Science & Tech · AI · 2 hrs ago
Tech companies turn to religion for guidance on AI ethics
Tech companies are asking religious leaders and scholars how to teach AI chatbots right from wrong.
They hope religious ideas can help make AI models behave in morally responsible ways.
Anthropic says it has consulted people from more than 15 religious and cross-cultural groups and plans to broaden those discussions.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has described a goal of reflecting a weighted average of humanity’s moral views.
Experts warn that religious traditions can disagree and cannot simply be reduced to shared rules.
They say faith is also shaped by doctrine, rituals, relationships, culture and politics, and some traditions do not see themselves mainly as systems of ethics.
Anthropic says it hopes to widen its consultations, while the debate continues over how companies should use religious guidance.
Some technology companies are consulting religious leaders and scholars as they try to teach AI chatbots how to make moral decisions.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said ChatGPT should reflect a weighted average of humanity’s moral views.
Experts and religious adherents warn that traditions can contradict one another and cannot be reduced to a set of rules.
Anthropic said it had met with scholars, clergy, philosophers and ethicists from more than 15 religious and cross-cultural groups.
- Who
- Some technology companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, are seeking religious input. Scholars and religious adherents have raised concerns.
- What
- Companies are consulting faith leaders and others about how to guide AI chatbots’ moral behavior.
- When
- The article was published on October 25, 2026. It describes meetings and comments from earlier this year and last year.
- Where
- Anthropic held a meeting attended by Meghan Sullivan. The article also mentions a Vatican presentation.
- Why
- Companies are seeking input to help make AI models morally good. Critics say religious traditions cannot be reduced to universal rules.
Technology companies
Scholars and religious adherents critical of the approach
Role of religion
Technology companies
Some companies seek to draw on religious ideas to guide AI’s moral behavior.
Scholars and religious adherents critical of the approach
Religion is more than a set of rules that can be extracted and applied to AI.
Moral guidance
Technology companies
Sam Altman said ChatGPT should reflect a weighted average of humanity’s moral views.
Scholars and religious adherents critical of the approach
Different traditions and worldviews can contradict one another, and treating them as a single moral system may distort some traditions.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said ChatGPT should reflect a weighted average of humanity’s moral views.
Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah spoke at the Vatican’s presentation of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI.
Anthropic said it had met with scholars, clergy, philosophers and ethicists from more than 15 religious and cross-cultural groups.
Philosopher Meghan Sullivan attended an Anthropic meeting that included Christians from different denominations.
- Groups consulted
- More than 15 religious and cross-cultural groups
- Company
- Anthropic
- CEO
- Sam Altman, OpenAI
- Scholar
- Webb Keane, University of Michigan
- Meeting attendee
- Meghan Sullivan, University of Notre Dame
3 sources
What people are saying
These are not questions a lab can answer
What I think ChatGPT should do is reflect that weighted average, or whatever, of humanity’s moral view
There’s a very conventional way of thinking of religion as a rule book