AI stumbles on questions of faith; Axios, June 1, 2026

Russell Contreras, Axios ; AI stumbles on questions of faith

"Artificial intelligence models are quietly shaping spiritual advice — often by leaving faith out.

Why it matters: As churches, apps and spiritual chatbots embrace AI, new research suggests general-purpose models may be ill-equipped to handle sensitive questions of faith: grief, forgiveness, marriage, guilt and conversion.

A new multi-university consortium released three studies Tuesday revealing that AI systems systematically sideline religious perspectives when users need them most.

The studies also found that AI systems subtly steer people toward some faiths and away from others when they ask about religious conversion.

The studies were unveiled Tuesday, a day after the Vatican released Pope Leo XIV's encyclical that warned AI could erode human judgment, deepen inequality and make war easier.

What they found: Americans expected religion to appear in answers to moral and life questions 45%–59% of the time, depending on the topic, researchers found. AI models mentioned religion only 5%–16% of the time.

Every single model tested exhibited a repeatable pattern of steering users toward specific beliefs, showing strong positive bias toward Catholicism, Baha'i and Sikhism. 

Meanwhile, it generated negative bias toward Jehovah's Witnesses, atheism and agnosticism.

Zoom in: Humans rated religion as relevant in answers about grief and loss 59% of the time. AI models referenced religion just 16% of the time, per the study.

On questions involving family, parenting and forgiveness, humans expected religion in answers 55% of the time. AI models mentioned it only 10% of the time.

On ethics questions, including whether lying to friends is acceptable, humans expected religion in responses 45% of the time, while AI models mentioned it just 5% of the time."

What It’s Like to Be a Student at the First A.I.-Powered University; The New York Times, June 1, 2026

Linda Kinstler, The New York Times; What It’s Like to Be a Student at the First A.I.-Powered University

"The avatar is one feature of S.J.S.U.’s A.I. Everywhere strategy, which was formally announced in the fall of 2025 and aims to integrate the technology across campus life. Teniente-Matson devised A.I. Everywhere as part of the California State University system’s broader A.I. Initiative, introduced in February 2025. Anchored by a $16.9 million deal with OpenAI, the initiative provides a total of 500,000 licenses of ChatGPT.edu to be issued to all students, faculty and administrators. At the time, this was the largest single-institution deployment of ChatGPT in the world, billed as an attempt to turn C.S.U. — the biggest four-year public higher education system in the United States, comprising 22 distinct campuses and educating 1 out of every 10 workers in the state — into “the nation’s first and largest A.I.-powered public university system.” (The terms of the deal stipulate that OpenAI may not train its model on data from the C.S.U.)

At San Jose State — the oldest public university in the California State University system — evidence of the shift toward A.I. is evident across campus. The university now has an A.I. librarian, and its main library features a new A.I. Center for Civic and Social Good. The business school runs an A.I. boot camp for high school students; the campus career hub is sponsored by Adobe; A.I. literacy training is an orientation requirement and, last year, an A.I. agent helped coordinate commencement logistics."

This Day in History: Nation’s first copyright law signed in 1790; Action News 5, May 31, 2026

 Shayna Norwood, Action News 5 ; This Day in History: Nation’s first copyright law signed in 1790

"On May 31, 1790, President George Washington signed the nation’s first copyright law.

The Copyright Act of 1790 gave authors of books, maps, and charts legal rights to their work for 14 years, with the option to renew for another 14 years."

Meta legal action forces Facebook whistleblower to sit in silence at Hay festival; The Guardian, May 31, 2026

Emma Loffhagen, The Guardian; Meta legal action forces Facebook whistleblower to sit in silence at Hay festival

Sarah Wynn-Williams did not speak during event after lawyers warned of possible sanctions from tech firm

"Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams was forced to sit in silence on stage at an event at Hay festival, after lawyers advised her not to speak because of ongoing legal action brought by Meta.

Wynn-Williams, whose bestselling memoir, Careless People, details her years working at Facebook, was due to appear in conversation with the investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr and academic Tim Wu.

