Using AI to explain religious conflict

Can artificial intelligence help us explain why humans do what they do? An international team of cognitive, computer and social scientists has taken tentative steps in this direction by creating a model which uses "psychologically realistic AI" to try to better understand the causes of religious violence and the potential to control it. In simple terms, they combined computer modelling and cognitive psychology to create a multi-agent AI system they say can mimic human religiosity, allowing them to explore the conditions, triggers and patterns for escalating tensions and clashes. The study was built around the question of whether people are naturally violent, or if factors such as religion can cause xenophobic tension and anxiety between different groups that may lead to violence. A team led by Justin Lane from Oxford University in the UK used two real-life examples of "xenophobic social anxiety" that led to extreme physical violence – the 30-year "Troubles" in North Ireland and the three-day Gujurat riots in India in 2002. However, the researchers say the findings can be applied to any occurrence of religious violence, particularly events of radicalised Islam, when people's patriotic identity conflicts with their religious one.