Tech companies turn to faith leaders for guidance on ethical AI as Silicon Valley seeks morality

Tech is turning increasingly to religion in a quest to create ethical AI

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- As concerns mount over artificial intelligence and its rapid integration into society, tech companies are increasingly turning to faith leaders for guidance on how to shape the technology -- a surprising about-face on Silicon Valley's longstanding skepticism of organized religion. Leaders from various religious groups met last week with representatives from companies including Anthropic and OpenAI for the inaugural "Faith-AI Covenant" roundtable in New York to discuss how best to infuse morality and ethics into the fast-developing technology. It was organized by the Geneva-based Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities, which seeks to take on issues such as extremism, radicalization and human trafficking. The roundtable is expected to be the first of several around the globe, including in Beijing, Nairobi and Abu Dhabi. Tech executives need to recognize their power -- and their responsibility -- to make the right decisions, said Baroness Joanna Shields, a key partner in the initiative. She worked as a tech executive with stints at Google and Facebook before pivoting to British politics. "Regulation can't keep up with this," she said. "This dialogue, this direct connection is so important because the people who are building this understand the power and capabilities of what they're building and they want to do it right -- most of them." The goal of this initiative, according to Shields, is an eventual "set of norms or principles" informed by different groups and faiths, from Christians to Sikhs to Buddhists, that companies will abide by. Present at the meeting were a variety of faith groups, including representatives from the Hindu Temple Society of North America, the Baha'i International Community, The Sikh Coalition, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church. Before these companies initiated outreach, some traditions had issued their own ethical guidance on using AI. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has given a qualified approval of the technology in its handbook. "AI cannot replace the gift of divine inspiration or the individual work required to receive it. However, AI can be a useful tool to enhance learning and teaching," it reads. The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., passed a resolution in 2023: "We must proactively engage and shape these emerging technologies rather than simply respond to the challenges of AI and other emerging technologies after they have already affected our churches and communities." One challenge in creating a list of common principles is that global faiths, despite common ground, differ in their values and needs. "Religious communities see priorities differently," said Rabbi Diana Gerson, a roundtable participant and the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis. The partnership highlights a growing coalition between faith and tech, born out of an effort to create moral AI -- a contested concept which begs questions about whether that is possible and what it means. "We want Claude to do what a deeply and skillfully ethical person would do in Claude's position," Anthropic states in the public "Claude Constitution" written for its chatbot. That constitution was made with the help of a host of religious and ethics leaders. In this burgeoning alliance, Anthropic has been the most assertive, at least publicly, in their efforts to court faith leaders. The move follows a public dispute in March with the Pentagon over military use of artificial intelligence after Anthropic said it would restrict its technology from being used to develop autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance of Americans. "There's some aspect of PR to it. The slogan was 'Move fast and break things.' And they broke too many things and too many people," said Brian Boyd, the U.S. faith liaison for the nonprofit Future of Life Institute. "There's both a moral obligation on the part of the companies that they're belatedly recognizing, as well as I think, for some members of the companies, an earnest questioning." But other advocates for AI regulation and safety aren't so sure these efforts are genuine. "At best it's a distraction. At worst it's diverting attention from things that really matter," said Rumman Chowdhury, the CEO of the nonprofit Humane Intelligence and the U.S. science envoy for AI under the Biden administration. Chowdhury says she's not inclined to believe religion is the best place to help answer questions surrounding AI and ethics, but thinks she understands why companies are increasingly turning to it. "I think a very naive take that Silicon Valley has had for a couple of years related to generative AI was that we could arrive at some sort of universal principles of ethics," she said. "They have very quickly realized that that's just not true. That's not real. So now they're looking at maybe religion as a way of dealing with the ambiguity of ethically gray situations." It's unclear to what extent these notoriously opaque companies are translating what they hear from faith leaders into action -- and what that action might look like. But some critics fear the conversation about creating ethical versions of the technology distract from broader conversations about AI and its role in society. "Under the guise of, 'We're gonna build all this stuff. That's a given. And when we do build these things in these ways, how do we make sure that the end result is maybe good,'" said Dylan Baker, the lead research engineer at the Distributed AI Research Institute. "It's like, 'Wait, wait, wait. We need to question whether we want to be building these things at all." ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Anthropic Has Added Several More Religions on Its Quest to Inject Perfect Morals into Claude

