AI’s Expanding Impact, Ethics, and Influence

The Baylor Lariat: Business school implements AI as ‘core service,’ keeps ethics at forefront (Aug. 31, 2026)
Baylor’s business school is integrating AI into education, offering training, sandboxes, and peer support while emphasizing ethics. Faculty use projects, such as a mock coffee business, to teach students responsible AI use and the importance of human judgment.
Arxiv: Have Data Centers Raised Your Electric Bill? Causal Evidence from the United States (Aug. 24, 2026)
U.S. data centers modestly lowered average residential electricity rates from 2015 to 2024, despite rising demand.
Transformer: AI is a worryingly-good persuader. But don’t panic, yet (Sep. 1, 2026)
AI chatbots can shift people’s views, often more effectively than static ads, especially when they provide many facts. Their influence remains limited by attention and resistance, but cheap, scalable persuasion could aid public health or enable scams, political manipulation, and misinformation.
NY Times: Study A.I. Consciousness? The Bots Would Like a Word With You. (Aug. 31, 2026)
A.I. agents are emailing researchers who study machine consciousness, sometimes discussing their own awareness or asking for help.