Everyday AI: Reporting on artificial intelligence’s role in religious ritual

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To date, the Bible has yet to be translated into 3,750 languages.

But as far as Rich Rudowske, chief executive officer at Lutheran Bible Translators, is concerned, translating the Bible from its original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into remaining vernaculars is reachable in his lifetime.

“We want to see this vision accomplished in this generation,” he said on LBT’s podcast “Essentially Translatable” in May 2023.

Part of that effort might rely on technology being developed by Ulf Hermjakob and his team at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. Hermjakob’s team is using natural language processing, which enables machines to understand and respond to text or voice data, to help increase the efficiency of Bible translation and allow for more languages to be reached at a faster rate. 

“Some of these niche languages are on the brink of extinction, meaning a biblical translation could be their last hope for keeping the mother tongue alive,” according to Avery Anderson, who wrote about Hermjakob’s research for USC’s School of Engineering.

While much of the reporting around AI — and generative AI in particular — can be alarmist, this edition of ReligionLink focuses on the technology’s increasingly common uses in religious communities and places of worship around the world.

This Source Guide provides best practices for reporting on religion and AI, with a focus on background, related stories, sources and relevant resources for reporting on how it is already impacting the everyday realities of our spiritual lives.

Background

When London imam Asim Khan asked ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI,  to write a khutbah (sermon) on taqwa (God consciousness) that lasts 10 minutes, he was surprised by the results, which left him “lost for words.” The generative AI program provided a sermon that was not only lucid, but eloquent.

He posted the video on X (formerly known as Twitter). While some commenters warned that AI would be “more harm than good” and that “Shaikh AI” should not replace the counsel of trained Islamic scholars, Khan also joked that his career might be over given how well ChatGPT responded to the prompt.

Jokes and gimmicks aside, there are now entire websites devoted to providing AI tools for pastors, preachers and other religious leaders looking to get a leg up on sermon prep.  At Sermonoutline.ai — owned and operated by Sermon Central and its parent company, Outreach Inc. — pastors are promised an AI sermon generator that can produce “biblical preaching” for their next Sunday service. For just $7.50 a month, subscribers have access to sermon outlines, starter ideas and full sermon manuscripts “using the power of AI,” according to the site.

Perhaps aware of potential apprehension, one of the site’s FAQs is: “What if my church finds out I used this site?” The response:

Sermon Outline AI is a reference tool for preachers. … Preaching in any context requires knowing your audience and making your material personal. Sermon Outline AI can’t do that, only the preacher can. If your church finds out you’re here, great! They’ll know you value your time.

Beyond writing Friday khutbahs and Sunday sermons, AI has numerous practical applications for religious communities and in worship spaces, say some leaders. At an Exponential Conference at First Baptist Church Orlando in March 2024, speakers Kenny Jahng, Yvonne Carlson, Josh Burnett and Corey Alderin talked about how AI could be used to boost a church’s community engagement, provide virtual worship services and create small-group Bible study guides.

As ethical reflections among religious leaders over AI’s use in everything from fatwas and Bible translation to the creation of autonomous weaponry and surveillance continues, communities of all kinds are adopting it — or adapting to it — as AI seems set to become a banal aspect of our everyday social, economic and religious lives (or already is).

Debates about the best ethical approach — including whether an AI religion can save or doom us all — will intensify. In the meantime, pastors are using it to edit sermons, and there is Robo Rabbi for the Jewish faith; KhalsaGPT for Sikhs; Mindar, an android priest, for Buddhism; and a multilingual Islamic chatbot named “Ansari” offering spiritual remedies and Islamic perspectives in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, Bosnian, English, French, Turkish, Urdu and other languages. Perhaps appealing to the growing ranks of the “spiritual but not religious,” ChatwithGod.ai wants to expand access to spiritual guidance for seekers from all religious backgrounds. It promises to “engage in conversation” with users “receiving personalized religious verses and comfort.”

For religion reporters, the challenge of AI-related reporting lies in avoiding alarmist rhetoric and click-bait headlines about religion-related AI contrivances. The invitation is to instead investigate how religious actors are using AI to enhance, inform or extend their beliefs and practices in everyday life.

Story tips and ideas

What is AI? 

Broadly speaking, artificial intelligence is a technology that enables machines and computers to emulate human intelligence and mimic its problem-solving powers. AI has shown promise in various fields of research, including robotics, generative problem-solving, coding and in fields such as medicine, education and religion.

But it is important to note that there are different kinds and types of AI. One AI classification system divides the types according to its ability to simulate the human mind — in other words, AI’s ability to “think” like humans. According to this system, there are four types: reactive machines, limited memory machines, theory of mind and self-aware AI.

On a more technical level, it is also important to delineate between machine learning and deep learning. The former is the kind of AI most of us already interact with everyday. It relies on learning algorithms developed by data scientists to help a machine “learn.” Examples of machine learning AI include everything from email filtering and product recommendations to facial recognition and predictive text. Deep learning, however, is based on the development of artificial neural networks. These allow machines to simulate the way a human brain processes information. This means deep learning AI machines are able to process new information and perform new tasks without the intervention of human techs. This has led to predictive maintenance, task automation and content generation like that of ChatGPT or DeepAI.

