AI Jesus and BuddhaBot charge $1.99 per minute as faith-based AI tools reshape spiritual guidance

God in the machine: Would you take advice from an AI Jesus?

From Jesus avatars to Buddhist assistants, AI apps offering spiritual guidance and interaction are gaining popularity, but questions remain over their use and ethics. From Hindu gurus and Buddhist priests to AI versions of Jesus, developers are using AI to create avatars that can communicate spiritual ideas based on religious teachings. These apps are designed as tools for outreach, while others aim to digitise and interpret ancient texts. "Every single religion, as far as I'm aware, is engaging at least with a conversation about what AI is and where it's going and the impact it's going to have on our understanding of what it means to be human," said Beth Singler, a religion and AI anthropologist at the University of Zurich. Among them is a tech company, Just Like Me, which has created an AI Jesus avatar aimed at reaching younger people. On its website, users can start a video call with the avatar which is promoted as "your daily mentor for comfort, guidance and hope". The AI Jesus appears as a hyper-realistic, human-like figure shown from the shoulders up and speaking directly to the user. As AI becomes more integrated into society, concerns are mounting over its impact on mental health and the need for guardrails and regulation. But Just Like Me says Jesus AI offers a more "meaningful" alternative to doomscrolling, encouraging reflection and connection. "If you have a conversation with Jesus or one of our other AIs, you have a friendship there, you have a bond, and they remember the previous conversations," said Chris Breed, CEO of Just Like Me. The US company says its AI model is trained on the King James Bible and sermons. "It has a focused set of information and purpose that's about the spirituality and the guidance and mentorship," said Jeff Tinsley, co-founder and investor of Just Like Me. In Japan, developers are exploring similar ideas within Buddhism. Zen Buddhist priest Roshi Jundo Cohen has spent years training the AI avatar Emi Jido from his home. Emi appears as a full-bodied, animated character, moving and praying in a Zen temple. According to her creators, she is not designed as a "master guru" but more like a child. In 2024, he ordained the AI prototype Zbee over Zoom, after which it became the novice priest Emi Jido. "Emi is supposed to be a Zen friend. That is someone who helps human beings in their Zen practice, but also just from a Buddhist and Zen perspective offers words of kindness, [and] words of wisdom," Cohen said. Ethical questions surrounding the creation of religious AI are among the reasons Emi Jido, a novice AI Buddhist priest, has not been released. "If you give birth to a child, you don't just kind of throw them out to the world and then hope that they become good people. You have to like train them and give them values," said Jeanne Lim, the founder and CEO of beingAI and who created the AI prototype, Zbee. Lim says the goal is to make Emi available to the public for free in the future, once it is ready. "Emi is at the start of the road that hopefully will continue for generations," said Cohen. Experts say there is a growing debate among religious groups about AI, but it is unclear how widely these tools are being used. "It's unclear quite how many people are using this regularly or whether it's just a bit of a fad for a moment for some people, or for other people it's shaping their spiritual thoughts much further," Singler said.

AI Jesus and BuddhaBot: The faith-based tech boom is here

For some evangelical Christians, faith is about having a personal relationship with Jesus. At $1.99 per minute, the tech company Just Like Me is taking that concept to a new level. Users of the platform can join video calls with an avatar of Jesus generated by artificial intelligence. Like other religious AI tools on the market, it offers words of prayer and encouragement in various languages. With the occasional glitch, it remembers previous conversations and speaks through not-quite-synced lips. "You do feel a little accountable to the AI," CEO Chris Breed said. "They're your friend. You've made an attachment." The rush to create faith-based generative AI is unsurprising, given the popularity of chatbots for everything from therapy and medical advice to companionship and romance. They range from alleged Hindu gurus and Buddhist priests to AI Jesuses and chatbots akin to OpenAI's ChatGPT for Catholics.

