Compass Research
Compass Ethics assembles teams of scholar-practitioners who combine deep industry experience with cutting-edge academic research.
Below, we highlight recent successes of our team members in academic publishing and securing research grants. Our team’s publications regularly appear in premier peer-reviewed journals, books from top academic presses, and government reports.
Featured White Paper
Threads and Needles:
A Value-Sensitive Design Approach to Online Toxicity
Ryan Jenkins
Compass Awarded Grants
Topic:
Studying the Ethics of Self-Regulation for High-risk Technology
Grantmaker:
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University
About
In the absence of comprehensive regulation, producers of high-risk technology increasingly seek to develop their own guidelines for safeguarding their products against misuse. This raises a variety of challenging normative questions. Can technology companies be trusted to safeguard their products effectively? What makes certain self-regulatory frameworks better than others? Above all, Bradley and Ted are keen to explore when, if ever, such efforts can be democratically legitimate. In many cases, self-regulation evades democratic accountability, as it allows tech firms to make up their own rules without subjecting them to democratic scrutiny. Interestingly, however, we also observe certain circumstances in which self-regulation may actually be democracy-enhancing.
Topic:
AI Ethics Learning Aid and Development
Grantmaker:
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)
About
Developed in partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence and led by Professor David Whetham of King’s College London, the AI Ethics Learning Aid transforms broad AI ethics principles into practical, accessible guidance for defence professionals. At its heart is a deck of EthiCards—case-based prompts designed to spark ethical reflection and discussion while supporting the teaching and understanding of core AI ethics concepts relevant to defence.
The cards build on a well-established method used in military ethics education worldwide and are paired with an interactive website that offers deeper ethical analysis, legal frameworks, and international viewpoints. Originally aimed at the developer community, this hybrid toolkit is also valuable for researchers, decision-makers, and system operators across the defence sector, helping them integrate ethical thinking into the design, deployment, and evaluation of AI technologies. The resource offers structured pathways to explore the UK MOD AI Ethics Principles, ethical foundations, applied case studies, and real-world risk mitigation strategies.
Interesting Work Our Scholars are Doing in the World
The Bounds of Defense, Killing, Moral Responsibility, and War
Bradley J. Strawser (Oxford University Press, 2023).
The Tyranny of Generosity
Theodore M. Lechterman (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Cyber Warfare Ethics: 2
David Whetham and Michael Skerker (Howgate Publishing, 2021).
Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: The Trolley Problem and Beyond
Ryan Jenkins, David Cerný, and Tomas Hríbek (Oxford University Press, 2022).
The Ethical Underpinnings of Climate Economics
Duncan Purves, Adrian Walsh, and Säde Hormio (Routledge, 2016).