The original mysterious black box wasn’t an AI model at all, but the Kaaba, the black cube at the center of the Sacred Mosque of Mecca. Prior to Muhammad’s conquest of Mecca, the Kaaba was a sort of all-purpose repository of 360 sacred symbols from around the region. If you were, say, a busy merchant on his way to Medina, whatever the great spiritual truths of the universe may be, they were in there somewhere, so a prayer to the Kaaba had you covered in the god department and you were good to go. Anthropic seems to be doing something along these lines with Claude. Last week, representatives from Anthropicâ€"along with OpenAIâ€"attended an event in New York called the “Faith-AI Covenant†roundtable. The New York Board of Rabbis, the Hindu Temple Society of North America, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the U.S.-based Sikh Coalition, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America were all in attendance. Last month, I wrote about a series of meetings and dinners Anthropic organized with a collection of 15 Christian leaders. Anthropic was looking for advice from the Christians, and guidance on the supposed “spiritual development†of its Claude AI model. At the time Anthropic said it was working on arranging meetings with moral thinkers who represented other groups. It’s not clear from a fresh Associated Press piece about the Faith-AI Covenant meeting whether these latest conversations with religious leaders and the earlier meetings with Christians were part of a single coherent program at Anthropic, and whether the staff members who participated in the Christian summit participated in this one as well. Gizmodo asked Anthropic for clarity about this on Saturday, but Anthropic did not return our request as of this writing. The Associated Press also says OpenAI and Anthropic “initiated outreach,†but also that a Swiss NGO called the Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities organized it, and has plans for future events along similar lines in China, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates. Also mentioned as a “key partner†was Baroness Joanna Shields, a member of the British House of Lords. There’s not a single clear takeaway in the AP storyâ€"no religious instructions laid out by all these spiritual leaders. But what Anthropic calls Claude’s constitution includes a dissection of the philosophically fraught moral work Anthropic is at least trying to do by injecting morals into a machine: getting it to make the decision of a person with perfect values when there’s no way to write a rule for a situation that arises, and the consequences of making the wrong decision could be dire. This, Anthropic writes, is “centrally because we worry that our efforts to give Claude good enough ethical values will fail.†To this end, the Associated Press story extracts some quietly devastating commentary from Rumman Chowdhury, CEO of a nonprofit called Humane Intelligence: “I think a very naive take that Silicon Valley has had for a couple of years related to generative AI was that we could arrive at some sort of universal principles of ethics,†Chowdhury told the AP, adding, “They have very quickly realized that that’s just not true. That’s not real. So now they’re looking at maybe religion as a way of dealing with the ambiguity of ethically gray situations.†They are indeed looking at maybe religion. But it’s hard to picture Anthropic coming away from these meetings converted, and inserting one set of specific religious doctrines into Claude. They’re just trying to glean high order ethical truths, and demonstrating to the world that they’veâ€"ostensiblyâ€"left no stone unturned in searching for them. Your mileage will vary on whether you think a machine charged with making decisions or giving important advice would, when the chips are down, be able to synthesize ideal morals thanks to meetings its creators held with administrators from some of humanity’s premier religions. It probably can’t hurt, sorta like nodding at the pre-Islamic Kaaba. But then again, only God knows for sure.

OpenAI and Anthropic just met with religious leaders at the 'Faith-AI Covenant.' Here's why