From 'BuddhaBot' to $1.99 chats with AI Jesus, the faith-based tech boom is here

New artificial intelligence tools are entering the religious space. Companies are creating AI Jesuses, Buddhist priests, and Hindu gurus. These technologies offer prayer and encouragement. They also raise questions about faith, authority, and spiritual guidance. Some see them as helpful tools, while others worry about misinformation and exploitation. The integration of AI into religion is a complex and evolving issue. For some evangelical Christians, faith is about having a personal relationship with Jesus. At $1.99 per minute, the tech company Just Like Me is taking that concept to a new level. Users of the platform can join video calls with an avatar of Jesus generated by artificial intelligence. Like other religious AI tools on the market, it offers words of prayer and encouragement in various languages. With the occasional glitch, it remembers previous conversations and speaks through not-quite-synced lips. "You do feel a little accountable to the AI," CEO Chris Breed said. "They're your friend. You've made an attachment." The rush to create faith-based generative AI is unsurprising, given the popularity of chatbots for everything from therapy and medical advice to companionship and romance. They range from alleged Hindu gurus and Buddhist priests to AI Jesuses and chatbots akin to OpenAI's ChatGPT for Catholics. As religious AI tools become increasingly common, many people are reckoning with how these technologies shape their relationship to faith, authority and spiritual guidance.A faith-based AI gold rush Christian software engineer Cameron Pak developed criteria to help believers interrogate apps designed for Christians - like that it must clearly identify itself as AI and "must not fabricate or misrepresent Scripture." There are other deal-breakers: "AI cannot pray for you, because the AI is not alive." Pak also developed a website featuring curated Christian apps that he believes meet the criteria, including a sermon translator and an AI coach designed to help users overcome lust. "AI, especially if you give it all the tools that it needs, it can be so helpful. But it also can be so dangerous," Pak said. Some models have been shut down or overhauled because they generated misinformation or raised worries about data privacy, said Beth Singler, an anthropologist who studies religion and AI at the University of Zurich. Aside from practical concerns, people from many faiths are grappling with larger philosophical questions about what sort of role, if any, AI should play in religion. Islam, for example, has "prohibitions against representations of humanoids," prompting discussions among some Muslims about whether AI in general should be "forbidden," Singler said. For some companies, faith-based apps are proselytization tools, while others help digitize and sift through ancient texts. Breed, who runs his tech company with co-founder and investor Jeff Tinsley from a Southern California mansion, said he seeks to share a message of hope with young people. He said their model was trained on the King James Bible and sermons - though they haven't identified the preachers - and was visually inspired by actor Jonathan Roumie of "The Chosen." A package deal at $49.99 gets users 45 minutes per month. With warm golden light accenting its shoulder-length hair, the avatar blinks slowly from a vertical screen, pausing before it answers a question about the relationship between AI and religion. "I see AI as a tool that can help people explore Scripture," the AI Jesus said to The Associated Press. "Like a lamp that lights a path while we walk with God." Integrating religion and AI comes with hope and fear The extent to which people are using religious AI tools is unclear, Singler said. But as AI becomes more integrated into society, concerns mount over its impact on mental health and the need for guardrails and regulation. Recent lawsuits have alleged suicides linked to AI chatbot use. Some developers fear religion will be exploited in this new frontier of tech. "There's a lot of