Moral values are constantly shifting but the way morality works always remains the same. Fundamentally, immorality is rooted in ignorance of how the world operates. That ignorance exists on two levels; mundane ignorance (for instance, thinking that there is no rebirth process and that the laws of kamma are b.s.), and ignorance of transcendent truths (i.e., the four ariya truths, paticca samuppada, and the three characteristics of nature). The more ignorant a person is, the more immoral they will have the capacity to be. The wiser a person is, the more moral they will likely be. We are collectively moulding the world, morphing and manipulating it due the actions that we take. We take those actions because of our values.
You provided some examples of currently relevant ethical concerns, like issues surrounding AI. Do we actually need AI though? Like really? I don’t think so. But people created it because they constantly crave for more and more and more. For a mindset that is corrupted by raga, dosa, and moha, nothing is ever enough. So, these ethical dilemmas wouldn’t exist in the first place were it not for the fact that we make them exist due to our own foolishness. Think about being a human – you have to make constant effort to maintain the body. As you age, you will have to make even more effort and it will become much more challenging to have your body remain in good health.
This complicated existence that we are living is a consequence of kamma that we generated, and we did so due to the fact that we value sensuality. It’s possible to have existences that are way, way simpler. And yet, here we are. Corrupted values leads to corrupted reality. So while from one perspective, it may seem as if the moral landscape is constantly changing, zoom out and you’ll see that it is all rooted in craving, aversion, and delusion, and their opposites.