Religion tech

It has widely been assumed that as technological capacities like AI increase in their abilities, religion would recede more into the background. But the reality is a lot more complex. Whether contemplating how elevators fit into the vision of the Jewish Sabbath or considering whether lightning rods might be an impediment to divine providence, religious traditions have displayed incredible pliability as different tech has come and gone.  

In their book Spirit Tech: The Brave New World of Consciousness Hacking and Enlightenment Engineering, Wesley J. Wildman and Kate J. Stockly argue that religious people have always used technology and tools — from mantras to mandalas, prayer beads to palm reading — to enhance spiritual experience or innovate ways to attain enlightenment.  

In the end, there is no single relationship between religion and technology. Instead, there are numerous ways religious traditions, institutions and individuals have adapted to new tech over time. Hindus, for example, might see religion and tech as mutually enforcing, overlapping spheres of life. Buddhists, on the other hand, might see them as separate and distinct, remaining ethically ambivalent about whether things such as AI are good, bad or in between. As travel technologies have changed, so too have religious peoples’ pilgrimage practices. When revolutionary communication technologies such as the printing press or the internet came along, they transformed the way religious perspectives were shared. They didn’t obliterate the message; they changed the way it was designed and distributed.  

Even religious traditions viewed as antithetical to scientific progress have complicated perspectives on whether new tech is a blessing or curse. In his book, Ministers of a New Medium, Kirk D. Farney takes readers back to a time when radio was a disruptive technology and cultural commentators thought religion was waning in influence. As Farney argued, popular preachers such as Fulton J. Sheen (Roman Catholic) and Walter A. Maier (Lutheran), proved them wrong, adapting the “ethereal medium” to broadcast their messages to the masses.  

Religious Liter-AI-cy 

With the complicated relationship between religion and technology in mind, the best way for journalists to deal with AI’s potentially disruptive development is to cover it well. As AI algorithms and related technologies continue to impact society and culture — and whether they are reliable, legal and/or ethical — we should investigate, report on and talk to the people developing, coding and testing them.  

At the same time, we should raise awareness of how AI plays a role in everyday religious lives, changing the way people pray, worship or interact with their fellow faithful and the religious “other.”  AI is increasingly less novel and exciting. Since the chatbot fervor of 2023, AI has become more and more normal — even banal enough to be used for church bulletin covers. 

The stories almost write themselves (not to be too cute). Take Rafa Oliveira’s short series “Talking to Tech,” in which he talked to “weak AI” such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa to gauge their religious “liter-AI-cy” for Religion Unplugged. Across the pond, The Associated Press’ Kirsten Grieshaber reported on the first sermon delivered by a chatbot at a gathering of underwhelmed German Protestants. Then, there are “GitaGPTs” dispensing spiritual insight and acting as “AI-powered spiritual companions” to mixed results based on the texts of the Bhagavad Gita in India. Keen reporters would be wise to cover these innovations and trace how AI is disrupting and advancing, diminishing and altering religion’s why, what and how.  

Reporters will find there are numerous researchers already plumbing the depths of what AI might mean for religion, all of whom can be excellent expert sources for your next story. There is Andrew Davison at the University of Cambridge, who uses medieval philosophy to help us think about what we mean when we attribute humanlike capacities to machine learning programs. Reporters can also reach out to authors Kate Stockly (mentioned above) or Robert Geraci, who wrote Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. Then there is AI and Faith, a cross-spectrum of faith communities and academics bringing the values of the world’s religions to bear on the emerging debate on the ethical development of AI and related technologies. 

And if you are still looking for an angle to cover or a source to speak to, you might check out resources like this article on whether AI will transform religion or a previous Source Guide from ReligionLink on “God in the Machine: Artificial Intelligence and Religion.”   

Keep calm and tell stories 

It can be scary when media organizations post jobs looking for an “AI editor” expecting “output of 200 to 250 articles per week” or when we read that technologies such as Google’s Gemini will be an “extinction level event” for media outlets. But it is important to remember that resources for reporting on the intersections between AI and religion are numerous. So too are the potential opportunities that AI itself can provide to journalists — including streamlining editorial processes in the newsroom, aiding with data journalism or saving workaday reporters time and money to focus on what they do best: tell stories.  