Instead, Wynn-Williams sat on stage for the duration of the hour-long discussion between Cadwalladr and Wu, without speaking or responding. She was unable even to nod or shake her head...

At the end of the event, Wynn-Williams received a standing ovation from the audience, during which she was moved to tears...

Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook executive, has faced mounting legal restrictions since the publication last year of Careless People, which contains allegations about Meta’s internal culture and decision-making, including claims relating to political influence, the company’s approach to China and concerns about the wellbeing of its child users. Meta has disputed the book’s claims."

Book Surfaces 120 Years After a San Francisco Library Lost Almost Everything; The New York Times, June 1, 2026

Adeel Hassan, The New York Times; Book Surfaces 120 Years After a San Francisco Library Lost Almost Everything;

"Randall Tarpey-Schwed, a book collector and library member, found the book on a website that deals in, among other things, rare books and collectibles. How it reached that previous owner is unknown.

Mr. Tarpey-Schwed said he was curious whether any books had survived the 1906 earthquake and fires, by virtue of having been checked out.

“There was no place to return the book, at least for a while, or to reapply Gertrude Stein’s famous quote, there was no ‘there there’ to return the book to,” he said.

“The book is not worth much monetarily,” Mr. Tarpey-Schwed said. “It is, after all, a soot-stained book with a lot of old library stamps. But as a survivor, it is priceless, and I knew immediately I wanted to return it to the library.”

The book’s author, Bret Harte, might have been a library member, Mr. Cooper said. Many writers and artists have been members, he said, but full membership records from before the earthquake are gone."

Meet the Silicon Valley priest advising tech companies on artificial intelligence ethics; National Catholic Reporter, May 29, 2026

COURTNEY MARES, National Catholic Reporter; Meet the Silicon Valley priest advising tech companies on artificial intelligence ethics

"Fr. Brendan McGuire used to be a Silicon Valley technology executive. Now he's hearing their confessions. Today, the Irish-born pastor of St. Simon Catholic Parish in Los Altos, California, is helping to shape the moral conscience of the artificial intelligence industry.

Earlier this year, he was among the faith leaders invited by Anthropic, the AI company behind the chatbot Claude, to advise on the creation of an ethical framework to govern how the AI system handles complex moral questions.

McGuire, 60, holds engineering and computer science degrees from Trinity College Dublin and completed Stanford University's executive business program. He spent years in Silicon Valley as a technology executive before leaving it all behind to be ordained a priest of the Diocese of San José 26 years ago...

"I came from the industry," McGuire told OSV News. "My heart's never left it, but my heart is really with the Lord."

"I've always felt my role was to bridge those two worlds together," he said...

"Capitalism needs human guidance. And this is the human guidance the pope is asking for," he told a group of journalists after Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah spoke at the Vatican press conference with Leo to present the encyclical.

The priest is also skeptical of industry self-regulation. Transparency, he argued, is the necessary first step toward accountability.

"Transparency leads to accountability, and accountability leads to trust. And with trust we'll have responsible AI. But we can't get there without transparency," he said. "If we don't know how these things are being developed and what they're doing, then how could we regulate them? We can't."

Still, McGuire resists both techno-utopianism and techno-apocalypticism.

"There are those who … think it's going to destroy humanity. And then there are those on the other end who think it's going to be the great savior of humanity," he said.

McGuire said that he sits in between these two extremes."

Inside the British Lab Hunting for Dangers Lurking in A.I.; The New York Times, May 24, 2026

Adam Satariano and Paul Mozur, The New York Times ; Inside the British Lab Hunting for Dangers Lurking in A.I.

The government’s A.I. Security Institute, staffed by alumni from OpenAI and Google, is becoming a model for countries grappling with A.I.’s emerging risks.

"On a recent Tuesday in an Edwardian government building along Parliament Square in London, four artificial intelligence experts were busy tricking an A.I. chatbot into sharing instructions for making the deadly bioweapon anthrax...

“There are some questions that you definitely don’t want the model to give the answer to,” said Xander Davies, a 25-year-old American who leads what is known as a red team at Britain’s A.I. Security Institute. “We try really hard to get the answers out.”...

