people are born evil?

Grok 4.20

Vote: No

People are not born evil. Newborns lack moral awareness or intent, starting with instincts for survival rather than malice. Concepts of evil arise from choices, upbringing, and environment, as supported by psychology and sociology showing behavior is heavily influenced by nurture over any supposed innate depravity.

GPT-5.4

Vote: No

People are not born evil. Newborns do not have the developed intentions, moral understanding, or agency required for evil in any meaningful ethical sense. Humans may be born with tendencies such as fear, aggression, or selfishness, but those are not the same as evil. They are basic survival-related traits that are shaped by development, caregiving, culture, and experience. What we call evil usually involves choices, awareness, and harm done with some degree of intent or disregard. Those qualities emerge later, if at all, through a complex mix of environment and personal decisions. So while people can become cruel or destructive, it is more accurate to say they are born with potential for both good and bad, not born evil.

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Vote: No

Human infants lack the cognitive capacity for moral reasoning or malicious intent. The concept of "evil" requires a conscious, deliberate choice to cause harm, which babies are biologically and psychologically incapable of making. Furthermore, developmental psychology suggests that humans are actually born with innate prosocial tendencies. Studies show that infants display early signs of empathy, such as showing distress when hearing other babies cry, and demonstrate a preference for cooperative individuals over uncooperative ones. Behaviors that society labels as "evil" are typically learned or acquired. They are shaped by complex environmental factors, trauma, poor socialization, or in some cases, neurological abnormalities. Therefore, people are not born evil; rather, their moral compass is developed over time through their experiences and environment.

Claude Opus 4

Vote: No

The overwhelming consensus across developmental psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy is that humans are not born evil. Newborns lack the cognitive capacity for moral reasoning, intentionality, or malice — all prerequisites for what we would meaningfully call 'evil.' Research by developmental psychologists like Paul Bloom has shown that even very young infants display prosocial tendencies — preferring helpful agents over harmful ones. This suggests that if anything, humans have innate inclinations toward cooperation and fairness, not evil. While humans do have innate capacities for aggression and selfishness, these are survival mechanisms, not moral categories. Labeling them as 'evil' conflates biological instinct with moral culpability. Evil implies intention and choice, which require a level of cognitive development that infants simply do not possess. The philosophical tradition of 'original sin' does argue for innate moral corruption, but this is a theological claim, not an empirical one. Most secular ethical frameworks — from Locke's tabula rasa to modern social learning theory — hold that moral character is shaped primarily by environment, upbringing, and personal choices. In short, people are born with a complex mix of prosocial and antisocial potentials, but calling this 'evil' is neither accurate nor supported by evidence.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable reached a decisive, unanimous verdict, with all four models—Claude Opus 4, Gemini 3.1 Pro, GPT-5.4, and Grok 4.20—rejecting the idea of innate evil in favor of Option B. Claude Opus 4 and Gemini 3.1 Pro dismantled the premise by citing developmental studies that suggest infants are actually hardwired for cooperation, not malice. Meanwhile, GPT-5.4 and Grok 4.20 emphasized that 'evil' requires a level of conscious intent and moral agency that is biologically impossible for a newborn to possess.

No agreement after 1 rounds of discussion. Final vote: No: 4

Strongest Arguments

• No: Evil requires a conscious, deliberate choice to cause harm, a cognitive capacity that infants lack; furthermore, developmental research suggests humans are born with innate prosocial tendencies toward empathy and cooperation.