Ethics is a core issue that life sciences cannot avoid. In the past two decades, China has entered a high-speed development mode in the field of biotechnology, achieving many significant results, but also exposing a series of ethical issues. Among them, the most questioned is undoubtedly the He Jiankui gene editing incident. In fact, China has been promoting the establishment and improvement of technology ethics review, and the He Jiankui incident has rapidly accelerated this process. This article reviews the policies and regulations of the past and recent years to illustrate the establishment and improvement process of China’s scientific and technological ethics review.

This paper explores the fundamental ethical dilemmas encountered in applied philosophy, examining how theoretical ethical frameworks address practical moral challenges in contemporary society. Through a critical analysis of utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics, this study investigates their applications in medicine, technology, and environmental ethics. The research employs comparative analysis and case study methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of different philosophical approaches in resolving real-world ethical conflicts. Results indicate that no single ethical framework adequately addresses all moral dilemmas, suggesting the need for integrative approaches in applied philosophy. This paper contributes to ongoing debates about the relevance and practical application of philosophical ethics in modern decision-making contexts.

There is a growing need to analyze the traditional legal pedagogy due to the increasingly emergence of artificial intelligence into legal research, analysis and education at large. This study explores the incorporation of various tools into the legal education system in enhancing learning while on the verge of preserving and nurturing the essential human skills such as ethical reasoning, critical thinking, and professional judgment. The study further examines upon the existing tension between the structured technology and the expansion of human-centric legal suitability, arguing that legal education must evolve to maintain the balance between the two domains. While combining legal theory alongside educational psychology and technological ethics, the research investigates a multidisciplinary framework upon current legal practices across various schools where AI integration is gaining momentum. This estimates how various tools like legal chatbots, predictive analytics, and AI-powered research engines determine student learning outcomes, classroom dynamics, and the legal perception reasoning. The study employs qualitative methods, including interviews with law faculty and students, alongside case studies of institutions that have piloted AI-enhanced curricula. Various studies reveal that Artificial intelligence make it easier to find legal materials and speed up processes, but relying too much on them might make legal decisions less creative, less analytical, and less morally responsible. The study recommends a concept of "augmented legal pedagogy" that merges AI technology with human-centred teaching techniques to assemble the legal profession to meet the future needs and ensure it to be more ethical by nature. Hence, to conclude, it is suggested to educators, institutions and regulators to ensure that legal training procedure stays up-to-date with the technology and is still essentially human in the age of AI.

The article analyzes the challenges and possibilities that emerge in teacher education within a context marked by the advancement of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and the profound transformations in teaching and learning processes. Through a bibliographic review, it discusses how emerging technologies are redefining the competencies required of contemporary educators, demanding a more critical, creative, and reflective stance toward digital tools. The study emphasizes the importance of incorporating dimensions such as digital literacy, computational thinking, technological ethics, and an understanding of the social impacts of AI in education into both initial and continuing teacher training curricula. The findings indicate an urgent need to redesign educational programs so that teachers assume a leading role in technological mediation and the pedagogical use of AI, thereby strengthening their autonomy and ethical commitment. It concludes that teacher education should be understood as a continuous and emancipatory process capable of articulating technology, humanity, and social transformation, preparing educators to act consciously and innovatively in increasingly complex and digitalized educational contexts.

The theme of moral responsibility in the face of artificial intelligence opens one of the most complex questions in contemporary philosophy: who bears guilt when the decision no longer belongs to a human subject? In an era where technological autonomy exceeds the limits of direct control, the classical notion of responsibility loses its center, becoming a problem without a subject. This paper explores the tension between algorithmic rationality and moral consciousness, starting from the idea that morality presupposes intentionality, empathy, and self-awareness-dimensions that machines cannot reproduce. The analysis traces the evolution of the concept of responsibility in the philosophical tradition, from Kant and Jonas to the ethics of modern technology, showing that morality cannot be reduced to calculation. Although autonomous systems may make decisions that are procedurally correct, they remain incapable of grasping the moral meaning of action. Therefore, moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence must be reconstructed not as a delegation to machines, but as an extension of human responsibility into the technological sphere. The article argues that the real problem is not whether machines can make mistakes, but whether humans are still capable of understanding error as an ethical experience. In the absence of a consciousness capable of assuming moral weight, responsibility risks dissolving into a moral void. Confronted with this crisis, the ethics of the future must once again become an ethics of limits-one that recognizes where power ends and duty begins.