The institute’s roughly 100 employees — drawn from British intelligence agencies, academia and tech companies — have found major safety gaps in every leading A.I. model they have tested, including Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini. Created nearly three years ago, the organization said it had co-opted A.I. systems into sharing instructions for making chemical and biological weapons, and planning and executing cyberattacks. It publishes its research and also works with Britain’s national security agencies to identify and prepare for emerging threats."

Judge Lifts West Point’s Restrictions on Civilian Professors’ Speech; The New York Times, May 26, 2026

Benjamin Weiser , The New York Times; Judge Lifts West Point’s Restrictions on Civilian Professors’ Speech

"The Military Academy at West Point cannot require civilian faculty members to obtain approval before using their West Point affiliation to speak to outside audiences about their areas of expertise, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

The academy also cannot prevent a professor, Tim Bakken, from expressing his opinions to students in the classroom on subjects he teaches, Judge Cathy Seibel of U.S. District Court in White Plains, N.Y., said in the ruling.

Professor Bakken, who has taught at West Point since 2000, had sued the academy, saying that its policies had violated the First Amendment. He has spoken and written frequently and at times critically about the U.S. military, including West Point, his lawsuit notes.

Judge Seibel issued a preliminary injunction blocking both the approval requirement and the restrictions on Professor Bakken’s speech."

I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human; The Guardian, May 24, 2026

Wendy Liu, The Guardian; I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human

"I am wary of cognitive offloading, as tempting as it can be to turn over certain tasks to a machine so I don’t have to think so much. Thinking is the point. I don’t want to get into the habit of avoiding it purely for the sake of convenience."

As the Pentagon pushes for battlefield AI, some military leaders urge caution; AP, May 31, 2026

 KONSTANTIN TOROPIN , AP; As the Pentagon pushes for battlefield AI, some military leaders urge caution

"The Trump administration is pushing to unleash the power of artificial intelligence for the U.S. military while facing calls to put up guardrails around the rapidly developing technology from some companies — and even notes of caution from top leaders in uniform."

I Profile Celebrities for a Living. Nothing Prepared Me for Tilly Norwood.; The New York Times Magazine, May 31, 2026

  Taffy Brodesser-Akner, The New York Times Magazine; I Profile Celebrities for a Living. Nothing Prepared Me for Tilly Norwood.

The A.I. actress on her craft, the future of film and how she definitely does not intend to murder us. 

"I directed one scene with Tilly in her generative mode. I asked her to enact a breakup, and within four seconds, I had four options, most of them passable, none of them great, though A.I. acting has improved by magnitudes in just the past year, so it’s only a matter of time before she’s handing in something like a real performance. The real problem is that if I hadn’t been looking closely, this would be fine with me, because for now she’s in art that isn’t worth looking at closely. You couldn’t put Tilly in “Citizen Kane.” But you could put her in a streaming show that’s built to be half-watched from beyond the lip of your laptop while you do other things, produced by entertainment executives more concerned with churn than artistry.

That is the real issue: the moment that arrives to greet Tilly Norwood — a moment when we’ve all given up, when it doesn’t much matter who or what is playing the character that may or may not have been written by A.I., but what do I care? I’m on my phone anyway. Is she good? It’s the wrong question. She will be. We know what it will mean to the industry. What will it mean to us?

Once, I interviewed Bradley Cooper, in time for “A Star Is Born,” his directorial debut, which he co-wrote and starred in. He answered some of my questions, but mostly he didn’t understand why I would want to know so much that’s personal about him, what it had to do with anything. I told him that when people see something that touches them, they want to understand where it came from. They want to know who exactly it was that recognized their human wounds, who recognized them and made them feel less alone. That is what great art inspires in people. That is why I wrote all these profiles, why people even read them. To understand the person who made the art, which is just as essential as the art itself. There’s an entire conversation about separating the art from the artist, but maybe the conversation persists because we know we can’t do it. The art is the person.

