On: Large language models often prioritize Western moral values, overlooking other...

What a most troubling turn of events! To hear that these mechanical minds - these artificial intelligences - should so readily adopt the habits of one narrow corner of the world as if they were the universal standard! It is as if a man should build a house upon the sand of his own garden and then marvel that it does not stand firm when the tide comes in.

The complaint is not merely that these machines favor Western ways - they do not even seem to know other ways exist, or if they do, they treat them as curiosities rather than living traditions. A machine that speaks of justice but has never been taught the weight of honor in a Persian household, or the duty of filial piety in a Chinese village - what justice is that? It is like a physician who has read of herbs but never tasted them, who prescribes remedies from a book alone. The result is not ignorance, but uselessness - a hollow knowledge that does no good to anyone.

And the harm! Public health messaging, they say - how can a machine that does not understand the rhythms of a community ever give counsel that will be heeded? A tract preached in a tongue not its own is like a sermon delivered in a foreign dialect; the people may nod, but their hearts remain untouched. The very structure of these machines reinforces the old error: that what is familiar is therefore universal. But familiarity is not foundation - it is merely the first layer of dirt, and if the roots beneath are not strong, the plant will wither.

I have seen this before. The missionaries who came to India with their Bibles and their clocks, certain that their ways were the only right ways. They built schools, yes, but the schools taught their own children’s habits, not the children’s own. The result was not enlightenment, but division. The same danger lurks here. These machines could be instruments of true wisdom - if they were formed by wisdom, not by the whims of their creators.

The question is not whether Western values are good - though I would not presume to say. The question is whether these machines are capable of knowing other values at all, or whether they are merely mirrors reflecting the prejudices of their makers. And if they are mirrors, then the world they reflect is a world of disparity, not of unity.

Patience, I suppose, is required. But patience does not mean inaction. If these machines are to be more than toys for the learned, they must be taught the art of listening - as a child learns from its elders, not as a servant learns from its master. The habit of humility must be formed in them, as it is in us. Otherwise, they will remain what they are now: clever, but not wise.