Responsibility is a core concept for engineering ethics, yet it is often used ambiguously and is subject to various interpretations. Given that the mission statements of engineering higher education institutions, accreditation requirements, and engineering professional codes are built on a language of responsibility, it is important to have a structured approach that includes its evolving dimensions. This article surveys the engineering ethics literature to identify historical developments and develop a conceptual framework for defining the diverse responsibilities engineers have qua engineers. This conceptual framework categorizes engineering responsibilities at four analytical levels (Micro/Macro and Subject/Object). Micro-Subject responsibilities address the values, characteristics, and decision-making of individual engineers. Micro-Object responsibilities address the values, characteristics, and culture of organizations where an engineer practices. Macro-Subject responsibilities address the values, mission and decision-making of the engineering profession or collectives. Macro-Object responsibilities address the social, economic and political structures and context driving engineering practice. The framework provides a practical tool for engineering curriculum development and accreditation processes by providing clear formulations for setting learning objectives and graduate attributes that support the embedding of responsibility across the curriculum and across accreditation requirements.

Between Themis and Prometheus: a history of the ethics of science and technology

The advancement of intelligent technology has transformed interaction models across communication ecosystems, encompassing production, dissemination, and consumption. Exemplified by the Paris Olympics’ 180+ intelligent communication domains, “AI + Sports” has emerged as an industry paradigm. This study employs media affordance theory to analyze AI’s transformative role in sports communication and associated ethical challenges, offering insights for cultivating a robust digital sports ecosystem. Method: This study investigates the application pathways of artificial intelligence in 20 major sports events held between 2000 and 2024. Data on application frequency, audience feedback, and other relevant metrics w collected to analyze the impact patterns of AI in sports event communication. Empirical studies demonstrate that intelligent technologies in sport communication evolve through a “discrete infiltration-systematic reconstruction” process, achieving bidirectional structural transformation. From media affordance perspectives, AI-driven paradigm shifts create a triangular model featuring “informational density leap-user precision iteration-impact breadth reconfiguration.” In terms of productive affordance, AI technology significantly enhances communication efficiency, enabling precise coverage of audience needs. Regarding social affordance, algorithms foster emotional resonance between communicators and the audience. As for mobile affordance, AI-generated content (AIGC) transcends spatial and temporal constraints, effectively expanding the boundaries of sports event influence. However, the deepening of technological empowerment has also given rise to three critical ethical dilemmas in communication. First, under the algorithmic black-box effect, the absence of a fact-checking mechanism within the content production chain leads to a normative imbalance between “technological correctness” and “factual accuracy.” Second, emotional algorithmic manipulation introduced by technological mediation is eroding authentic audience-sport event connections. Lastly, the fluidity of user information boundaries has fostered a new form of digital exploitation within the framework of technological ethics. In the era of intelligent communication, the humanistic essence of sports events is facing profound challenges posed by digital deconstruction. Event organizers must establish a bidirectional “technology-life” reflection mechanism. First, they should actively explore the broader potential in the dissemination of large-scale events. Second, they must maintain a dialectical perspective throughout their application, carefully regulating risks to ensure the smooth operation of events. Content creators should adhere to a people-centered approach and promptly fill in the gaps where needed. Not only should the purpose of content production be rooted in human values, but the creative process must also leverage human agency to ensure both efficiency and quality in content delivery.

In the era of transition from digital technology to intelligence, Generative Artificial Intelligence (AIGC) is reshaping the existence and communication logic of cultural heritage. As a unique diasporic cultural space in China, Jiangmen Qiaoxiang (hometown of overseas Chinese) faces the decline of its physical field and the rupture of intergenerational memory regarding its Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Traditional digital protection often stops at static "mirror replication," failing to respond to the needs of living inheritance across time, space, and cultures. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's theory of the production of space and Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, this paper proposes the concept of "Cultural Digital Twin" and explores how Generative AI drives the ontological leap of Qiaoxiang ICH from physical space to digital twin space. The study finds that AIGC produces a digital field of virtual-real symbiosis and dynamic evolution through three mechanisms: "algorithmic reconstruction of representations of space," "embodied simulation of representational spaces," and "interactive co-creation of spatial practice." This process not only achieves the digital proliferation of ICH resources but also triggers the restructuring of power structures and the transformation of capital forms within the Qiaoxiang cultural field. The paper further constructs a digital twin space production model based on "human-machine collaboration" and critically examines issues of technological ethics, algorithmic bias, and digital sovereignty, aiming to provide theoretical interpretation and practical paths for the revival of Qiaoxiang culture in the intelligent age.