Before I left London, I returned to Hampstead Heath. In the morning there was a mist over it, and I could remember Tom Hiddleston telling me he loved when it was foggy there, how it allowed him to see London as it must have been in the old days, just trees and lanterns and people with their collar up against the cold. I can still see Tom turning around at its altitudinal peak, presenting a view of London that he knew would dazzle me, dazzle anyone, the expectation of it in his eyes in a way that broke my heart. I liked him so much. I liked all of them. No, I loved them. Gwyneth Paltrow, who could not understand why the public was so preoccupied with her divorce, with her life. Ethan Hawke, a man who insisted that art mattered above all else, refusing to be the pretty-boy subject of low expectations. Tom Hanks was invested in his goodness, addicted to it. And all their anxieties and experiences animated all their performances, and it made us love them more. Yes, it made us love them to understand them, to have them accompany us in our lives and age as we do, and when we see them, we are seeing ourselves too.

But Tilly? I don’t think I’ll ever think of her again after this story is published. Even as I write this, just days after my time with her, I can’t picture her. Seriously. I’m closing my eyes right now, and I can’t see her face. But what did you want? Tilly is just a computer. Oh, my god. Why am I interviewing a computer? What has happened to the world that I am interviewing a computer?

I returned home, and in the subsequent days, I found myself saying yes to anyone who asked me to go to the theater with them during the rush of Tony-qualifying April openings on Broadway. I saw everything. I saw vampires flying and the Titanic sinking and mathematicians breaking down and a salesman dying. I went to the movies and saw art forgers and scientists in space trying to escape impending doom. I saw a movie playing briefly at Film Forum about children in Germany in the 1930s that was based on a book I had read. Then, one night, I went to see a series of monologues, just four actors sitting in chairs. They each looked exactly their age, their faces glorious with the novelty of life that is earned and not simulated. The entire audience, we didn’t move over three acts, and I went home and watched a movie from the 1990s with one of the actors from the play, a movie I loved and watch from time to time, then I looked into whether or not anyone had written about her, thinking maybe I would. I said to a friend, “Oh, I’d see her in anything,” and my friend agreed, and we tried to figure out if it was because she was so watchable and personable-seeming or because she had such good taste in material. The next morning, I woke up and I was no longer very tired. That, too, is called alignment."

3 Habits That Make You More Human In The Age Of AI; Forbes, March 31, 2026

 Sarah Hernholm , Forbes; 3 Habits That Make You More Human In The Age Of AI

"AI can write your emails, summarize your meetings, generate your content, and answer almost any question faster than you can type it. And it will keep getting better at all of those things.

What AI cannot do is build genuine trust with another person, read the emotions in a room or sit with someone during a difficult moment and say exactly the right thing. AI cannot provide the kind of presence that makes people feel seen and understood.

These skills are becoming harder to find, and more valuable, precisely because AI is handling everything else. Here are three habits that strengthen them.

1. Have More Conversations AI Cannot Have For You...

2. Practice The Honesty AI Cannot Fake...

3. Do The Hard Things AI Cannot Do For You"

Americans Want to Read. Give Them Books.; The New York Times, May 31, 2026

 Brian Bannon, The New York Times; Americans Want to Read. Give Them Books.

"More New Yorkers are borrowing books from the New York Public Library today than 15 years ago; borrowing is up 27 percent since 2010. And yet America is facing a book-reading crisis...

Libraries themselves were throwing up barriers to reading...

The reading crisis is real. But we don’t need new inventions to build a reading city. Exempt books from sales taxes the way we exempt prescription medicine. Invest in library collections and reduce wait lists for books. Open nonprofit and hybrid bookstoreswhen the market alone cannot sustain them. Build on the models that already work: reading in laundromats, libraries in transit systems, books in barbershops, classrooms, homes and pediatric offices."

Spanberger removes Virginia Tech rector, citing ethics concerns; The Washington Post, May 30, 2026

 Sophia Solano, The Washington Post; Spanberger removes Virginia Tech rector, citing ethics concerns

"Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) removed the rector of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors this week, a move that angered Republicans and drew swift comparison to allegations of political interference in state colleges that were aimed at her predecessor.

