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.