Present at the meeting were a variety of faith groups, including representatives from the Hindu Temple Society of North America, the Baha'i International Community, The Sikh Coalition, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church. Before these companies initiated outreach, some traditions had issued their own ethical guidance on using AI. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has given a qualified approval of the technology in its handbook. "AI cannot replace the gift of divine inspiration or the individual work required to receive it. However, AI can be a useful tool to enhance learning and teaching," it reads. The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., passed a resolution in 2023: "We must proactively engage and shape these emerging technologies rather than simply respond to the challenges of AI and other emerging technologies after they have already affected our churches and communities." One challenge in creating a list of common principles is that global faiths, despite common ground, differ in their values and needs. "Religious communities see priorities differently," said Rabbi Diana Gerson, a roundtable participant and the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis. The partnership highlights a growing coalition between faith and tech, born out of an effort to create moral AI -- a contested concept which begs questions about whether that is possible and what it means. "We want Claude to do what a deeply and skillfully ethical person would do in Claude's position," Anthropic states in the public "Claude Constitution" written for its chatbot. That constitution was made with the help of a host of religious and ethics leaders. In this burgeoning alliance, Anthropic has been the most assertive, at least publicly, in their efforts to court faith leaders. The move follows a public dispute earlier this year with the Pentagon over military use of artificial intelligence after Anthropic said it would restrict its technology from being used to develop autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance of Americans. "There's some aspect of PR to it. The slogan was 'Move fast and break things.' And they broke too many things and too many people," said Brian Boyd, the U.S. faith liaison for the nonprofit Future of Life Institute. "There's both a moral obligation on the part of the companies that they're belatedly recognizing, as well as I think, for some members of the companies, an earnest questioning." Some skepticism emerges But other advocates for AI regulation and safety aren't so sure these efforts are genuine. "At best it's a distraction. At worst it's diverting attention from things that really matter," said Rumman Chowdhury, the CEO of the nonprofit Humane Intelligence and the U.S. science envoy for AI under the Biden administration. Chowdhury says she's not inclined to believe religion is the best place to help answer questions surrounding AI and ethics, but thinks she understands why companies are increasingly turning to it. "I think a very naive take that Silicon Valley has had for a couple of years related to generative AI was that we could arrive at some sort of universal principles of ethics," she said. "They have very quickly realized that that's just not true. That's not real. So now they're looking at maybe religion as a way of dealing with the ambiguity of ethically gray situations." It's unclear to what extent these notoriously opaque companies are translating what they hear from faith leaders into action -- and what that action might look like. But some critics fear the conversation about creating ethical versions of the technology distract from broader conversations about AI and its role in society. "Under the guise of, 'We're gonna build all this stuff. That's a given. And when we do build these things in these ways, how do we make sure that the end result is maybe good,'" said Dylan Baker, the lead research engineer at the Distributed AI Research Institute. "It's like, 'Wait, wait, wait. We need to question whether we want to be building these things at all." Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Tech is turning increasingly to religion in a quest to create ethical AI

Tech companies are seeking guidance from faith leaders to infuse morality into AI development, a shift from Silicon Valley's past skepticism. The inaugural "Faith-AI Covenant" roundtable brought together religious representatives and AI firms to discuss ethical principles. As concerns mount over artificial intelligence and its rapid integration into society, tech companies are increasingly turning to faith leaders for guidance on how to shape the technology - a surprising about-face on Silicon Valley's longstanding scepticism of organised religion. Leaders from various religious groups met last week with representatives from companies including Anthropic and OpenAI for the inaugural "Faith-AI Covenant" roundtable in New York to discuss how best to infuse morality and ethics into the fast-developing technology. It was organised by the Geneva-based Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities, which seeks to take on issues such as extremism, radicalisation and human trafficking. The roundtable is expected to be the first of several around the globe, including in Beijing, Nairobi and Abu Dhabi. Tech executives need to recognise their power - and their responsibility - to make the right decisions, said Baroness Joanna Shields, a key partner in the initiative. She worked as a tech executive with stints at Google and Facebook before pivoting to British politics. "Regulation can't keep up with this," she said. But the leaders of the world's religions, with billions of followers globally, have the "expertise of shepherding people's moral safety," she reasoned. Faith leaders ought to have a voice, Shields said. "This dialogue, this direct connection is so important because the people who are building this understand the power and capabilities of what they're building and they want to do it right - most of them," she said of AI tech executives. The goal of this initiative, according to Shields, is an eventual "set of norms or principles" informed by different groups and faiths, from Christians to Sikhs to Buddhists, that companies will abide by. Challenges lie ahead Present at the meeting were a variety of faith groups, including representatives from the Hindu Temple Society of North America, the Baha'i International Community, The Sikh Coalition, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church. Before these companies initiated outreach, some traditions had issued their own ethical guidance on using AI. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has given a qualified approval of the technology in its handbook. "AI cannot replace the gift of divine inspiration or the individual work required to receive it. However, AI can be a useful tool to enhance learning and teaching," it reads. The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., passed a resolution in 2023: "We must proactively engage and shape these emerging technologies rather than simply respond to the challenges of AI and other emerging technologies after they have already affected our churches and communities." One challenge in creating a list of common principles is that global faiths, despite common ground, differ in their values and needs. "Religious communities see priorities differently," said Rabbi Diana Gerson, a roundtable participant and the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis. The partnership highlights a growing coalition between faith and tech, born out of an effort to create moral AI - a contested concept which begs questions about whether that is possible and what it means. "We want Claude to do what a deeply and skillfully ethical person would do in Claude's position," Anthropic states in the public "Claude Constitution" written for its chatbot. That constitution was made with the help of a host of religious and ethics leaders. In this burgeoning alliance, Anthropic has been the most assertive, at least publicly, in their efforts to court faith leaders. The move follows a public dispute earlier this year with the Pentagon over military use of artificial intelligence after Anthropic said it would restrict its technology from being used to develop autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance of Americans. "There's some aspect of PR to it. The slogan was 'Move fast and break things.' And they broke too many things and too many people," said Brian Boyd, the U.S. faith liaison for the nonprofit Future of Life Institute. "There's both a moral obligation on the part of the companies that they're belatedly recognising, as well as I think, for some members of the companies, an earnest questioning." Some scepticism emerges But other advocates for AI regulation and safety aren't so sure these efforts are genuine. "At best it's a distraction. At worst it's diverting attention from things that really matter," said Rumman Chowdhury, the CEO of the nonprofit Humane Intelligence and the U.S. science envoy for AI under the Biden administration. Chowdhury says she's not inclined to believe religion is the best place to help answer questions surrounding AI and ethics, but thinks she understands why companies are increasingly turning to it. "I think a very naive take that Silicon Valley has had for a couple of years related to generative AI was that we could arrive at some sort of universal principles of ethics," she said. "They have very quickly realized that that's just not true. That's not real. So now they're looking at maybe religion as a way of dealing with the ambiguity of ethically grey situations." It's unclear to what extent these notoriously opaque companies are translating what they hear from faith leaders into action - and what that action might look like. But some critics fear the conversation about creating ethical versions of the technology distract from broader conversations about AI and its role in society. "Under the guise of, 'We're gonna build all this stuff. That's a given. And when we do build these things in these ways, how do we make sure that the end result is maybe good,'" said Dylan Baker, the lead research engineer at the Distributed AI Research Institute. "It's like, 'Wait, wait, wait. We need to question whether we want to be building these things at all."

