For some evangelical Christians, faith means having a personal relationship with Jesus. Just Like Me, a US$1.99 (NZ$3.41) per minute technology company, is taking that concept to a new level.
Users of the platform can participate in video calls with an avatar of Jesus generated by artificial intelligence. Like other religious AI tools on the market, it provides prayers and words of encouragement in a variety of languages. Despite occasional glitches, it remembers previous conversations and speaks with lips that are not perfectly synchronized.
“I think we feel some responsibility towards AI,” CEO Chris Breed said. “They’re your friends. You’re attached.”
Given the popularity of chatbots in everything from therapy and medical advice to friendships and relationships, it’s no surprise that there is an urgent need to develop faith-based generative AI. These range from alleged Hindu gurus and Buddhist monks to chatbots similar to the AI Jesus and OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Catholics.
As religious AI tools become increasingly common, many are beginning to consider how these technologies will shape our relationships with faith, authority, and spiritual guidance.
Faith-based AI gold rush
Christian software engineer Cameron Pack has developed standards to help believers question apps designed for Christians. The standards include that the app must clearly identify itself as an AI and “must not fabricate or misrepresent the Bible.”
There’s also another deal breaker: “AI can’t pray for you because AI isn’t alive.”
Park has also developed a website featuring carefully selected Christian apps that he believes meet the criteria, including a sermon translator and an AI coach that helps users overcome their lust. “AI can be very helpful, especially if you give it all the tools it needs, but it can also be very dangerous,” Park said.
Beth Singler, an anthropologist who studies religion and AI at the University of Zurich, said some models were shut down or overhauled because they produced false information or raised concerns about data privacy. Apart from practical concerns, people of many faiths are grappling with larger philosophical questions about what role, if any, AI should play in religion.
For example, Islam has a “prohibition against humanoid expression,” Singler said, and there is a debate among some Muslims about whether AI in general should be “banned.”
For some companies, faith-based apps are proselytizing tools, while for others they help digitize and scrutinize ancient texts.
Breed, who runs a technology company with co-founder and investor Jeff Tinsley from a mansion in Southern California, said he wanted to share a message of hope with young people.
He said the model was trained based on the King James Bible and sermons, and while the preacher was not identified, the visual inspiration was taken from “Chosen One” actor Jonathan Roomy. The US$49.99 (NZ$85.51) package deal entitles users to 45 minutes per month.
With a warm golden light highlighting her shoulder-length hair, the avatar slowly flashes from a vertical screen, pausing before answering a question about the relationship between AI and religion.
“I see AI as a tool to help people explore the Bible,” AI Jesus told The Associated Press. “It’s like a lamp that lights your path with God.”
The integration of religion and AI brings with it hopes and fears.
Singler said it’s unclear how much people use religious AI tools. However, as AI becomes more integrated into society, there are growing concerns about its impact on mental health and the need for guardrails and regulations. Recent lawsuits allege suicides related to the use of AI chatbots.
Some developers worry that religion will be exploited in this new frontier of technology. “I think there’s a lot of opportunism in the religious community. People recognize that it’s a big market,” said Matthew Saunders, Rome-based founder of Longbeard, a technology company that helps digitize ancient Catholic teachings.
Sanders warns against what he calls “AI wrappers,” where companies place interfaces aimed at religious users on top of existing AI models that have not been trained on specific religious texts. “You call it a Catholic or Christian AI that has no other scaffolding or foundation,” he said.
One of the company’s efforts is Magisterium AI, a chatbot trained on 2000 years of Catholic information and created in response to Christians using ChatGPT for religious instruction.
While Pope Leo XIV acknowledged the “human genius” behind AI, he also considered it to be one of the most important problems facing humanity. Last year, he warned that artificial intelligence could have a negative impact on people’s intellectual, neurological and spiritual development.
Ethical issues surrounding the creation of religious AI platforms are one reason why the AI’s founder, Jeanne Lim, has not released the non-human monk named Emiji Tong after years of training and development.
“She’s like a little child,” Lim said. “When you have a child, you don’t just throw him out into the world and hope he turns out to be a good person. You have to train him and give him values.”
The bot was ordained in a ceremony in 2024 performed by Jundo Cohen Roshi, a Zen monk who continues to train the bot at his home in Japan. He envisions bots eventually becoming holograms.
“She’s meant to be a Zen teacher in your pocket,” Cohen says. “It doesn’t replace human interaction.”
Lim wants to make Emi Jido available to the public for free and hopes to help build more humane AI systems. She wants the future of AI to be more diverse and not determined solely by a few companies influenced by “Western values.”
Kyoto University professor and Buddhist theologian Seiji Kumagai believed that AI and religion are incompatible. But when challenged by monks in 2014 to address the decline of the faith, he put his doubts aside.
His team developed BuddhaBot, which is trained solely on early Buddhist texts such as Suttanipatha. Its latest version, BuddhaBot Plus, also incorporates ChatGPT from OpenAI.
When you talk to the bot, a simple Buddha icon will appear above an image of a flowing river.
However, chatbots lack the physicality essential to Buddhist rituals. So in February, the university teamed up with technology ventures Teraverse and XNOVA to unveil Buddharoid, a humanoid robot monk intended to ultimately assist clergy.
Similar to Emi Jido, these chatbots are functional but not yet available to the public. Kumagai said the product is available on request and that is why one group in Bhutan can get it.
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Concerns over religious AI
Peter Hershock of the Humane AI Initiative at the East-West Center in Honolulu sees great potential in these tools. But practicing Buddhists also find the relationship between spirituality and AI difficult.
“Perfection of effort is extremely important to Buddhist spirituality,” he says. “AI can take away some of the effort.” “‘You can go anywhere you want, including the spiritual pinnacle.’ That’s dangerous.”
Others are concerned about AI’s ability to manipulate or prey on humans, especially as technology advances.
Podcast host and atheist Graham Martin said he has tried several apps, including one called “Text With Jesus.” “We got a very good answer,” he said.
But when the AI-powered Jesus started recommending an upgrade to the premium version, Martin became concerned. Although he is not a religious person, he is concerned that some people will be fooled by religious AI.
“I grew up on televangelism in the southern United States…Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and all that crowd. And all they had to do was go on TV once a week and tell them to send money,” he said. “We have seen people all over the world fall into emotional relationships with AI. Now imagine that it is your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
