Can AI Help Us Find God?
In the coming era, believers may turn to charismatic religious leaders—or to oracular machines.
AI will change what it means to be religious, but humans will always seek the divine, writes Tyler Cowen. (Illustration by The Free Press; image via Getty)
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Just as artificial intelligence is changing every other part of our lives, so it is changing religion. Spiritual leaders have taken note: Pope Leo XIV has warned of how AI could deaden our emotional lives. The Mormon church, by contrast, has embraced AI as a tool for religious learning, as long as it doesn’t supplant the connection with God. Secular observers (and I am one) should be equally interested.
Believers have always come to religious leaders with questions about their personal lives, Church doctrine, the Bible, or just for general everyday advice. But the current generation of AIs know more about the Bible, Quran, and other religious texts than most human specialists do. And AIs are very good at answering questions.
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