AI is quietly imposing American worldview across cultures

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Plus: The women of Easter; Judeo-Spanish language at Passover ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
The Conversation

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My South Asian friends often tell me how dismissive AI is of their worldview. One said that AI cautions him against being "mystical," in response to some of his questions.

Anthropologist Gareth Barkin's research helps explain why AI models may not be able to reflect worldviews from different cultures. Describing the experience of a friend who had asked a question about a family dispute in the Bahasa Indonesia language, Barkin notes that while the response was in Indonesian, it was shaped by Western values centered on individual autonomy, rather than the collective, consensus-building approach that Indonesian society values.

Barkin's research further confirmed that large language models retained their Western worldview even when they seemed fluent in different languages. That's because English-language sources based in the United States are largely shaping major AI models.

A "distinctly American worldview" travels through these models, "largely unannounced," he writes, and the concern is that Western views on family life and responsibility may be quietly imposed on other cultures and "come to feel natural."

This week we also liked stories about the struggle of French Jews on returning after World War II, what people do – and don't do –to protect themselves from backyard ticks, and what you should know about a new COVID-19 variant now spreading.

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Kalpana Jain

Senior Religion + Ethics Editor, Director of the Global Religion Journalism Initiative
AI models derive their assumptions from English-language sources based in the United States. Weiquan Lin/Moment via Getty Images

AI's fluency in other languages hides a Western worldview that can mislead users − a scholar of Indonesian society explains

Gareth Barkin, University of Puget Sound

Research shows that a hidden American worldview can shape AI advice in ways that are culturally misleading.
'Holy Women at Christ's Tomb,' by 16th-century painter Annibale Carracci, shows an angel explaining that Jesus has risen. Hermitage Museum via Wikimedia Commons

In the Easter story, women are the first to proclaim the resurrection – but churches today are still divided over female preachers

Mary Foskett, Wake Forest University

Women's preaching is controversial in some Christian denominations – but key to the biblical story of Jesus' resurrection.
The Artemis I crew and service modules with the Moon and Earth in the distance on Nov. 28, 2022. NASA

Artemis II's long countdown – a space historian explains why it has taken over 50 years to return to the Moon

Emily A. Margolis, Smithsonian Institution

NASA's Artemis II mission took decades of policymaking, engineering and financial support.

On Passover, some Sephardic Jews revisit not only the story of their ancestors, but also their Ladino language

Bryan Kirschen, Binghamton University, State University of New York

For some Sephardic Jews today, holidays provide a rare opportunity to hear the now-endangered Judeo-Spanish language.

Toxic dust from California's shrinking Salton Sea is harming children's lung growth – our study tracked the impact in 700 kids

Jill Johnston, University of California, Irvine; University of Southern California; Shohreh Farzan, University of Southern California

A new study reveals how the lake bed's toxic dust impairs lung development in children living nearby.

Holocaust survivors in France came home to stolen apartments, looted furniture and bureaucratic hurdles

Shannon Fogg, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Laws put in place after the war aimed to return stolen belongings and offer war damages to victims. In reality, many Jewish families faced lengthy waits and legal hurdles.

Ticks are the backyard threat southwestern Pennsylvania homeowners keep ignoring

Danielle Tufts, University of Pittsburgh; Emily Bache, University of Pittsburgh

A University of Pittsburgh researcher is studying why Pennsylvania residents who regularly encounter ticks still underestimate their risk of Lyme disease.

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