Humans and AI, autism, Hurricane Katrina, anonymity
Latest News
September 4, 2025
What Does It Mean to Be Human in the Age of AI? "We're at a turning point"
What are the moral and philosophical challenges we face as AI advances and humans navigate aging, end-of-life care, and cognitive decline? “We’re at a turning point because for the first time in the history of either our planet or our species we are seeing the emergence of a nonhuman intelligence,” says Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky in conversation with Hastings Center Fellow Insoo Hyun of the Museum of Science in Boston in the latest episode of The Big Question. “So, what happens to being human if we are not the only rational entities on Earth or in the universe? Do we have to find a new way of explaining what makes us us?” The Big Question is a collaboration between The Hastings Center for Bioethics and the Museum of Science. Watch the episode.
What Really Causes Autism? From Hastings Bioethics Forum
Critics of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have focused on why he shouldn’t implicate vaccines as a cause of autism, but crucial questions arise about what does cause it and how to prevent and address it, writes Hastings Center Fellow Robert Klitzman of Columbia University. About 20% of autism cases result from a genetic variation that occurs during embryonic development. Read “What Really Causes Autism and What We Should Do About It.”
Memory, Medicine, and Law: Reflecting on the 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina Join us next week
Please join us in Washington, D.C., on September 11–13 for a powerful symposium that brings together leading voices from law, public health, policy, and community advocacy. The Hastings Center for Bioethics is a proud sponsor of this landmark event, hosted at Georgetown University’s Capitol Campus, which will explore the enduring legacy of Hurricane Katrina through the lenses of justice, healing, and collective memory. Speakers include Hastings Center Fellows Michele Goodwin,Faith Fletcher, and Patrick Smith, who are on the planning committee, and Lori Andrews, Lawrence Gostin, Dorothy Roberts, and Charmaine Royal. Learn more and register.
Our Theater of Anonymity It's time to update ethics standards of big data health research
The regulatory framework for doing ethics review of big health data research proposals hinges on “deidentifying” individuals’ data to protect their privacy. This approach is outdated. It was written prior to the current era of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Today, “almost all data can be reidentified,” concludes an article in Ethics & Human Research. The article calls on research ethics professionals to “refocus their efforts, letting go of the increasingly meaningless regulatorily defined deidentification standard—our theater of anonymity—and turning their attention to developing systems that assess the balance point of the relative benefit and risk of anonymity within diverse groups/communities over time.” Read the article.
Memory, Medicine, and Law: Reflecting on the 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Symposium is co-sponsored by The Hastings Center for Bioethics and hosted at Georgetown University’s Capitol Campus. September 11-13.
PRIM&R Annual Conference. Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky will deliver the keynote address. November 7.
Healthcare Leadership Symposium. Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky will participate in a fireside chat with the president of SUNY Downstate. November 12.
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