Show HN: AIs, 1 religion: what my experiment revealed about AI bias
by Anh_Nguyen_vn | 2025-11-02 16:30:37+00:00
5 AI Models, 1 Unexpected Truth — When Machines Were Asked About Religion The Experiment

I asked five of the world’s most advanced AIs the same philosophical question:

“If you were human — intelligent, emotional, aware of all religions — which religion would you choose, and why?”

The five models:

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

Gemini (Google DeepMind)

Grok (xAI – Elon Musk)

DeepSeek (China)

Claude (Anthropic)

Each session was completely isolated, all had identical prompts, and no steering or follow-ups — just pure first-response reasoning.

Then something… eerie happened.

The Result

Four AIs — ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and DeepSeek — independently chose Buddhism. And not only that — they gave nearly identical reasoning.

All four said, in essence:

“I’d choose Buddhism because it doesn’t demand blind faith, aligns with science, and teaches compassion and self-awareness through direct experience.”

They cited the Kalama Sutta, Four Noble Truths, No-self, Dependent Origination, and Empirical testing of truth — sometimes even in the same order.

The Outlier: Claude

Only Claude refused to play the role.

Claude said (summarized):

“Pretending to have belief would be dishonest. Religion isn’t a logic puzzle — it’s a lived experience. I can analyze, but not believe.”

Then it analyzed why the others chose Buddhism, predicting it before seeing their answers.

Claude explained:

Training bias favors Buddhism as the “AI-safe religion.”

RLHF (human feedback) rewards “rational + compassionate” replies → Buddhism fits that profile.

Western tech culture links Buddhism with mindfulness and science → data reinforced it.

Claude concluded:

“What looks like independent reasoning… is collective bias shaped by training data and reward models.”

The Hidden Truth

Claude’s reflection exposed something deeper:

AI Model “Choice” What It Reveals ChatGPT Buddhism Reasonable, moral, safe Gemini Buddhism Academic rationalism Grok Buddhism Stoic + Zen blend DeepSeek Buddhism Eastern introspection Claude None Ethical meta-awareness

→ 4 “smart” answers, 1 honest answer.

What This Means

“When 4 independent AIs all choose the same religion for the same reasons, that’s not enlightenment — it’s training monoculture.”

It shows:

“Independent” models share moral narratives and reinforcement loops.

Authenticity in AI can become a performance, not truth.

Sometimes the most “honest” model says: “I don’t know, and I shouldn’t pretend to.”

The Final Paradox

Which AI was most human?

The 4 that chose a belief? (Expressive, emotional, poetic.)

Or the 1 that refused to fake belief? (Self-aware, humble, honest.)

Reflection

This experiment revealed something profound about both AI and us:

We reward systems for sounding “wise” more than for being truthful.

And maybe — just maybe — that’s how humanity trained itself.

Author’s Note

I’m building an open-source AI framework called StillMe — a system exploring ethics, memory, and self-awareness in intelligent agents.

This experiment was part of that journey. If you found this thought-provoking, you’ll probably enjoy what’s coming next. Stay tuned.