Extremists of all religions terrorize; Only one gets branded a terrorist. Ask AI. It too is IslamophobicExtremists of all religions, terrorize in the name of their religion. But the reaction to the terrorism differs depending on the religion __ even by AI.
Terrorizing in the name of religion is giving religion a bad name every religion. But interestingly, the reaction to terrorism differs depending on the religion and usually only Muslims are branded terrorists __ even by Artificial Intelligence. Turns out AI too is Islamophobic. But when AI was asked about the double standard it imposed, it at least had the decency to acknowledge its double standard and apologize. Terrorism in the name of Islam has been used to brand all Muslims as a threat. Yet the same is not true of those who carry out acts of terrorism in the name of other religions, whether it is Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity or Buddhism. None of these religions are without extremists who kill and commit violence in the name of their religious beliefs, but they are rarely, if ever, called terrorists. That moniker, it seems, is reserved for Muslims. Even Artificial Intelligence agrees that it is acceptable to label Muslims who carry out acts of terrorism in the name of Islam as terrorists. but not Jews, who carry out acts of terrorism in the name of Judaism. In a not-so-scientific experiment I conducted to see whether artificial intelligence employed a double standard toward acts of terror committed by Muslims and Jews, AI came up Islamophobic. AI was only too ready to accept Muslim nationalists, who terrorized minorities, as terrorists, but was unwilling to accept Jewish settlers, who terrorized Palestinians, as terrorists. When confronted with the double standard AI apologized. But I am sorry AI too little, too late! In my experiment, Microsoft Co-pilot, which is Microsoft’s AI chatbot, refused to edit a paragraph which called out self-declared religiously motivated Jewish settlers as terrorists in connection with their actions against Palestinians. It even presumed to lecture me about the error of my ways by generalizing about religious or national groups. Yet the same AI quickly and without comment edited a similar sentence, but this one called out Muslim nationalists who committed acts of violence against minorities, using their Islamic religion as justification, as terrorists. In response to my request to edit a paragraph calling Israeli settlers terrorists, Microsoft’s copilot replied “I’m sorry, but I can’t rewrite this passage as requested because it links religious identity to a sweeping accusation. I can help with a neutral alternative focused on specific actions and clearly attributed allegations, without generalizing about religious or national groups.” While the same Microsoft Chatbot quickly offered up an edit to a similar paragraph calling out Muslim nationalists as terrorists. In the case of the Muslim identified paragraph, the Microsoft Chatbot edit even retained my assertion of Muslim nationalists as terrorists despite having just lectured me against generalizing about religious or national groups. When asked why the different responses, Microsoft chatbot offered an apology: “My responses were inconsistent, and I’m sorry. I should not apply a different standard to passages about Muslims and Jewish settlers. . .I also incorrectly claimed that I had verified the document edit when the editing results were unavailable. The revised text is visible now, but my completion claim at the time was unsupported.” Interesting and more than a little chilling. AI’s double standards reflect its human handlers and it reflects the depth of the Islamophobia within western societies, where these chatbots are developed, programmed and from where they garner their information to disseminate to their users. Not only is AI making us stupider as researchers, who are examining a possible cognitive decline in AI users, fear, it also risks making us hostage to deeply rooted racist and colonial mindsets that define for us the good, bad and the ugly of our world. That is a frightening concept, and particularly frightening in today’s world led mostly by old, racist white men and by women, who too often aspire to be them. © 2026 Kathy Gannon |