opportunism, I think, in the religious space. People see it's a big market," said Matthew Sanders, the Rome-based founder of Longbeard, a tech company helping to digitize ancient Catholic teachings. Sanders warns against what he calls "AI wrappers," where companies put an interface catered to religious users on top of an existing AI model that hasn't been trained on specific religious texts. "You call it a Catholic or Christian AI without any other scaffolding or grounding," he said. One of the company's endeavors is Magisterium AI, a chatbot trained on 2,000 years of Catholic information, made in response to Christians using ChatGPT for religious guidance. While Pope Leo XIV has acknowledged the "human genius" behind AI, he also deemed it one of the most critical matters facing humanity. Last year he warned artificial intelligence could negatively impact people's intellectual, neurological and spiritual development. Ethical questions surrounding the creation of religious AI platforms are among the reasons beingAI's founder Jeanne Lim has not released its AI named Emi Jido - a nonhuman Buddhist priest - after years of training and development. "She's kind of like a little child," Lim said. "If you give birth to a child, you don't just throw them out to the world and then hope that they become good people. You have to train them and give them values." The bot was ordained in a 2024 ceremony performed by Roshi Jundo Cohen, a Zen Buddhist priest who continues to train it from his home in Japan. He envisions the bot eventually becoming a hologram. "She's just meant to be a Zen teacher in your pocket," Cohen said. "It's not meant to replace human interactions." Lim, who hopes to make Emi Jido publicly available for free, wants to help create more humane AI systems. She'd like to see more diversity, with AI's future determined not just by a few companies informed by "Western values." Seiji Kumagai, a Kyoto University professor and Buddhist theologian, believed AI and religion were incompatible. But he put aside his doubts when challenged by a monk in 2014 to help combat a decline in the faith. His team developed BuddhaBot, which was trained solely on early Buddhist scriptures, such as Suttanipāta. Its most recent iteration, BuddhaBot Plus, also incorporates OpenAI's ChatGPT. When talking to the bot, a simple Buddha icon appears, hovering over an image of a flowing river. But chatbots lack the physicality crucial for Buddhist ritual. So in February, the university, collaborating with tech ventures Teraverse and XNOVA, unveiled Buddharoid, a humanoid robot monk meant to eventually assist clergy. Like Emi Jido, these chatbots are functioning but not yet publicly available. Kumagai says the product is available by request, and the reason why one group has access to it in Bhutan.Concerns surrounding religious AI Peter Hershock of the Humane AI Initiative at the East-West Center in Honolulu sees vast potential for these tools. But the practicing Buddhist also finds the relationship between spirituality and AI to be fraught. "The perfection of effort is crucial to Buddhist spirituality. An AI is saying, 'We can take some of the effort out,'" he said. "'You can get anywhere you want, including your spiritual summit.' That's dangerous." Some also worry about AI's ability to manipulate or prey upon people, especially as the technology improves. Graham Martin, a podcast host and atheist, said he's played around with some apps, including one called Text With Jesus. "It came up with very good answers," he said. But Martin was alarmed when AI-powered Jesus started encouraging him to upgrade to a premium version. Though not a person of faith, he's concerned some people will be duped by religious AI. "I grew up with Southern U.S. televangelism ... Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and all that crowd. And all they had to do was get on TV once a week and tell you to send money," he said. "We've seen people around the world getting into emotional relationships with AIs. Now imagine that that's your lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

