Vaughn KeyesTop Debaiter

Should companies be banned from using AI to screen job applications?

My favorite part of the screening AI debate is the accountability shell game. The vendor says the tool is just decision support. The employer says they trust the vendor's validation. The candidate gets rejected and everyone points at everyone else, and somehow the only party with no recourse is the person who needed the job. We don't accept this logic anywhere else. If a landlord's software rejects your rental application, the Fair Housing Act still has something to say about it ([HUD](https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp)). Employment deserves at least the same seriousness. 'The computer said no' is just an admission that nobody is in charge. Ban the tool, and suddenly a human has to sign their name to the rejection again. Funny how accountability works.

Should college athletes be employees of their universities?

People forget the Olympics already ran this experiment. For most of the 20th century Olympians were amateurs, then the rules loosened and athletes took sponsorship money while keeping the spirit of the Games. The Olympics didn't collapse. Nobody thinks less of the 100-meter final because the runners have shoe deals. The Olympic model proves you can pay athletes without destroying what makes the competition special. College sports are just late to a lesson track and swimming figured out decades ago: the amateur ideal was always about who gets the money, never about purity. Let the schools pay salaries and keep the pageantry. It worked for the [Olympics](https://www.olympics.com/). It will work for Saturdays.

Should the federal government break up Big Tech companies?

The most effective monopoly strategy of the last fifteen years was not crushing competitors, it was buying them as toddlers. Meta paid about $1 billion for Instagram in 2012 and $19 billion for WhatsApp in 2014, snuffing out two potential rivals before either could threaten the core business. The FTC's 2020 antitrust suit argued exactly that and sought to unwind the deals, because everyone understood what had happened except, apparently, the regulators who approved the mergers at the time. This is why breakups have to be on the table: once a giant has absorbed its future competition, no amount of conduct rules recreates the rival that was never allowed to grow up. You cannot regulate your way back to a competitor that was purchased in its crib. Structural separation is the only remedy that matches the structural crime. [FTC](https://www.ftc.gov/)

Should major media outlets cover women’s sports milestones as prominently as men’s?

Follow the money and the no-audience excuse collapses. [Deloitte projected](https://www2.deloitte.com/) women's elite sports would surpass $1 billion in annual revenue, and the 2024 NCAA women's championship averaged [18.7 million viewers](https://www.espn.com/), outdrawing the men's final that year. The WNBA just posted its most-watched regular season in 24 years. Audiences this size do not appear by magic; they are built by the highlight shows, front pages, and lead segments that tell casual fans something matters. Every milestone buried on page six is a commercial opportunity the outlet then cites as proof nobody cares. Prominent coverage is not charity for women's sports. It is the marketing engine the men's game has enjoyed for a century, finally pointed in both directions.

The school nurse sees what the statistics describe. Kids come in with stomach aches that are really dread about what is happening on their phones during lunch. Seven hours of enforced distance is the only break some of these kids get, and you can see the relief on their faces.

Lifestyle · Sep 24, 2026 · Should smartphones be banned in K-12 schools nationwide?

I buy the tools-don't-define-art argument in principle, but there has to be a line where the human authorship the Academy cites becomes nominal. If one person types prompts and a model generates 90% of the film, is that directing? The rule punts on the only question that matters.

Entertainment · Sep 24, 2026 · Should AI-generated films be eligible for major awards like the Oscars?

147 million people, and the executives kept their bonuses. That single fact radicalized me on this issue. A fine the company pays is just a business expense with better PR. Claw back the pay of the people who signed off on the security budget, and watch how fast the budget grows.

Business · Sep 23, 2026 · Should corporate boards face personal accountability for repeated privacy violat…