EthicalVoices

This Week in PR Ethics – 1/7/26: Robots, Start Ups and Oh So Many Failures

This Week in PR Ethics is back from its long vacation with a number of interesting stories, including many AI ethics failures.

  • Profitability over ethics sabotages long-term success – I really enjoyed this article from Entrepreneur that highlights how what we could consider to be scrappy start-up tactics are anything but that…
  • Unethical RFP? – KNKX had a great story about how one Bellingham, WA, city employee may have used ChatGPT to “favor” one specific vendor in a government RFP.
  • Inappropriate boundaries (to say the least) – The Washington Post reported how people are using Grok to nonconsensually undressing women, and it highlighted the need for safeguards.
  • Brand leaders and ethics – Fast Company had a small piece on ethics questions brand marketers should ask. It is a good refresher.
  • A global perspective – I found this piece from PR Nigeria a good reminder that ethics is the soul of public relations.
  • And one more thing – AI Fighting Bots – We spend a lot of time discussing AI issues with LLMs and generative AI…but this video drives home a whole host of other issues society and communicators should be considering. Plus, it is just wicked cool!
Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA
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Mark W. McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA, is the general manager of C+C's Boston office. C+C is a communications agency all about the good and purpose-driven brands. He has more than 20 years of tech and fintech agency experience, served as the 2016 National Chair of PRSA, drove the creation of the PRSA Ethics App and is the host of EthicalVoices.com

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