Hosted by the Université de Montréal in cooperation with PLURIEL and the universities of Montreal and Quebec, the event brings together 32 academics and researchers representing 24 institutions from 11 countries.
TRENDS Global, part of TRENDS Group, through its offices in Canada and France, and in cooperation with the University Platform for the Study of Islam (PLURIEL), the Université de Montréal, and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), is organizing an international conference on the future of interfaith dialogue in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Hosted by the Université de Montréal in Canada from October 19-21, 2026, the conference will bring together 32 academics and researchers representing 24 universities and research institutions from 11 countries.
The conference builds on the research initiative launched by TRENDS in the United Arab Emirates in February 2026, marking the second milestone in an international scientific cooperation initiative aimed at exploring the potential of AI to advance interfaith dialogue, promote mutual understanding, and establish intellectual and ethical frameworks for the use of intelligent technologies in religious and cultural contexts.
The conference will be titled Interfaith Dialogue with the Assistance of AI and in Dialogue with AI: Concepts, Approaches, and Challenges. It will examine how generative AI transforms the production and dissemination of religious knowledge, the representation of religious beliefs and traditions, and the reshaping of dialogical relationships between individuals and communities.
The conference will also explore opportunities to employ intelligent technologies in translation, information verification, understanding religious and cultural contexts, facilitating mediation, and promoting mutual understanding. At the same time, it will address challenges associated with algorithmic bias, digital polarization, misinformation, hate speech, and extremism.
The event will combine specialized sessions with research and experimental workshops. Sessions will take place on October 19 and the morning of October 20, while the afternoon of October 20 and all day on October 21 will be devoted to testing the DIALOGIA platform and evaluating its performance, to develop recommendations and a roadmap for its further development.
An International Research Initiative
Dr. Wael Saleh, Director of TRENDS’ offices in Canada and France, said the conference continues an international research initiative TRENDS launched to examine the relationship between AI, religion, and interfaith dialogue. He noted that, in February, the initiative launched the AI-Supported Interfaith Dialogue Alliance in the United Arab Emirates, which aims to strengthen cooperation among research and academic institutions and develop multidisciplinary approaches to this emerging field.
He explained that the Montreal conference marks an important step forward in this initiative, moving beyond theoretical exploration of AI’s potential to develop practical tools that can be tested and scientifically evaluated. He said this reinforces the role of scientific research in keeping pace with technological transformations and guiding them to serve humanity and society.
Dr. Saleh affirmed that TRENDS’ interest in this field is part of its vision to anticipate intellectual and societal transformations associated with emerging technologies and study their effects on religious knowledge, cultural pluralism, and efforts to counter extremism. He stressed the importance of protecting human dignity, respecting religious diversity, and preserving the central role of human expertise in interpretation, verification, and decision-making.
Four Main Themes
The conference’s program is structured around four interconnected themes. The first examines how AI is reshaping religious knowledge, discourse, and representations of religion. The second explores how interfaith dialogue must be reconsidered in the age of AI, focusing on agency, the limits of mediation, and the relationship between humans and intelligent systems.
The third theme shifts from polarization to dialogical transformation in the digital sphere, analyzing the structure of disagreement and assessing dialogue quality. The fourth addresses the humanization of AI, the ethical principles governing its applications, and its governance in religious contexts.
These themes converge on a central research question: To what extent can AI move beyond being merely a supporting tool to become a mediator or interactive participant in dialogue without reducing religious diversity or undermining the role and responsibility of human beings? Participants will also discuss the intellectual, ethical, and institutional conditions needed to develop AI systems that respect differences among religious traditions, distinguish between beliefs and interpretations, and help create common spaces for dialogue.
TRENDS Research Contributions
TRENDS Research & Advisory will participate in the conference with several specialized research papers reflecting the diversity of its research interests, particularly in religious studies, AI, countering extremism, and the ethical governance of technology.
Issa Ali Al Manaei, an AI researcher, will present a paper titled When AI Becomes a Mediator: Reliability, Responsibility, and the Limits of Mediation in Interfaith Dialogue. The paper examines challenges related to the reliability of intelligent systems and the limits of their responsibility as they move from providing information to intervening in dialogical mediation processes.
