Teagan Ampe, Author at Viterbi Conversations in Ethics

Fall 2021 Weekly News Profile

Climate Change Reparations: Who Should Carry the Cost?

The damaging effects of climate change are not distributed equally among the world’s nations — those who pollute the least bear more of the burden, so are these countries owed reparations for their losses? If so, who should pay?

Fall 2021 Weekly News Profile

The Third Dose Debate

Teagan Ampe October 4, 2021 Boosters COVID-19 Vaccinations

Some people in the U.S. are now eligible for a booster COVID vaccine, but is it ethical to get a third dose while vast swaths of the globe have yet to receive their first?

Fall 2021 Weekly News Profile

Your Right to Repair

Teagan Ampe September 6, 2021 Computer Science Mechanical Engineering Planned Obsolescence

The Right to Repair movement wants to give you the power to repair your own devices without having to rely on their manufacturers — but do those companies’ concerns mean that the movement isn’t ethically sound?

Fall 2020 Volume 4 Issue 2

Autonomous Accidents: The Ethics of Self-Driving Car Crashes

Teagan Ampe December 12, 2020 Autonomous Vehicles Rawlsian Ethics Rights Approach Utilitarianism

Self-driving cars are no longer confined to the realm of sci-fi; a variety of autonomous vehicles are under development by companies around the world. Before they hit consumer markets, though, manufacturers, lawmakers, and society as a whole must decide how cars should behave ethically in the worst-case scenario: a possibly fatal crash.

Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

Fines for Fire-Induced Blackouts?

Teagan Ampe November 2, 2020 Blackouts California Fires Liability

11/2/2020 The California wildfires of October 2019 affected vast swaths of residents, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes and many to lose their…

Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

The Unnerving Implications of Brain-Computer Interfaces

Teagan Ampe September 28, 2020 Autonomy Brain-Computer Interfaces Computer Science Privacy

9/28/2020 Elon Musk has always been one for lofty technological goals, but he’s not always concerned with their societal or ethical implications. During a recent…

Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

Explaining Artificially Intelligent Decisions

Teagan Ampe July 27, 2020 Artificial Intelligence Bias Machine Learning Right to an Explanation

7/27/2020 AI decision-making is everywhere these days. Getting a loan, getting an apartment, getting bail: in all three of these cases, there could be analgorithm taking…

Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

The Difficulties of Distanced Learning

Teagan Ampe July 2, 2020 COVID-19 Education Remote Learning

7/2/2020 Remote learning just isn’t the same. Ask any college student, or really any student who’s old enough to articulate their thoughts and has in…

Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

Delivery While We’re in Dire Straits

Teagan Ampe June 1, 2020 COVID-19 Delivery Food

6/1/2020 Despite everything, life goes on: we sleep, we wake up, we check our phones while trying not to think too hard about how large…

Current Issue

Featured Spring 2022 Volume 6 Issue 1

The Costs of Megaprojects: An Analysis of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge

Helen Situ May 4, 2022

Megaprojects are large scale investment projects, many of which are internationally famous, such as Australia’s Sydney Opera House, SpaceX’s program to colonize Mars, and the Panama Canal. Megaprojects garner a high level of excitement — and justly so, as they hold cultural, economic, and social significance. However, the questionable ethics of megaprojects needs to be examined as they increasingly become the dominant mode of infrastructure construction.

Featured Spring 2022 Volume 6 Issue 1

A Credit Card a Week: The Environmental Ethics of Plastics

Kaylee Tseng May 4, 2022

In an industrialized world, it seems impossible to live without plastics. From food storage to aircrafts, plastics provide benefits that make them an irreplaceable material. However, a consistent increase in plastic production and use has led to a massive plastic pollution crisis. Plastics are produced from non-renewable resources and can never fully decompose. They end up in our oceans, our environment, and even our stomachs (a credit card’s worth per week). Additionally, the massive amount of plastic waste has created a global plastic trade that unfairly places the burden of waste processing on less developed countries that may not be able to support even their own waste. The effects of plastic pollution are reaching a critical stage, and engineers must find solutions to relieve the growing pressure.

Featured Spring 2022 Volume 6 Issue 1

Artificial and Unreal: The Ethics of Beautification Technology for Images and Social Media

Daniel Chaderjian May 4, 2022

In today’s digital age, social media plays a major role in the development of adolescent minds. Young people begin posting content in their early years and are exposed to a feed of others’ pictures and videos. However, while this system may ostensibly help people stay in contact with those they do not see in person, it also creates an environment of comparison that can lead to self-esteem and body image issues. Beautification technology like augmented reality filters and photoshop have only exacerbated the issue, making it so that young people are not only comparing themselves to a curated version of others, but an entirely manufactured one. Engineers have a responsibility to examine the possible negative effects of the products they create, and beautification technology leads to far more harm than good.

Featured Spring 2022 Volume 6 Issue 1

The Ethics of Stockpiling Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

Matthew Wilson May 4, 2022

The development of new technology has allowed the evolution of new methods of warfare. The use of zero-days has propelled this exploration and empowered governments to remotely attack the software systems of their adversaries. Despite the potential military benefits of this weapon, government officials are still questioning whether they should stockpile zero-days, especially when the vulnerability is found in software that everyday citizens use. Analyses of previous zero-day attacks and the US government’s overpowering national security stance reveals that the consequences of stockpiling zero-days outweigh the benefits and are a clear violation of the rights of citizens.

Weekly News Profile

Fall 2022 Featured Weekly News Profile

Mass Protests in Iran Garner U.S. Tech Support

Jackie Finnemeyer September 26, 2022

Iranian protests have made headlines – and social media feeds – around the world. As the internet becomes an increasingly important ally in the global fight for human rights, tech firms in the United States are seeking to expand internet access to Iranians.

Fall 2022 Weekly News Profile

The Rise and Conflict of AI-Generated Images

Kaylee Tseng September 18, 2022

From art competitions to online horror stories, AI art has seen a massive spread online. These internet-based machine-learning models raise questions about misinformation, originality, and bias. While most results from AI-generated images have been developed as jokes, the internet may soon need to contend with these models as they become more realistic.

Fall 2022 Weekly News Profile

How California’s Heat Wave Almost Broke the State’s Power Grid

Sabrina Sy September 12, 2022

A historic heat wave in California has led to high demand for energy usage this past week, but officials have urged millions of residents to turn up their thermostats and shut off their appliances to prevent overwhelming the power grid. However, lawmakers and regulators at the forefront of the state’s green energy initiatives are also feeling the heat.

Spring 2022 Weekly News Profile

Climate Change Concerns May Be Getting Worse

Jackie Finnemeyer May 1, 2022

Climate change has long been underway, but new research has shown that the known effects of climate change may be expanding to include an increase in infectious disease. Are we able to curb the severity of these consequences before it’s too late?

Spring 2022 Weekly News Profile

Growing Up with CRISPR

Michael DeLucia April 24, 2022

The three known children with successfully edited genomes through CRISPR are now raising questions about health, safety, and surveillance for genetically modified humans. Although their well-being is paramount, how do parents, researchers, and lawmakers balance physical, mental, and financial well-being throughout the childrens’ lives?