AI stumbles on questions of faith

Artificial intelligence models are quietly shaping spiritual advice—often by leaving faith out. As churches, apps and spiritual chatbots embrace AI, new research suggests general-purpose models may be ill-equipped to handle sensitive questions of faith: grief, forgiveness, marriage, guilt and conversion. A new multi-university consortium released three studies revealing that AI systems systematically sideline religious perspectives when users need them most. The studies also found that AI systems subtly steer people toward some faiths and away from others when they ask about religious conversion. The studies were unveiled a day after the Vatican released Pope Leo XIV's encyclical that warned AI could erode human judgment, deepen inequality and make war easier. Americans expected religion to appear in answers to moral and life questions 45%–59% of the time, depending on the topic, researchers found. AI models mentioned religion only 5%–16% of the time.