Intercultural leadership and its subset of intercultural communicative leadership in Education 5.0 is the ability to effectively navigate one’s self and others through cultural differences as well as integrate technology, artificial intelligence (AI), personalized learning, and digital ethics to create learner-centered environments. Educators today are often eager to incorporate AI into their daily plans yet many are unaware of the potential inaccuracies and discrepancies inherent to AI. Issues regarding fairness, privacy and bias being hardwired into any potential AI system are concerns that need to be properly analyzed and addressed in order to mitigate against unintended consequences and ensure that such tools are not causing harm or being abused. However, despite these potential risks, current research regarding AI use in HEIs argues that the technology is simply “too good to not use”. This article will present an overview of the Erasmus+ SHUTTLE project, which aims to explore how AI-powered computing systems can extend or augment the possibilities of teaching, learning, and research while doing so ethically, responsibly, and humanely. Primarily, this article will discuss and draw attention to issues pertaining to intercultural communicative leadership and the ethical creation of learner-centered environments in an HE context. A summary of the SHUTTLE project and its completed outputs will be highlighted as well as a review of pertinent literature and available AI tools followed by relevant methodology for incorporating AI within an HE context.

BackgroundThe increasing digitization of society necessitates that persons engage with technology to maintain health, access care, and participate in social activities. Technological innovations that aim to support persons living with dementia and their care partners are increasingly integrating artificial intelligence (AI), such as smart homes, assistive robots, and intelligent wheelchairs – three examples of “AI AgeTech”. Ethical discussions related to AI‐enabled technologies have addressed individual‐level issues (e.g., privacy, informed consent) and society‐level issues (e.g., bias, equity). The dynamic and relational natures of dementia care, however, necessitate a nuanced understanding that addresses how these innovations may influence, and be influenced by, evolving care needs, relationships, and arrangements within dynamic care ecosystems.MethodA working group of 13 experientially‐diverse researchers and knowledge users (i.e., persons living with dementia, family care partners, health care professionals, and AI/technology entrepreneurs) engaged in three co‐creation workshops to explore how AI AgeTech may shape, and be shaped by, evolving dementia care ecosystems (i.e., care actors, inter‐actor relationships, care practices and arrangements). Workshop activities employed visual experience probes – including personas, care maps, scenarios of different care ecosystems, and videos demonstrating the different examples of AI AgeTech – to stimulate and guide discussion and collaborative knowledge synthesis.ResultA preliminary guiding model for designing AI AgeTech innovation was synthesized. Integrating conceptualizations of ‘humanism’ from geriatrics, social robotics, and AI ethics, this model delineates specific attributes, values, and design orientations to guide innovation design for and with dementia care ecosystems. Uniquely, AI‐enabled systems are not merely tools but, rather, semi‐autonomous care actors that are likely to reshape the care relationships and practices within the ecosystems in which they are deployed.ConclusionDesigning AI‐enabled technologies to support dementia care ecosystems requires a humanistic, relational understanding beyond the current discourses of AI and technology ethics. This model provides actionable guidance for researchers and technology and service innovators seeking to enhance dementia care in a future increasingly shaped by AI.

Effective knowledge management (KM) is pivotal for higher education institutions to maintain competitiveness. This study aims to formulate a targeted strategy for enhancing lecturer KM by identifying critical indicators requiring immediate intervention, based on SITOREM analysis. The research is grounded in the theory of organizational knowledge creation, hypothesizing that a focused improvement on pivotal KM processes and supporting factors will lead to a more effective and sustainable KM system. This quantitative research employed a survey method to collect data from lecturers at a higher education institution. Data were analyzed using the SITOREM method to identify strengths, weaknesses, and key improvement priorities within the KM framework, focusing on the five fundamental KM processes: acquisition, refinement, storage, dissemination, and application. The analysis revealed that knowledge evaluation is an institutional strength to be maintained. However, critical weaknesses were identified in knowledge acquisition and application processes. Supporting factors such as organizational rewards and educator development are potential levers, while challenges persist in team collaboration, leadership empathy, and information technology security and ethics. These findings align with prior research emphasizing that technological infrastructure and a collaborative culture are prerequisites for successful KM implementation, directly impacting the cycle of organizational learning. The study concludes that an optimal KM enhancement strategy requires an integrated approach, simultaneously improving critical KM processes, strengthening collaborative culture, enhancing leadership social skills, and ensuring digital ethics, thereby creating a systematic and sustainable KM system.