Senior Researcher Hamad Abdullah Al Hosani will contribute a paper titled From Digital Polarization to Ideological Extremism: How Extremist and Terrorist Groups Use AI and the Challenges This Poses. The paper examines how extremist and terrorist organizations employ intelligent technologies to disseminate propaganda, exert ideological influence, and drive digital radicalization, as well as the resulting security, intellectual, and societal challenges.
Dr. Wael Saleh will present a research paper titled Rethinking the Plurality of Contemporary Islam and Dialogue in the Name of Religion in the Age of AI: An Ethical, Ontological, and Epistemological Approach. The paper discusses the epistemological challenges AI systems pose to representing diversity within contemporary Islam and their implications for the conditions of knowledge, mutual recognition, and interfaith dialogue. These contributions reflect TRENDS’ commitment to connecting intellectual analysis with applied research and developing research tools that help explain the emerging opportunities and risks associated with the growing relationship between AI and religious discourse.
Workshops to Test the DIALOGIA Platform
TRENDS’ participation extends beyond the scientific sessions. The organization will help organize and facilitate three research and experimental workshops to test the DIALOGIA platform, with Dr. Wael Saleh and researcher Issa Ali Al Manaei participating, alongside Ziad Saleh from the Université de Montréal.
The workshops aim to assess the platform’s ability to analyze religious discourse and distinguish between legitimate theological disagreement and discourse involving stigmatization, hatred, or incitement to violence. The methodology will involve conducting independent human assessments first, then comparing them with the platform’s analyses. The workshops will also examine the platform’s ability to measure dialogue quality, identify multiple viewpoints, analyze the nature of religious disagreements, and explore mediation approaches that preserve differences without turning them into polarization or exclusion.
The workshops will also focus on testing human-AI interaction and evaluating the platform’s intellectual and epistemological foundations, the reliability of its sources, and the traceability and verifiability of its results. They will also address requirements relating to transparency, accountability, human oversight, and institutional governance. Sultan Al Hosani from TRENDS will participate in academic discussions accompanying the workshops and help evaluate the experiments’ findings and research outputs.
A Research Working Group
The conference’s final day is scheduled to feature the pilot launch of DIALOGIA, an AI-powered research platform designed to help analyze religious discourse and facilitate interfaith dialogue without replacing human judgment or making definitive judgments about religious beliefs and traditions.
The platform combines contextualizing discourse, recognizing pluralism, highlighting differences in interpretation, and reframing positions to support mutual understanding. It also includes interactive pathways, knowledge resources, and an experimental indicator to measure dialogue quality.
Its underlying philosophy distinguishes between legitimate religious disagreement and poor-quality dialogue, on the one hand, and stigmatization, hatred, and incitement to violence, on the other. This approach enables the development of analytical tools that account for the specific characteristics and intellectual and social complexities of religious discourse.
The platform’s governance framework is based on the principles of human-centeredness, epistemic pluralism, transparency of sources and processes, the ability to review and challenge results, and institutional responsibility. Independent scientific evaluation and continuous human review will assess its performance.
The final day will also launch an international research working group specializing in AI-supported interfaith dialogue within the PLURIEL academic network. The group will include TRENDS Research & Advisory, the Université de Montréal, the Université du Québec à Montréal, and several international academic and research institutions.
The group will strengthen research cooperation and exchange expertise, develop shared tools and methodologies for studying the relationship between AI and interfaith dialogue, and continue evaluating and improving the DIALOGIA platform. The conference is also expected to publish academic work at the beginning of the 2027 academic year.
Strengthening International Cooperation
TRENDS Senior Researcher Hamad Abdullah Al Hosani noted that the Montreal conference reflects TRENDS Research & Advisory’s commitment to expanding its international academic partnerships by connecting religious studies with AI, philosophy, ethics, law, and governance, and by strengthening the contribution of scientific research to addressing the intellectual and societal challenges associated with digital transformations.
Issa Ali Al Manaei emphasized that the conference marks a new step toward developing an international research and applied initiative that goes beyond merely discussing AI’s technological applications. Instead, it seeks to examine the intellectual, ethical, and institutional conditions required to ensure that AI is used responsibly to promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue and understanding, safeguard pluralism and human dignity, and reinforce the central role of human beings in knowledge, interpretation, dialogue, and decision-making.
