Speaking With AI/God

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"There is a whole generation of people who have never been to a church or synagogue."

"Spiritual apps are their way into faith."

Rabbi Jonathan Romain, British Reform Jewish movement

 

"The curmudgeon in me says there is something good about really, really wrestling through an idea, or wrestling through a problem, by telling it to someone."

"I don't know if that can be replaced."

"I wonder if there isn't a larger danger in pouring your heart out to a chatbot. Is it at some point going to become accessible to other people?"

Reverend Mike Schmitz, Catholic priest

 

"People come to us with all different types of challenges; mental health issues, well-being, emotional problems, work problems, money problems."

Laurentiu Balasa, co-founder, Bible Chat

 

"They're generally affirming."

"They aren't going to church like they used to."

"But it's not that they're less inclined to find spiritual nourishment. It's just that they do it through different modes." 

Ryan Beck, chief technology officer, Pray.com

A slew of religious smartphone apps are allowing untold millions of users to confess to AI chatbots, some of which claim to be channeling God himself. Yahoo News Canada

 

Tens of millions of people have taken to unburdening themselves conversing with spiritual chatbots where they invest their trust in confessionals, unloading their guilt in a gush of admissions over their petty vanitiesm their deepest concerns, their urges to be gluttons, and their shameful sinister impulses. For their part, the bots are good listeners, sympathizers and advisers. The chatbots have been loaded up with religious texts, capable of producing empathy and guidance, and users take to thinking of them as on-call priests, imams, or rabbis -- what's more, dedicated only to them, no one else.

 

This is the 'faith tech' industry embraced by a public starved of spiritual guidance. These religious chatbot apps have become indispensable life-partners to many people, and their sensitive utilitarianism has shot them to the top of Apple's APP Store. There are over 30 million downloads of Bible Chat, a Christian app, while a Catholic App, Hallow, now has more fixated users than Netflix, Instagram and TikTok, taking the number One spot in the store last year for a brief period.

 

Even in China, people try to decode their lives and expectations with the  use of Deep Seek. With this popularity, millions in investment dollars have been attracted, with people paying up to $70 annually for subscriptions. Pray.com has about 25 million downloads; incentive to produce their own chatbots. These digital chaplaincy apps might have been a predictable result of people turning increasingly to social media in preference to socializing with others in person. Why go to church when you can speak directly with a heavenly apprentice, or even god  himself? 

Texts from Jesus/New Testament

 

As for the App founders, their public perspective is that they are providing people with the opportunity to express their deepest held emotions. And there are religious leaders who agree with them and lend their support to the use of chatbots with the proviso they complement, not replace the presence and availability of faith communities. 

 

 Users can select their religion of choice and what they're searching for; comfort, confession or inspiration, and the website ChatwithGod provides responses tailored to those choices. "The most common question we get, by a lot, is: Is this actually God I am talking to?" stated ChatwithGod's chief executive, Patrick Lashinsky. Most popular apps however, function as a spiritual assistant, channeling people to doctrine and scripture.

 

"In my neighbourhood when things are not right or when I hear sad things on the news, I go on the Bible Chat app", said Delphine Collins, a preschool teacher in Detroit. When in her community a woman was stabbed to death, Ms.Collins asked the chatbot for a "prayer for healing", and it offered a psalm while responding: "As you seek healing, let us turn to the word of God, which is a source of comfort and strength. The Scriptures remind us of God's power to heal and restore." 

 

"It [chatbots] shouldn't be something where it replaces human connection", Alex Jones, founder of Hallow said, of his hopes that the app will inspire people to search for religious communities. Some apps, including Hallow, take pains to help people locate local congregations they may wish to attend. 

"[This is tricky theological territory because chatbots] tell us what we want to hear."

"It's not using spiritual discernment, it is using data and patterns."

Heidi Campbell, professor of technology and religion, Texas A&M University  

An app promoting Catholic prayer reached No.1 on Apple’s App Store last year, beating Instagram and TikTok  (Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images)