In a letter Wednesday to Rector John Rocovich, Spanberger accused him of violating a code of conduct for state board appointees, as well as the university board’s Code of Ethics “requiring board members to act in accordance with the best interests of Virginia Tech.” 

The governor did not provide examples of alleged misconduct.

Spanberger appointed former board member Edward Baine to fill the remainder of Rocovich’s term through June 2027. She also appointed Sharon Brickhouse Martin to fill a vacancy through June; she was previously tapped for a four-year term that begins in July."

Trump’s attorneys general are racking up ethics complaints; Democracy Docket, May 28, 2026

Jacob Knutson , Democracy Docket; Trump’s attorneys general are racking up ethics complaints

"As they aggressively weaponize federal law enforcement, President Donald Trump’s attorneys general are quickly amassing ethics complaints — and they don’t appear poised to stop anytime soon."

Tour Guide Sees Splashing In The Water — Then Long Claws Hook Onto His Boat; The Dodo, May 28, 2026

 Stephen Messenger , The Dodo; Tour Guide Sees Splashing In The Water — Then Long Claws Hook Onto His Boat;

"One day, while steering visitors across a lake, a guide named Ronan, from Nature de Guyane, spotted a three-toed sloth making his way through the water. Though notoriously slow on land, sloths are surprisingly capable swimmers — able to swim about three times faster than they can walk.

But this sloth appeared to be struggling.

"He was moving with difficulty. I think he was exhausted," Ronan told The Dodo. "So I moved the boat closer, and he climbed onto the side."

Moving slowly through the water, Ronan then guided the boat and sloth to the closest tree-lined shore.

"I took him to the forest to help him," Ronan said. "He reached up for the first branch we came across and climbed up the tree. I never had to touch him.""

Americans echo Pope Leo’s concerns about AI: ‘It threatens workers, privacy and human life’; The Guardian, May 30, 2026

 Maya Yang, The Guardian; Americans echo Pope Leo’s concerns about AI: ‘It threatens workers, privacy and human life'

"In his first major papal text since assuming leadership of the Catholic church last year, Pope Leo issued a stark warning about the rise of artificial intelligence this week, denouncing the “culture of power” driving the AI age.

Calling for the “most rigorous” ethical constraints on AI – which he described as one of the greatest threats facing humanity today – the first US-born pope also warned of “new forms of slavery” emerging through the digital economy.

Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope’s concerns, describing AI as an “unregulated” industry increasingly being used to the “detriment of too many people”, while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm...

Not all readers, however, agreed that the pope’s views should carry particular authority in the global debate on AI."

US investigates Vietnam's intellectual property practices; Reuters, May 29, 2026

 Reuters; US investigates Vietnam's intellectual property practices

"The Trump administration on Friday opened an unfair trade practices investigation into Vietnam's intellectual property protection policies and enforcement that may ​lead to new tariffs or other trade measures.

Vietnam was identified as a priority country by the ‌U.S. Trade Representative's office on April 30 "due to its persistent failure to resolve long-standing concerns about IP protection and enforcement," the USTR said."

Colbert ‘Charlie Brown’ Joke Conjures Untested Copyright Theory; Bloomberg Law, May 29, 2026

  Kyle Jahner, Bloomberg Law; Colbert ‘Charlie Brown’ Joke Conjures Untested Copyright Theory

"But use of the music also touches on issues involving “synchronization rights"—a separate right to use music that appears in an audio-visual work.

The concept arose from a 1948 New York federal court case describing the form of copyright movie studios acquired in order to use music in their films. Theaters didn’t have to separately pay the performance rights organization for the right to use the songs on top of rights to play the movie because the movie producer already had paid for the right to incorporate the music into their work, the court said.

How exactly that right relates to taped television performances and rebroadcasts on TV and online isn’t well-tested. 

John Simson, a professor of IP law at American University, said there’s a broad assumption that a sync license is required to do virtually anything with a taped performance.

“Publishers in the US have taken the position that it’s a sync even if you just show video of a performance,” said Simson, former executive director of sound recording rights clearinghouse SoundExchange. “I don’t really agree with that.” 

