’s ethical responsibility.
Should tech companies step in to create and enforce guidelines within their platforms if they believe such policies would help the greater good? Or should leaders allow their technology to evolve organically without filters or manipulation?
One authority on this fascinating topic is Casey Fiesler—a researcher, assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, and expert on tech ethics. She is also a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School. There, she found a passion for the intersections between law, ethics, and technology."
"TELLING THE DIFFERENCE If you were to take Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, change the title and the characters’ names, and pass it off as your original work, that would be plagiarism. However, there would be no copyright infringement, because Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is in the public domain and therefore no longer subject to copyright. On the other hand, if you were to take 50 Shades of Grey—a work currently in copyright—change the title and the characters’ names, and pass it off as your original work, that would constitute both plagiarism and copyright infringement. Stealing the author’s work in this way and selling an unauthorized derivative of it would not only be unethical; it would also be illegal. Under U.S. law, it might be an example of stealing that rises to the level of a felony punishable by imprisonment, depending on its demonstrable financial impact on the legitimate rights holder."
