Gregory Robson
Associate Research Professor
Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame
Technology Ethics
Recent Work
New Book!
Technology Ethics
A Philosophical Introduction and Readings
By Gregory J. Robson, Jonathan Y. Tsou
Copyright 2023 (second edition now under contract)
The first of its kind, this anthology in the burgeoning field of technology ethics offers students and other interested readers 32 chapters, each written in an accessible and lively manner specifically for this volume. The chapters are conveniently organized into five parts:
Perspectives on Technology and its Value
Technology and the Good Life
Computer and Information Technology
Technology and Business
Biotechnologies and the Ethics of Enhancement
A hallmark of the volume is multidisciplinary contributions both (1) in “analytic” and “continental” philosophies and (2) across several hot-button topics of interest to students, including the ethics of autonomous vehicles, psychotherapeutic phone apps, and bio-enhancement of cognition and in sports. The volume editors, both teachers of technology ethics, have compiled a set of original and timely chapters that will advance scholarly debate and stimulate fascinating and lively classroom discussion.
Key Features:
- Examines the most pivotal ethical questions around our use of technology, equipping readers to better understand technology’s promises and perils.
- Explores throughout a central tension raised by technological progress: maintaining social stability vs. pursuing dynamic social improvements.
- Provides ample coverage of the pressing issues of free speech and productive online discourse.
Books
- True Prosperity: People and Profit in the Technological Age (under contract, Cambridge University Press); second half focuses largely on Big Tech
- Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings (2nd edition; Routledge, under contract; co-editor with Jonathan Tsou)
- Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings (Routledge 2023; co-editor with Jonathan Tsou)
Recent Work in Technology Ethics
- “Price Personalization in the Age of AI: Complicating the Defense,” Business Ethics Quarterly, forthcoming
- Research Grant on AI and meaningful work (with Andrew Bailey and Justin Tosi), Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Laboratory, 2026
- “Against AI-Driven Central Planning,” Mendoza College of Business (Business Ethics and Society Program faculty research workshop), University of Notre Dame, April 2026
- “AI and Economics,” Carnegie Mellon University, for graduate students (online), March 2026
- “AI, Virtue, and the Good Life,” Whitworth University (invited university lecture), November 2025
- Team Member, SERVIAM Grant on AI and Ministry (Serviam is Latin for “I will serve”), University of Notre Dame, Spring 2026-present
- Advisory Board Member, Notre Dame Program on AI and the Development of Ethics in Agents (ND-PAIDEIA), NEH Grant, Fall 2025-present
- “The Political Economy of AI,” Generative AI & The Humanities Workshop, University of Notre Dame, August 2025
- “AI and Political Economy: Citizens Beware” (with Justin Tosi), AI Forum, Journal of Politics, August 2025
- “Profitable Business and the Common Good” (Keynote Address), Investing for the Good conference, Ave Maria University, March 2025
- “Echo Chambers, Commerce, and Human Flourishing,” revised chapter in Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings (eds. Gregory Robson and Jonathan Tsou, 2nd ed.), New York: Routledge, forthcoming
- Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings (co-edited with Jonathan Tsou), revised and expanded 2nd edition, Routledge, under contract
- “Technology in the Meaningful Life: AI, Public Discourse, and the Common Good,” Work and Professional Ethics Research Group, online, November 2024
- Panelist, “Putting AI to Work: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” ASQ Quality Innovation Summit Panel in Milwaukee, online, October 2024
- Panelist, “Navigating Appropriate and Effective Use of AI and Large Language Models for BME Students,” online, Iowa State University, September 2024
- “AI and Economic Planning,” Institute for the Study of Political Economy, Midwest Institutes Conference at Ball State University, May 2024
- “Planning Future Economies: Can AI Be Trusted?,” Mendoza College of Business, Notre Dame Ethics Week, February 2024
- “Echo Chambers, Business, and the Good Life,” Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, February 2024
- “Big Events Now” (Letter to the editor of Harvard Magazine on the geopolitical risk of social media use), January-February 2024
- “Social Media Firms, Echo Chambers, and the Good Life” (2023: 204-214), in Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings (Routledge, eds. Gregory Robson and Jonathan Tsou)
- “Technology Ethics: A New Resource for Teachers,” New Work in Philosophy (co-edited online by Marcus Arvan and Barry Maguire), May 2023
Teaching
- Course designer and instructor for many sections of (1) Philosophy of Technology (Iowa State University) and (2) Ethics of Data Analytics and (3) Business and Virtue in the Digital Age (University of Notre Dame), Spring 2020 to present