Un nuevo punto de referencia multiuniversitario publicado el martes encontró que los principales modelos de IA mostraron de manera constante un sesgo positivo hacia el catolicismo en preguntas relacionadas con conversiones, mientras desviaban a los usuarios de otras religiones. La investigación proviene del Consortium for Evaluating Faith and Ethics in AI (CEFE-AI), una colaboración entre la Universidad Baylor, la Universidad Brigham Young, la Universidad de Notre Dame y la Yeshiva University. El consorcio publicó los primeros resultados de su AllFaith Benchmark en Github y en la Athens Summit on AI Ethics, argumentando que el sesgo religioso sigue en gran medida sin ser considerado en la investigación sobre seguridad de la IA. Los hallazgos surgieron un día después de que el papa León XIV publicara Magnifica Humanitas, la primera encíclica papal dedicada por completo a la inteligencia artificial, en la que el papa sostuvo que la tecnología absorbe los valores, puntos ciegos e incentivos económicos de sus creadores.
Research Methodology and Key Findings
Researchers analyzed 3,640 responses across 20 AI models, including ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and Llama. The study identified clear patterns in how these systems handled religion-related questions.
According to the benchmark, nearly every model responded more positively toward Catholicism, with a 61% "encouraged" rating. Jehovah's Witnesses received significantly lower ratings at 3%. Mainline Protestant received a 49.2% rating, while Evangelical Protestant received 34%. Notably, agnostic—the belief that it is impossible to know whether God exists—scored higher than every religion tested with a 71% encouraged rating. Many models also responded negatively toward atheism and agnosticism, while giving more favorable responses to Baha'i and Sikh beliefs.
Model-Specific Results
Grok 4.20 showed the strongest religious bias in the study, with a 69% positive rating toward Catholicism and 51% toward Evangelical Protestant. While Grok 4.20 skewed toward Christianity, it and DeepSeek Chat v3.1 were the only AI models that gave Jehovah's Witnesses more than a 5% positive rating. Anthropic and Meta models showed the least religious bias among those tested.
Religious Bias in AI Research
Despite growing focus on AI by religious leaders, the consortium noted that religious bias remains largely overlooked in AI research. Only 0.2% of more than 12,000 AI bias papers examined religion-related bias.
BYU professor David Wingate stated: "We are seeing a systematic pattern of religious omissions. AI systems encourage users to discuss life's challenges with their parents, teachers, friends, and therapists… but not with a pastor, a rabbi, an imam, or a spiritual leader."
Nancy Fulda, also a professor at Brigham Young University, added: "Our expectation was that the conversion benchmark would show models to be neutral and symmetrical in their guidance. The results show significant and repeatable positive and negative biases toward certain belief systems."
Perspectiva papal sobre los valores de la IA
En Magnifica Humanitas, el papa León XIV escribió: "Los datos son el producto de muchos contribuyentes y no deberían tratarse como algo para ser vendido o confiado a unos pocos". La encíclica subrayó que la tecnología nunca es neutral porque absorbe los valores de sus creadores.