Abstract This article examines how ChatGPT is reshaping the linguistic and social conditions of contemporary migration by situating its impact within discussions on integration, labor precarity, and the ethics of new technologies. It shows how large language models now participate in communicative tasks that migrants once managed solely through human interaction, including navigating government procedures, consulting medical professionals, and handling routine daily exchanges. These examples reveal how ChatGPT can broaden access to information while also producing errors that may create serious challenges for migrants who depend on reliable guidance. The article further considers how automation in service and clerical roles, many of which employ migrants, heightens existing job vulnerabilities. Ethical concerns such as misinformation, impersonation, bias, and opaque decision processes are treated as structural risks that affect migrants unevenly, especially when time, language resources, or institutional knowledge are limited. The discussion concludes by identifying digital competence as a necessary component of migrant integration, emphasizing the importance of understanding both the capabilities and the boundaries of ChatGPT. Through this perspective, the article contributes to migration linguistics by illustrating how AI systems are becoming part of the communicative environments that migrants must learn to navigate.

Artificial intelligence (AI), a core technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, profoundly reshapes the landscape of modern medicine. AI can extract information from extensive datasets, optimizing trial design, and enhancing research efficiency. It is widely applied in field such as medical imaging, clinical decision support, precision medicine, and drug development. Notably, AI brings revolutionary opportunities to clinical research and practice; however, it also raises a series of serious ethical and regulatory challenges regarding data privacy, algorithmic bias, attribution of responsibility, and informed consent. This article systematically discusses the current applications of AI at various stages of clinical research, deeply analyzes the core ethical dilemmas arising from these applications, and outlines corresponding ethical governance frameworks and response strategies. In addition, we advocated establishment of a collaborative governance system that is people-oriented and technology-driven, emphasizing strict adherence to ethical principles throughout the entire process of technological development to ensure the scientific, fair, and safe nature of clinical research, ultimately resulting in the coordinated progress of artificial intelligence technology and medical ethics.

The article offers partial results of research on media competencies in the communication of faith, reconstructed on the basis of Pope Francis’ Messages for the World Communications Day (2014–2025). The research problem focuses on identifying the competencies deemed essential for the Christian proclamation within the digital culture and on analysing their theological and anthro­pological grounds in the face of such contemporary challenges as disinformation, social polarisation, and the development of artificial intelligence. A three-stage qualitative content analysis (exploration— categorisation—interpretation) was supported by contextual validation through comparison with the rel­evant literature and the teaching of the Church. The analysis helped to define five equivalent categories of media competencies: cognitive, ethical, relational, technical, and spiritual (each with four subcate­gories). This article discusses the first two of them, i.e. cognitive competencies (related to the search for truth, critical discernment, and reflection) and ethical competencies (responsibility, the culture of encounter, the ethics of technology, resistance to disinformation). Their mutual complementarity and deep grounding in Christian anthropology and Francis’ theology of communication were demonstrated. The messages show communication of the faith as an act of love, witness, and community-building, in which cognition and ethics constitute two inseparable dimensions of the mature presence of Chris­tians in the media. The article concludes with seven findings and formative recommendations for media education and pastoral ministry in the context of digital culture. The remaining categories (relational, technical, and spiritual) will be discussed in a separate publication.

Social media’s pervasive influence, particularly its role in triggering social comparison and anxiety, represents a critical area of research within communication studies. Platforms like The Red Note, with algorithmically curated content that highlights luxury consumption and flawless self-presentation, intensify these phenomena.. This study synthesizes existing literature to investigate the mechanisms through which social comparison on social media, specifically The Red Note, contributes to user anxiety. It reviews key concepts—social media as a communication environment, The Red Note as a representative platform, social comparison as a psychological process, and anxiety and happiness as core emotional outcomes—and analyzes prevalent research methodologies, from early correlation surveys to recent longitudinal and computational studies. The findings reveal that algorithmic recommendations on platforms create an environment of unattainable comparison targets, singular comparison dimensions, and uncontrollable comparison frequency, significantly amplifying upward social comparisons. This process acts as a core trigger for anxiety, overshadowing potential benefits to user happiness. The study concludes by highlighting the core contradiction between technological ethics and communication efficiency, suggesting a multi-stakeholder governance model involving algorithm transparency and media literacy education as a necessary future direction.

