Can AI be virtuous? @fignuisance.bsky.social and I argue no. We respond to a @bmj.com Health & Care Informatics paper proposing virtues for clinical AI. We caution that anthropomorphizing AI can obscure human moral agency and distort ethical frameworks. ➡️https://tinyurl.com/2frsdhd6 #bioethics

A few words on what motivated this paper. Our concern is that we may wake up one day and realize how much influence commercial actors using AI tools can have on health. This risk is greater because AI companies now have a substantial technological advantage over regulators -->

Itai Bavli@itaibavli.bsky.social · 4w ago

How is AI changing the ways commercial actors influence health? Check out our new article published in BMJ: "Artificial intelligence as a new commercial determinant of health." We introduce the AI commercial determinants of health (AI-CDoH) framework 🧵 @bmj.com 1/9

Original: Drs. Magel, @karenddavis.bsky.social, & @danielbuchman.bsky.social, et al. investigated whether framing chronic pain as a brain disease reduces the stigma that adults without chronic pain place on a fictional person with chronic pain. FREE: www.jpain.org/article/S152...

Exploring the effect of disease explanations of chronic pain on stigma

Chronic pain is a subjective experience, and the absence of objective medical evidence can contribute to stigma. Despite being classified as a disease in the ICD-11 and research findings showing…

jpain.org

Special thanks to my co-authors: Joel Lexchin, Sandro Galea, Nicholas King, and Nadav Davidovitch @bmj.com You can read the full text here: www.bmj.com/content/394/... 9/9

Artificial intelligence as a new commercial determinant of health

Itai Bavli and colleagues argue that the growing use of AI by commercial industries is creating new opportunities to influence health, and an AI commercial determinants of health framework may help to...

bmj.com

Researchers can use AI-CDoH to examine actors, data, how AI shapes knowledge or behaviour, who is targeted, and health impacts. It can help identify where AI enabled commercial influence occurs, how it operates, and what forms of oversight or intervention may be needed. 8/9

AI platforms as health influencing infrastructure: Chatbots, search engines, social media, and recommendation systems increasingly mediate health advice, self-diagnosis, and purchasing. Their design, data practices, and commercial incentives shape what information and products people see. 7/9

AI shaping of the public narrative: AI enables highly personalized messaging across chatbots, search, and social media. It can amplify doubt, make commercial claims seem widely accepted, and influence how people understand health risks, products, and responsibility. 6/9

AI regulatory and policy capture: AI can identify regulatory vulnerabilities, tailor arguments to decision makers, and generate submissions at scale. When regulators and public institutions adopt commercial AI systems, biased data or algorithms may also affect regulatory and policy decisions. 5/9

AI knowledge capture: AI can change how scientific evidence is generated, synthesized, framed, and shared. Companies can use it to target clinicians or researchers, amplify favourable findings, and obscure evidence that challenges commercial goals. 4/9

Through this framework (AI-CDoH), we examine: 👉 AI knowledge capture 👉 AI regulatory and policy capture 👉 AI shaping of the public narrative 👉 AI platforms as health influencing infrastructure 3/9

An AI commercial determinants of health framework can help identify how AI is transforming existing mechanisms of commercial influence and enabling new tactics through which commercial actors may influence health. 2/9

How is AI changing the ways commercial actors influence health? Check out our new article published in BMJ: "Artificial intelligence as a new commercial determinant of health." We introduce the AI commercial determinants of health (AI-CDoH) framework 🧵 @bmj.com 1/9

I was just talking about this issue yesterday. Way too much sensory overload.

The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 4w ago

Baseball—and many other sports—used to offer games with very little sound besides the cheering of fans. But now stadiums have nonstop stimulation, acting as theaters as well as sports venues, @elcush.bsky.social writes:

I worry that this same is true for journals requiring “disclosure” of gen AI use. Journals can appear to be doing SOMEthing by requiring disclosure of gen AI, but it doesn’t actually improve the quality of manuscripts in the journal.

Daniel Buchman@danielbuchman.bsky.social · last mo.

Agreed, but decades of COI research show disclosure alone is insufficient. It doesn't change the underlying relationship, and can backfire. Audiences may trust a transparent speaker more and scrutinize their data/arguments less. #bioethics #COI www.science.org/content/arti...

⤵️⤵️ Disclosure is a floor, not a ceiling, and believing that disclosure discharges all moral obligations to counter the effects of #MotivatedBias is a huge mistake.

Daniel Buchman@danielbuchman.bsky.social · last mo.

Agreed, but decades of COI research show disclosure alone is insufficient. It doesn't change the underlying relationship, and can backfire. Audiences may trust a transparent speaker more and scrutinize their data/arguments less. #bioethics #COI www.science.org/content/arti...

Agreed, but decades of COI research show disclosure alone is insufficient. It doesn't change the underlying relationship, and can backfire. Audiences may trust a transparent speaker more and scrutinize their data/arguments less. #bioethics #COI www.science.org/content/arti...