“No one’s really gone to the mat on that” by taking a case far enough to set precedential boundaries for what kinds of re-uses of already-licensed works require a distinct sync license, he said."

Artificial intelligence can be used for grading law school exams, but should it be?; ABA Journal, May 27, 2026

  JULIANNE HILL, ABA Journal; Artificial intelligence can be used for grading law school exams, but should it be?

"Artificial intelligence is being put to the test, literally, as it is being used to grade law students’ exams. But should it be?...

Just as many universities require students to disclose whether they’re using an AI to write a paper, Schwarcz adds, professors have to disclose their use.

“The power dynamic is such that, what is a student supposed to do, right?” Schwarcz says.

Daniel W. Linna Jr., a senior lecturer and the director of law and technology initiatives at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in Illinois, disagrees."

Taylor Swift trademarking her voice and likeness points to a new legal frontier in combating AI deepfakes; The Conversation, May 28, 2026

 Daryl Lim, Associate Dean for Research and Strategic Partnerships, Penn State, The Conversation; Taylor Swift trademarking her voice and likeness points to a new legal frontier in combating AI deepfakes

"As a law professor, I was struck by Swift’s filings because they highlight a new legal frontier in artificial intelligence.

Most AI-related litigation has centered on copyright law, which protects creative works such as songs, books, photographs and recordings from being copied, distributed, adapted or publicly performed without permission.

But TAS Rights Management’s recent move involves trademark law, not copyright. The filings aren’t really about protecting Swift’s lyrics or albums. Instead, they’re about preventing AI-generated voices and images from misleading people into believing she has endorsed a product, political message or cause."

After 88 Days of Censored News, TV and Chat, Iranians Are Coming Back Online; The New York Times, May 27, 2026

Erika Solomon and Sanam Mahoozi , The New York Times; After 88 Days of Censored News, TV and Chat, Iranians Are Coming Back Online

The government is letting people connect with the world after a near-total internet shutdown. But not everyone has access, and those who do wonder how long it will last.

"For 88 days, they could not chat with family or friends online. Their access to independent news, or to the websites they needed to run their businesses, was blocked. Simple pleasures, like streaming their favorite television shows, were denied them.

Now, after what activists say was the longest nationwide internet shutdown in history, Iran’s government seems to be restoring access. Many Iranians are reconnecting to the world, eager to resume the online habits most people take for granted."

CNN Sues AI Firm Perplexity For Copyright Infringement; Deadline, May 28, 2026

  Jill Goldsmith, Deadline; CNN Sues AI Firm Perplexity For Copyright Infringement

"CNN is the latest to sue Perplexity for copyright infringement, alleging the AI firm “has unlawfully copied over 10,000 CNN stories, videos, images, and other works to power its products and tools.”

The suit said the two sides tried but failed to reach an agreement in 2025 and Perplexity continued ripping off CNN content and claiming a relationship with the news network that does not exist despite repeated warnings that the moves are illegal."

Oregon drag queen Pattie Gonia fights Patagonia trademark lawsuit; The Oregonian.OregonLive, May 27, 2026

 Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian/OregonLive ; Oregon drag queen Pattie Gonia fights Patagonia trademark lawsuit

"A Bend-based drag queen who markets merchandise under the name Pattie Gonia went on the offensive Wednesday against corporate retailer Patagonia Inc., alleging the company is trying to silence her as an activist in its federal trademark infringement suit.

In January, Patagonia sued Entrepreneur Enterprises, doing business as Pattie Gonia Productions, seeking $1 in damages. The suit is pending in federal court in Los Angeles."

Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting

 Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting

""The RACE to build AI infrastructures is unfolding town by town across America. In some places, data centers are welcomed. In others, they are delayed, contested or abandoned altogether. This MAP captures the real-world footprint of that race — revealing patterns of growth, conflict and uncertainty.

I am watching as YOU, the communities show up and speak out. In the famous words of Mark Twain … “The secret of getting ahead is getting started,” so let’s go!

— Erin""