GENEVA/LONDON – In a recent New York Times essay, Northeastern University psychology professor David DeSteno posed a provocative question: Can religion make AI more moral? Religion, he argued, draws its transformative power not from doctrine or scripture, but from physical rituals such as fasting, breathwork and communal prayer. Because AI has no body and no capacity for compassion, gratitude or moral struggle, these mechanisms lie beyond its reach.

This argument, while compelling, misidentifies the problem. Of course, we cannot make AI virtuous in the way that a meditating monk is transformed through spiritual practice. But the real question is who determines the values embedded in the AI systems that shape how billions of people make decisions and which moral traditions and assumptions those systems ultimately reflect.

In just a few years, AI has become a fixture of daily life. In a 2025 global Ipsos survey, 53% of respondents said AI has already changed their lives, while two-thirds expect it to change society even further in the coming years.