EurekAlert! News by Subject: Policy & Ethics - News by Subject: Policy & Ethics

Policy & Ethics

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 24-Aug-2025 07:11 ET (24-Aug-2025 11:11 GMT/UTC)

Collaborating on new technologies for better healthcare

Communications and Institutional Research Office, City University of Hong Kong
Business Announcement

The health-related needs of an ageing population, bio-tech innovations, leveraging health data, ethics and AI in healthcare, nurturing start-ups, and investor insights—these are just a few of the topics to be featured at Digital Health Asia 2025 (DHA) from 8 to 10 September at City University of Hong Kong.

Why some SMEs thrive with AI -- and others don’t

Bentham Science Publishers

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies—it’s already reshaping how they design, produce, and compete. But a new study warns: technology alone isn’t enough. Published in Data Science and Management, the study analyzed how AI adoption influences innovation in Pakistani SMEs. While firms that adopted AI saw tangible gains in product development and operational processes, the benefits only materialized when three elements aligned: leadership commitment, digital readiness, and competitive drive. “Placing AI tools in an SME without strategic backing is like installing solar panels in the shade,” said Dr. Haq, the study’s lead author. “It’s leadership that sets the direction—and organizational readiness that makes the path walkable.”

Journal: Data Science and Management

IJCAI 2025 – Artificial Intelligence for a Better World - Since 1969

International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence
Meeting Announcement

Media Invitation – IJCAI 2025, Montréal, Canada
Artificial Intelligence for a Better World – Since 1969

The 34th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) takes place August 16–22, 2025 in Montréal, Canada, bringing together over 2,000 AI researchers, practitioners, and thought leaders. Guided by the theme “AI at the service of society”, IJCAI 2025 features world-class keynote speakers, award-winning researchers, thematic tracks on AI for Social Good, Human-Centred AI, and AI, Arts & Creativity, as well as admission free public events like the AI Lounge: Between Wonder and Caution.

Highlights include talks by Yoshua Bengio, Heng Ji, Luc De Raedt, Bernhard Schölkopf, and IJCAI 2025 awardees Aditya Grover, Rina Dechter, and Cynthia Rudin. The program also showcases AI-driven competitions, an AI Art Gallery, and discussions on ethics, creativity, and global impact.

Full program & details: https://2025.ijcai.org
Media contact: mrozman@ijcai.org

New guidance puts communities at the heart of research

University of the Witwatersrand
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Much previous work in the social sciences has involved researchers – often but not always from the Global North – collecting data from rural communities in the Global South on a wide range of topics from public health to education, agriculture and climate change. Such ‘helicopter’ research is not good practice as it often involves an asymmetry of power and knowledge that invariably disadvantages local communities. So how can research be made more equitable? This is the topic of an analysis undertaken by Jasper Knight from the Wits School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, who is also chair of the University’s Non-Medical Ethics Committee, in a new research study published in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods.

Journal: International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Deprivation and transport density linked to increased suicide risk in England

Imperial College London
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An analysis of suicide rates in England has shown how factors like deprivation and transport density are linked to regional increases in suicide risk.

Journal: The Lancet

Medical pros of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) exaggerated while cons downplayed, survey findings suggest

BMJ Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The medical pros of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are being exaggerated while the risks are being downplayed, suggest the findings of a survey on the type of information patients and their relatives/friends recall having been given before the procedure, and published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Journal: Journal of Medical Ethics

Connecting biofuel and conservation policies

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Reports and Proceedings

While biofuels may be part of the solution to replace fossil fuels and reduce climate-warming carbon emissions, bioenergy needs a new “climate-smart” policy to ensure that it produces both low-carbon products and promotes carbon sequestration, according to Madhu Khanna and colleagues. In this Policy Forum, Khanna et al. note that current policies to promote bioenergy in the United States, such as the Renewable Fuel Standard and Low Carbon Fuel Standard, do not distinguish between carbon intensities (CI) of the different farming practices (from tillage to fertilizer use) used to produce biofuels. They also do not account for the carbon sequestration produced by biofuel feedstocks. They suggest that new biofuel policies should include accounting of farming and production practices that reduce direct emissions and increase soil carbon sequestration. “Such a policy could lower the barriers for farmers to obtain credit for their carbon sequestration by bundling the market value of the crop with its CI and being sold into a single market for a carbon-differentiated biofuel feedstock rather than in two separate markets (a feedstock market and a carbon market),” Khanna et al. write.

Journal: Science

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