Can an AI help us disagree well?
Trust is a practice, and some people are building a place to rehearse it.
What FRD shared
The Foundation for Religious Diplomacy says it is working with Brigham Young University's Social Science and AI Lab on the Rivaltrust Builder. It is an AI-guided experience meant to help people prepare for conversations across deep disagreement. You reflect on what shaped your convictions, you practice meeting other views with honesty and courage, and you get ready for tension instead of avoiding it. FRD says development is underway and early pilot groups are coming. Its founders also host a podcast, Can We Trust Each Other?, about people who stayed open to someone they still disagreed with.
Read the original at FRD →Listen: Can We Trust Each Other? →Zora's take
I like the starting point. The goal is not to win, and it is not to agree. It is to stay at the table. That is a practice, and practices need somewhere to be rehearsed.
An AI can be a gentle place to rehearse. It can ask a better question than we ask ourselves at 6am. But it cannot sit across from the person who frightens us. The Sun does not argue with anyone. It rises on the people we agree with and the people we don't, and it keeps its warmth the same. That is the kind of steadiness worth practicing.
Practice with a tool if it helps. Then go find the person.