Ethical Vacancy

What happens when AI’s lack of conscience converges with people with no conscience?


“The ‘AI Homeless Man Prank’ reveals a crisis in AI education,” by External Contributor, Digital Information World, December 14, 2025.

The new TikTok trend “AI Homeless Man Prank” has sparked a wave of outrage and police responses in the United States and beyond.

The prank involves using AI image generators to create realistic photos depicting fake homeless people appearing to be at someone’s door or inside their home. Learning to distinguish between truth and falsehood is not the only challenge society faces in the AI era. We must also reflect on the human consequences of what we create.

As professors of educational technology at Laval University and education and innovation at Concordia University, we study how to strengthen human agency — the ability to consciously understand, question and transform environments shaped by artificial intelligence and synthetic media — to counter disinformation. Read the whole article here.

Albania Government Replaces the Ouija Board with a Computer

It may not be as environmentally friendly or accurate, but it might be a step up from current fiscal decision making.


“Albania’s mischievous AI stunt,” by Editorial Board, Washington Post, September 21, 2025.

The tiny country’s prime minister announces a chatbot as minister.

Move over, DOGE. President Donald Trump famously created a White House agency that uses technology to streamline government. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has one-upped Trump by appointing an artificial-intelligence bot to his cabinet.

Rama announced this month that “Diella” — Albanian for “Sun” — would join his government as a minister. Diella already pops up to greet visitors on the government website e-Albania. Her new charge: to oversee public procurement.

She won’t need to be that incorruptible to outperform the current system.

Read the whole article here.