Philosophers call for their journals to require conflict of interest disclosures

A new petition urges greater transparency amid growing ties to AI and other companies

science.org

Another no-hitter heartbreak for this organization, which has had so many over the years. Dave Stieb still stands alone, while Dylan Cease joins the crowded, growing group of #BlueJays pitchers to lose theirs in the ninth. A brilliant, but bittersweet day on the mound.

After the 6th, Dylan Cease told John Schneider he could throw 120 pitches. After the 7th? He said he had 130 in him. Schneider wanted to give it to him: “I’m a fan of baseball … If I can let a player have that opportunity, I’m going to do it every single time.” #BlueJays

Thrilled to announce that the special issue of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal on Chronic Pain and Social Justice is now published! 🙏 to the authors, EIC Dr Quill Kukla and Aaron Gray, & the brilliant Dr @jadawlittle-phd.bsky.social, co-conspirator/co-editor #bioethics tinyurl.com/459ba584

Ethics-washing — the cooptation of ethicists by commercial actors who wish to present themselves as more ‘ethical’ than they probably are — is very real! Great Daily Nous post by Lisa Herzog, Marijn Hoijtink, Gijs van Maanen, Ann-Katrien Oimann, and Linnet Taylor. dailynous.com/2026/06/16/w...

When There’s no Fun in Funding: External Research Money, Ethics-Washing, and Positive Academic Freedom (guest post) - Daily Nous

Governments and firms are turning to philosophers and other scholars more and more in regard to the ethics of developing and regulating technology. Yet this engagement with ethics may be superficial, ...

dailynous.com

I'm so honoured to receive this award. I just try to show up, listen, and support learners who are far more talented than me! Each one has taught me something and challenged my thinking. They remind me why the work we do in bioethics matters. Thank you 🙏 and congrats to all the award recipients!

Dalla Lana School of Public Health@uoftdlsph.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Congratulations to the recipients of the DLSPH’s 2026 Public Health Sciences (PHS) Faculty Awards: Dr. Laura Rosella, Dr. Brice Kuimi, Tony Panzarella, Dr. Dionne Gesink, Dr. Daniel Buchman, Dr. Susan Bondy and Dr. Ibukun Abejirinde (not pictured). 👏

I sat down w/ Dr Dan Cox to chat about the limits of medicine, goals of care, reducing suffering, quality of life, & palliative psychiatry. 🍎https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-is-palliative-psychiatry-with-dr-daniel-buchman/id1734318570?i=1000771879361 🛜 open.spotify.com/episode/7Aao...

What is Palliative Psychiatry with Dr. Daniel Buchman | Psychotherapy and Applied Psychology

Dan is joined by Dr. Daniel Buchman, a bioethicist and scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and an associate professor in the Dalla Lan…

psychotherapyandappliedpsychology.com

My fantastic department, the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at Upstate Medical University, is growing and hiring for two TT positions! careers.upstate.edu/jobs/associa... careers.upstate.edu/jobs/associa... #bioethics #MedicalHumanities #ClinicalEthics

Join Us Penguin Huddle

ALT: Join Us Penguin Huddle

static.klipy.com

Grand slam, Daulton Varsho. The biggest swing of the #BlueJays season so far, and so very needed. Toronto wins, 5-3.

Dylan Cease has struck out 10 batters over seven shutout innings on 97 pitches. Complete control of this game. #BlueJays

Finite Jest

Daniel S. Goldberg@profgoldberg.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Gulliver's Travel

Dr. Buchman's work on this is so important b/c it is widely believed that medicalizing or biologizing chronic disease is a viable pathway to reducing stigma. His work builds the evidence base we need to answer the question: are such approaches important stigma-reducing strategies? #Bioethics

Daniel Buchman@danielbuchman.bsky.social · 4mo ago

🗣️ New paper from the CAMH Everyday Ethics Lab! 🧠 Do disease-based explanations of chronic pain reduce stigma? This is the question we set out to answer in our new paper in the @thejournalofpain.bsky.social #bioethics #neuroethics #stigma 1/9

🗣️ New paper from the CAMH Everyday Ethics Lab! 🧠 Do disease-based explanations of chronic pain reduce stigma? This is the question we set out to answer in our new paper in the @thejournalofpain.bsky.social #bioethics #neuroethics #stigma 1/9

🗣️ New paper from the CAMH Everyday Ethics Lab! 🧠 Do disease-based explanations of chronic pain reduce stigma? This is the question we set out to answer in our new paper in the @thejournalofpain.bsky.social #bioethics #neuroethics #stigma 1/9

A new kind of fraud in academic publishing. The Asian Journal of Ethics in Health and Medicine is abusing the picture, cv & contact details of several people (including myself) on their website They falsely claim that we are a member of their Advisory Board. smerpub.com/journal-page...