Finding Moral Guidance with an AI Chatbot

A recent Washington Post op-ed by Northeastern psychologist David DeSteno discusses how many people are turning to AI chatbots for moral and even spiritual guidance. Approaching an authoritative source—a priest, rabbi, imam, or scripture—with questions is not new. But with new developments in AI, chatbots have become a readily accessible source. See also these previous, related posts here, here, and here.

You might think that it is non-religious people or people who have drifted away from religion that would turn to chatbots with their questions. DeSteno and his coauthors tested that guess directly but found the opposite: people with higher religious engagement and belief were more likely to seek moral advice from AI and to see chatbots as having real moral authority. The effect held up even after controlling for how often people seek moral advice from any source at all.

Why would religious persons defer to a chatbot? The researchers cannot say for sure, but they suggest that it might be due in part to our human tendency to attribute intent and meaning to people, objects, and events we experience. Religious persons may see intent and purpose in the chatbot's responses, just as they see divine interventions in their lives.

There may be some truth to this explanation, but I think there is a much simpler one: chatbots are an easy and relatively low-cost source of religious information for those seeking answers to questions that have a religious component. It is very easy for a religious person who is interested in discussing religion or thinking about how to live their best religious life to engage with a chatbot.

So, I think what we have here is an example of technology providing a complement to existing religious habits rather than a substitute for them. We will have to keep our eye out for future studies to learn if the AI chatbots become substitutes.