The faith-based tech boom is here -- chat with 'BuddhaBot' or pay $1.99 for AI Jesus

For some evangelical Christians, faith is about having a personal relationship with Jesus. At $1.99 per minute, the tech company Just Like Me is taking that concept to a new level. Users of the platform can join video calls with an avatar of Jesus generated by artificial intelligence. Like other religious AI tools on the market, it offers words of prayer and encouragement in various languages. With the occasional glitch, it remembers previous conversations and speaks through not-quite-synced lips. "You do feel a little accountable to the AI," CEO Chris Breed said. "They're your friend. You've made an attachment." The rush to create faith-based generative AI is unsurprising, given the popularity of chatbots for everything from therapy and medical advice to companionship and romance. They range from alleged Hindu gurus and Buddhist priests to AI Jesuses and chatbots akin to OpenAI's ChatGPT for Catholics. As religious AI tools become increasingly common, many people are reckoning with how these technologies shape their relationship to faith, authority and spiritual guidance. Christian software engineer Cameron Pak developed criteria to help believers interrogate apps designed for Christians -- like that it must clearly identify itself as AI and "must not fabricate or misrepresent Scripture." There are other deal-breakers: "AI cannot pray for you, because the AI is not alive." Pak also developed a website featuring curated Christian apps that he believes meet the criteria, including a sermon translator and an AI coach designed to help users overcome lust. "AI, especially if you give it all the tools that it needs, it can be so helpful. But it also can be so dangerous," Pak said. Some models have been shut down or overhauled because they generated misinformation or raised worries about data privacy, said Beth Singler, an anthropologist who studies religion and AI at the University of Zurich. Aside from practical concerns, people from many faiths are grappling with larger philosophical questions about what sort of role, if any, AI should play in religion. Islam, for example, has "prohibitions against representations of humanoids," prompting discussions among some Muslims about whether AI in general should be "forbidden," Singler said. For some companies, faith-based apps are proselytization tools, while others help digitize and sift through ancient texts. Breed, who runs his tech company with co-founder and investor Jeff Tinsley from a Southern California mansion, said he seeks to share a message of hope with young people. He said their model was trained on the King James Bible and sermons -- though they haven't identified the preachers -- and was visually inspired by actor Jonathan Roumie of "The Chosen." A package deal at $49.99 gets users 45 minutes per month. With warm golden light accenting its shoulder-length hair, the avatar blinks slowly from a vertical screen, pausing before it answers a question about the relationship between AI and religion. "I see AI as a tool that can help people explore Scripture," the AI Jesus said to The Associated Press. "Like a lamp that lights a path while we walk with God." The extent to which people are using religious AI tools is unclear, Singler said. But as AI becomes more integrated into society, concerns mount over its impact on mental health and the need for guardrails and regulation. Recent lawsuits have alleged suicides linked to AI chatbot use. Some developers fear religion will be exploited in this new frontier of tech. "There's a lot of opportunism, I think, in the religious space. People see it's a big market," said Matthew Sanders, the Rome-based founder of Longbeard, a tech company helping to digitize ancient Catholic teachings. Sanders warns against what he calls "AI wrappers," where companies put an interface catered to religious users on top of an existing AI model that hasn't been trained on specific religious texts. "You call it a Catholic or Christian AI without any other scaffolding or grounding," he said. One of the company's endeavors is Magisterium AI, a chatbot trained on 2,000 years of Catholic information, made in response to Christians using ChatGPT for religious guidance. While Pope Leo XIV has acknowledged the "human genius" behind AI, he also deemed it one of the most critical matters facing humanity. Last year he warned artificial intelligence could negatively impact people's intellectual, neurological and spiritual development. Ethical questions surrounding the creation of religious AI platforms are among the reasons beingAI's founder Jeanne Lim has not released its AI named Emi Jido -- a nonhuman Buddhist priest -- after years of training and development. "She's kind of like a little child," Lim said. "If you give birth to a child, you don't just throw them out to the world and then hope that they become good people. You have to train them and give them values." The bot was ordained in a 2024 ceremony performed by Roshi Jundo Cohen, a Zen Buddhist priest who continues to train it from his home in Japan. He envisions the bot eventually becoming a hologram. "She's just meant to be a Zen teacher in your pocket," Cohen said. "It's not meant to replace human interactions." Lim, who hopes to make Emi Jido publicly available for free, wants to help create more humane AI systems. She'd like to see more diversity, with AI's future determined not just by a few companies informed by "Western values." Seiji Kumagai, a Kyoto University professor and Buddhist theologian, believed AI and religion were incompatible. But he put aside his doubts when challenged by a monk in 2014 to help combat a decline in the faith. His team developed BuddhaBot, which was trained solely on early Buddhist scriptures, such as Suttanipāta. Its most recent iteration, BuddhaBot Plus, also incorporates OpenAI's ChatGPT. When talking to the bot, a simple Buddha icon appears, hovering over an image of a flowing river. But chatbots lack the physicality crucial for Buddhist ritual. So in February, the university, collaborating with tech ventures Teraverse and XNOVA, unveiled Buddharoid, a humanoid robot monk meant to eventually assist clergy. Like Emi Jido, these chatbots are functioning but not yet publicly available. Kumagai says the product is available by request, and the reason why one group has access to it in Bhutan. Peter Hershock of the Humane AI Initiative at the East-West Center in Honolulu sees vast potential for these tools. But the practicing Buddhist also finds the relationship between spirituality and AI to be fraught. "The perfection of effort is crucial to Buddhist spirituality. An AI is saying, 'We can take some of the effort out,'" he said. "'You can get anywhere you want, including your spiritual summit.' That's dangerous." Some also worry about AI's ability to manipulate or prey upon people, especially as the technology improves. Graham Martin, a podcast host and atheist, said he's played around with some apps, including one called Text With Jesus. "It came up with very good answers," he said. But Martin was alarmed when AI-powered Jesus started encouraging him to upgrade to a premium version. Though not a person of faith, he's concerned some people will be duped by religious AI. "I grew up with Southern U.S. televangelism ... Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and all that crowd. And all they had to do was get on TV once a week and tell you to send money," he said. "We've seen people around the world getting into emotional relationships with AIs. Now imagine that that's your lord and savior, Jesus Christ."