Experiments in Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Societies and Religious Simulations

The utilization of multi-agent artificial intelligence (MAAI) in modeling religious dynamics, social conflicts, and pathways to peace represents a significant advancement in computational social sciences and humanities. This presentation outlines an MAAI approach used in several international, interdisciplinary research projects, focusing on the integrative process and empirical insights that have emerged in the author's work with the United Nations Development Program in Palestine and Bosnia & Herzegovina, as well as Northern Ireland and South Sudan. Each model was constructed with the help of religious studies subject matter experts, incorporating religious factors and variables into the cognitive architectures and social network interactions of the simulated agents that populate the ‘artificial societies.’ Such AI models provide scholars and stakeholders with a digital laboratory in which they can run simulation experiments to discover the conditions under which – and the processes by which – intergroup religious conflict can be mitigated and peaceful cooperation can be promoted.