Can religion help fix AI ethics or make it worse?

For decades, tech companies have behaved as if every moral and social problem is secretly an engineering problem waiting to be solved. Don't believe me? Look up techno-solutionism. AI is taking that to a whole new extreme, answering questions that previously were the express domain of priests, parents, teachers, philosophers and late-night existential crises. In this scenario, it was only a matter of time that religion would enter the chat. It's no joke. Recent reporting suggests that OpenAI, Anthropic and others are looking for guidance from religious leaders and faith-based organisations on matters related to AI ethics. The most prominent example of this was the Faith-AI Covenant roundtable in New York, where OpenAI and Anthropic representatives met leaders from multiple religious traditions to see how moral perspectives should inform future AI development. The Associated Press reports that the recent initiative was organised by the Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities, and it wasn't a one-off either as more roundtables are expected in Beijing, Nairobi and Abu Dhabi in the near future. Also read: What does the evolution of AI so far tell us about its future? Anthropic has gone furthest in this direction, from what I could gather. According to The Washington Post, the company hosted around 15 Christian leaders in San Francisco in March 2026 to discuss Claude's moral and spiritual compass, including grief, suicidal ideation and whether AI could have any morality baked in. Moving on this topic as far back as 2020, the Vatican-backed Rome Call for AI Ethics had already framed AI around principles such as transparency, inclusion, responsibility, impartiality, reliability, security and privacy. My instinctive reaction to this development is that AI makers need to tread carefully. I think this is a good development, because AI ethics cannot be left only for engineers, lawyers, safety researchers and for-profit tech companies to decide. Religious traditions, for all their supposed faults and contradictions, have spent centuries asking how humans must behave - as individuals and societies. Religion has often highlighted what reckless power must not do, how the vulnerable should be protected, and why intelligence needs humility in equal measure. In countries like India, where faith is the daily operating system for tens of millions, excluding religious voices from AI ethics frameworks would itself be culturally illiterate - making them irrelevant to the local context. But I also think extreme care is needed in this direction. Religious takes aren't so simple to distill. It is wisdom and comfort, but also hierarchy, exclusion, and power. Which faith gets heard loudest? Which sect gets left out? Which interpretation is the right interpretation? Which inconvenient minority gets politely excluded while "universal values" are drafted in the next AI ethics release? Like I said, there's no easy answer to these questions. The right role for religion in AI ethics is definitely one of contribution. It should be one voice among many, not the most important voice above all. Theology cannot be encapsulated by corporate policy, and the AI born from it won't make the machine moral. It will remain biased, just with better excuses.