Summer 2020 Archives - Viterbi Conversations in Ethics

Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

When COVID-19 Forces Ugly Decisions

8/10/2020 As morgues in Arizona and Texas begin to overflow into refrigeration trucks and the number of Americans hospitalized nears a record high, COVID-19’s toll on Americans–– and American…

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

Is Reopening Schools Targeting Specific Groups?

Isabel Yarwood Perez July 20, 2020 COVID-19 School Reopening

7/20/2020 As the summer comes to a close and Coronavirus cases remain at an all-time high, school districts across the nation are having to make…

Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

The Reality Behind TikTok’s Privacy Frenzy

Tyler Amano-Smerling July 13, 2020 China Data Privacy TikTok

7/13/2020 Two weeks ago, the Indian government announced a ban on TikTok over concerns for “the sovereignty and security of India” due to its “stealing and… transmitting…

Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

Prioritizing Profit in a Pandemic

Isabel Brieler July 6, 2020 COVID-19 Pharmaceutical Remdesivir

7/6/2020 The race to develop a legitimate medication or vaccine for COVID-19 has dominated the pharmaceutical industry for the past several months as the virus…

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

Revisiting Body Cams: Holding Police More Accountable

Tyler Amano-Smerling June 29, 2020 Black Lives Matter Body Cameras Police Surveillance

6/29/2020 As the surge in calls for police reform around the country grows, local government boards in Los Angeles, Fort Wayne, and other major cities have taken…

Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

The Ethical Cost of COVID-19 Contact Tracing

Isabel Yarwood Perez June 22, 2020 Contact Tracing COVID-19

6/22/2020 As states open up while COVID-19 cases continue to rise, many are looking for an effective solution to minimize the spread of the virus.…

Podcast Spring 2025 Spring 2025 VCE Podcast

Virtue Ethics: Cultivating Moral Character in a Modern World

VCE March 8, 2025

Hosted by Aryan Shah with guest Branden leong This podcast explores the role of virtue ethics in engineering, emphasizing how virtues like compassion, integrity, and…

Podcast Spring 2025 Spring 2025 VCE Podcast

AR/VR and how they shape the future of technology

VCE March 8, 2025

Hosted by Aryan Shah, Deep Shah, with guests “Greta Hoffmeister, Kariena Panpaliya, Dasean Volk, Hang Nguyen, Grace Eamer In this episode, the guests delve into…

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

Redefining Societal Progress for Engineers

Natasha Singh March 29, 2023

Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges focuses heavily on the pitfalls of technological determinism. This paper supports Cech’s argument through a discussion of current examples of the consequences of technological determinism, such as the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, medication accessibility, and facial recognition technology. Though the consequences of a zealous engineering mentality are commonplace in our society, there are also current examples of tech companies neglecting to develop technology due to its possible negative consequences.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

How the Technical Sciences and the Social Sciences Should Go Hand-in-Hand

Charles Liu March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges presented by the National Academy of Engineers (NAE) fail to involve ethics as a part of the solution to these issues. Traditionally, engineers have kept their work separate from its societal implications. Engineers and their non-technical counterparts have an obligation to view all technical solutions under the moral lens of ethicists and futurists. Going forward, engineers must be aware of their limits and work with experts outside of their fields to develop solutions that will be cognizant of society as a whole.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Lies We Tell to Inspire: Responding to the Engineering Double Standard

Shub Gaur March 29, 2023

The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges are critiqued by Dr. Erin Cech for what she describes as a double standard in engineering. Though Cech rightly discusses a lack of accountability and acknowledgement within the profession, her argument lacks nuance. The Grand Challenges were ultimately a promotional tool meant to inspire the next generation of engineers, yet Cech holds them to a standard of being professional rules and guidelines. This paper will discuss the distinctions that Cech’s argument lacks, including placing an unreasonable amount of responsibility on engineers and overstating their influence.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Grand Challenges: Authorial Particularism and a Lost Opportunity for an Equitable Society

Huzaifa Aslam March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges were developed by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in an effort to expose future generations to the wide range of innovation and technology that they could one day take part in. As detailed by the Challenges’ creators, the list includes challenges that are most significant to our current world. Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the Grand Challenges is that a lack of diversity in the panel of engineering experts led to a lack of oversight into issues that are actually pertinent to developing nations. Cech’s argument that the Grand Challenges are a missed opportunity for social justice holds validity, but her mischaracterization of the lack of diversity requires further consideration.

Fall 2026 Featured Weekly News Profile

Anthropic is Going Public, But At What Cost?

Tasniya Rahman November 4, 2026

On October 26, Anthropic, the company behind Claude, filed paperwork for what could become one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) in history. However, just weeks earlier, CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei called for companies to slow down AI development to improve safety testing. If Anthropic believes AI is advancing too quickly, why is it pursuing billions of dollars in investment to accelerate its own growth?

Fall 2026 Featured Weekly News Profile

A Personal Assistant for Everyday People

Ethan Chen October 29, 2026

Meta has recently released its new product “Muse”, an AI agent marketed towards the general public. Despite its ease of use and novel capabilities, there remain practical and ethical concerns regarding public safety and engineering responsibilities. The growth of AI use and its impact on everyday life makes it increasingly important to uphold ethical guidelines and develop robust guardrails for these systems.

Fall 2026 Featured Weekly News Profile

AI’s Race Against Itself

Tasniya Rahman October 21, 2026

AI development is moving at full speed, but some of the people leading the race are starting to wonder whether it is moving too fast. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently called for companies to slow down development of their most powerful AI models to leave room for safety testing and outside oversight, and he’s found unlikely allies in several competitors. A new voluntary safety agreement between President Trump and major AI companies brings that debate into government policy. But it leaves a difficult question: can the companies competing to lead the industry also be trusted to decide when to slow down?

Fall 2026 Featured Weekly News Profile

Roadrunner Lab Accelerates The Quantum Breakthrough

Kariena Panpaliya October 7, 2026

The Roadrunner Quantum Lab was opened on September 29, 2026, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to welcome government and private research entities. With state-of-the-art facilities and over a dozen groups of scientists, the Fault Tolerant Quantum Computing breakthrough may be approaching. In short, Roadrunner Labs is developing fast computers faster.

Fall 2026 Featured Weekly News Profile

New York City Bans Artificial Intelligence in Early Education

Ethan Chen September 20, 2026

New York City has announced an extensive AI moratorium in its public schools, restricting many AI apps and services. While advancements in AI have strong potential educational applications, rushed implementations raise concerns about the appropriate use of technology and socioemotional development in early education. In a society where AI tools proliferate rapidly, the ban is one step toward slowing the pace and ensuring schools do not miss the fundamental goal of providing quality education to students.