Users turn to chatbots for spiritual guidance

AI-powered chatbots play a rising function in non secular life, based on a New York Times story that examines the recognition of spiritual chatbots and apps.

The Instances notes that an app referred to as Bible Chat has been downloaded greater than 30 million occasions, whereas one other app, Hallow, reached the primary spot in Apple’s App Retailer final yr.

For essentially the most half, these apps are imagined to level folks to spiritual doctrine and scripture to reply their questions, though no less than one web site purports to allow users to chat with God. Rabbi Jonathan Roman recommended chatbots might be a “manner into religion” for “a complete technology of people that have by no means been to a church or synagogue.”

Nonetheless, these chatbots are constructed on high of AI fashions which might be designed to validate users’ opinions, to the purpose that they’ll reinforce delusional or conspiratorial thinking. Heidi Campbell, a Texas A&M professor who research the intersection of digital tradition and faith, warned that chatbots “inform us what we wish to hear.”

“It’s not utilizing non secular discernment, it’s utilizing knowledge and patterns,” Campbell mentioned.