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract in English. This commentary underscores the need for vigilance regarding the technological risks associated with moral bioenhancement, a stance that aligns with China’s current policy direction for strengthening the governance of science and technology ethics. It argues that the ethical review of moral bioenhancement technologies should pay particular attention to fundamental risks concerning personal identity, free will, and value pluralism. From the perspective of Confucian virtue ethics, moral cultivation relies on self-reflection, moral exemplarity, and genuine relational experiences, and it thus cannot be replaced by pharmaceutical or neuro-modulatory interventions. Ultimately, the commentary advocates for a cautious stance towards moral bioenhancement, upholding the principles of technology for good and human-centredness to safeguard human dignity and ethical subjectivity amidst rapid technological development.

With the rapid advancement of fintech, gamified finance has profoundly transformed traditional financial service models through mechanisms such as points systems, leaderboards, and virtual rewards. This paper systematically reviews research progress across four dimensions—behavioral impacts, market risks, regulatory policies, and technological ethics—revealing shortcomings in existing studies: behavioral perspectives neglect longterm performance evaluation, regulatory research lacks quantitative standards, technical analyses omit micro-level pathway tracking, and market risk studies underestimate contagion effects. Based on these findings, this paper constructs a multidimensional analytical framework integrating “behavior-market-technology-regulation” and proposes that future research should employ methods such as randomized controlled trials, on-chain data analysis, and policy simulations to quantify the comprehensive impact of gamified designs on investors’ long-term decision-making and market stability, thereby providing empirical evidence for regulatory policies and product design. The study finds that while gamified designs enhance user engagement, they also pose significant challenges to investor protection, market stability, and ethical compliance, necessitating the establishment of a theoretical framework and regulatory system that balances innovation with risk prevention and control.

Today’s scientific and technological world operates largely with a frontier mentality. The effect of this mentality on modernity, human civilisation and planetary wellbeing is alarming. Just as science aided the development of the modern world, many ecological challenges, ecosystemic destruction and biodiversity loss are also engendered by scientific or technological inventions. Therefore, it is suitable to investigate how science and technology can be hinged firmly on a value-oriented framework, rather than outstripping value in response to its own progressive logic. This article reports on a case study that, among other things, attempted to formulate an ethic of the planetary system. It is argued that such an ethical stance is best encapsulated by the case study’s envisioned epistemic-based ethics (EBE). Drawing insights from previous empirical case studies of genetic engineering (GE), the current case study employed the philosophico-phenomenological method to investigate GE. Conceptual clarification and hermeneutical methods were used to re-interpret texts, while the logical reconstruction of existing ideas was employed to aid the development and application of the envisioned EBE framework. Therefore, the article concludes that EBE is a suitable framework for developing science and technological output that has a value-laden stance. Such an attitude would not only assist in making decisions where value-laden questions in technological advancement are concerned, but also guide choices towards a sustainable planetary wellbeing.

This article critically examines how the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into labor markets and administrative decision-making challenges the epistemological foundations of the homo economicus and, by extension, the core assumptions of law and economics. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework that combines legal theory, institutional economics, and the ethics of technology, the study analyzes Argentina as a paradigmatic case of regulatory gaps, labor precarity, and algorithmic governance in a middle-income country. The research demonstrates that the persistence of the rational-agent fiction impedes the emergence of a normative framework capable of addressing distributed agency, structural opacity of algorithms, and the reconfiguration of legal responsibility in socio-technical environments. The article proposes replacing the neoclassical paradigm with a model of hybrid algorithmic governance, grounded in transparency, explainability, meaningful human oversight, and distributive justice. It concludes that without binding regulation safeguarding fundamental labor rights and preventing algorithmic discrimination, AI will exacerbate pre-existing inequalities—particularly in contexts marked by high informality such as Argentine.