Representatives from Anthropic and OpenAI met religious leaders in New York in early May 2026 at the inaugural "Faith‑AI

Representatives from Anthropic and OpenAI met leaders from multiple faith traditions at the inaugural "Faith‑AI Covenant" roundtable in New York in early May 2026 to begin defining shared expectations for ethical AI. The session, billed as a direct dialogue between AI builders and religious communities, aimed to surface moral concerns and practical guardrails as AI capabilities accelerate; organizers framed the talks as the first step toward norms that could influence product design and policy.

The event was convened by the Geneva‑based Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities, an organization that focuses on extremism, radicalization, and human trafficking. Named participants included the Hindu Temple Society of North America, the Baha’i International Community, The Sikh Coalition, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints. Organizers said follow‑up roundtables are expected in Beijing, Nairobi, and Abu Dhabi.

Baroness Joanna Shields, a partner in the initiative and a former tech executive, urged industry leaders to accept responsibility for AI’s societal effects, saying “regulation can’t keep up with this” and arguing that faith leaders have experience in “shepherding people’s moral safety.” She described the initiative’s aim as developing an eventual set of norms or principles drawn from multiple religions that companies would abide by.

Anthropic has publicly courted engagement with faith and ethics leaders: its public “Claude Constitution” was created with religious and ethics contributors. Earlier this year, Anthropic publicly disputed the U.S. Pentagon over military uses and said it would restrict its technology from autonomous weapons development and mass surveillance of Americans — moves attendees cited as an example of companies staking ethical positions in a competitive reputational environment.

Participants acknowledged practical challenges in converting religious values into shared standards. Rabbi Diana Gerson of the New York Board of Rabbis said religious groups “see priorities differently,” noting that different faith communities often emphasize distinct ethical concerns. Some faith bodies have already issued guidance: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints gives conditional approval of AI as a tool, and the Southern Baptist Convention passed a 2023 resolution urging proactive engagement with emerging technologies.

For builders and policymakers, the roundtable signals that governance and product behavior may increasingly reflect input from religiously informed norms alongside regulators and ethicists. Organizers described the effort as iterative: the next global sessions and any resulting code of norms will determine what concrete expectations companies and developers may face when designing and deploying AI.