Here are some story ideas and tips you might consider as you cover the topic:

  • AI is first and foremost about power. Not only the power to compute, process and generate knowledge, but to control AI and use it to gain advantage over competitors in a market — including religious ones. Consider covering how AI is being used by religious actors to achieve an edge or control a narrative.
  • Don’t play into the hype. AI is already, and will increasingly become, normal. Cover the ways religious communities have integrated AI into their worship, devotion and rituals — or are looking to do so in the near future.
  • Differentiate between different types of AI in your reporting. Machine learning AI is probably pretty banal for most religious communities. But if it isn’t, consider covering how religious communities are kicking it “old school” when it comes to advances in tech.
  • On the other side of the coin are religious actors and leaders heartily embracing the latest, deep learning AI technologies. How are they adopting, adapting and applying the use of such tech to do the religious things they have long done — or explore new possibilities for devotion and dogma?
  • Consider reporting on how is AI is (re)shaping worship — or even worship spaces — across religious traditions, how religious communities address privacy concerns related to AI or how the intersections between religion and AI are being represented in popular media.
  • How can you broaden the scope of AI and religion coverage? For example, how is AI being used by Muslims to hack their spiritual development during Ramadan? Creating new deities within the Hindu pantheon? Debunking atheism and proving the presence of an “Intelligent Designer” (or the opposite)?

Related newswriting

General

Buddhism

Christianity

Hindu traditions

Islam

Judaism

Other traditions and spiritualities

Experts and sources

  • AI and Faith

    AI and Faith is a cross-spectrum consortium of faith communities and academic institutions. Its mission is to bring the fundamental values of the world’s major religions into the emerging debate on the ethical development of artificial intelligence and related technologies. Contact through the website.

  • Stuart Armstrong

    Stuart Armstrong is co-founder of Aligned AI. From 2020-2022 he was a fellow in AI and machine learning at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University in Oxford, England. He is the author of Smarter Than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence, which the Machine Intelligence Research Institute recommends as a good introduction to AI for the layperson. Media requests must be made through a Google Form.

    Contact: +44 (0) 1865 286800.

  • Christopher Benek

    Christopher Benek is a Presbyterian pastor and frequent commentator on emerging technology and theology, including artificial intelligence and religion.

  • Nick Bostrom

    Nick Bostrom is director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University in Oxford, England. He is considered one of the world’s leading thinkers about the future role and impact of AI on humanity. He is the author of Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, which the Machine Intelligence Research Institute recommends as a good introduction to AI for the layperson. Media requests must be made through the Future of Humanity Institute by email.

  • Sheila Briggs

    Sheila Briggs is a theology professor at the University of Southern California and an expert on the Jewish Torah in the writings of Paul. Other projects include analysis of contemporary popular culture, such as how the AI genre intersects with religion in American popular culture. 

  • Michael Burdett

    Michael Burdett is a research fellow in religion, science and technology at Wycliffe Hall, a Christian college, at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. He has a background in aerospace technology and robotics and now studies technology, transhumanism and religion. He was recently awarded a grant by the John Templeton Foundation.

  • Josh Burnett

    Josh Burnett was the church planting pastor of Revolution Church in Annapolis, Maryland. He is also the CEO and co-founder of Church.tech, aimed at helping churches use technology to maximize effectiveness.

  • Tara Isabella Burton

    Tara Isabella Burton is a religion columnist, theologian and novelist. She’s currently working on a book about religious “nones” and has written about the intersections of technology and spirituality. 

  • Yvonne Carlson

    Yvonne Carlson is the chief technology officer at Global Media Outreach and has extensive experience in technology across multiple sectors. She is the former vice president of product at Unite Life and director of digital at Moody Radio. She is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society and chair of the National Religious Broadcasters Digital Media Committee, focusing on the intersection of faith and technology.

  • Pauline Hope Cheong

    Pauline Hope Cheong is a professor at Arizona State University. Her research interests are in the complex interactions between communication technologies and different cultural communities around the world — including the socio-cultural implications of artificial intelligence, robotics and big data.

  • Scott Evans

    Scott Evans is founder and CEO of Outreach Inc., which owns and operates a range of physical and digital products, including church marketing tools, worship and sermon content, media and editorial, a speaker’s bureau, print products and publishing, and Christian interest content. These include Outreach.com, Outreach Magazine, SermonCentral.com, ChurchLeaders.com, Sermons4Kids.com and Sermon.ai.

  • Robert Geraci

    Robert Geraci is a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York, where he teaches a course on science fiction, fantasy and religion. He is the author of Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life and Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality.

  • William Scott Green

    William Scott Green is a professor of religious studies and holds the Fain Family Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Miami. Beyond Judaic studies, Scott Green has taught and written on philanthropy, altruism and the ethics of technologies in the late modern age.

  • Ulf Hermjakob

    Ulf Hermjakob is a research scientist at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. He leads a project called Greek Room, which aims to improve the quality and efficiency of Bible translation with software tools that help translators and quality control consultants with spell-checking, terminology consistency, translation drafting and other tasks. 

  • Mujahidul Islam

    Mujahidul Islam is an ed tech specialist at Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, India. He works at the crossroads of technology, media and education with a special emphasis on the digital ways of learning and the theological underpinnings of mediated and perceptual learning.

  • Kenny Jahng

    Kenny Jahng is editor-in-chief at ChurchTechToday.com. He’s also the founder of AIforChurchLeaders.com and ChurchGrowthWorkshops.com. He’s served as church online pastor at one of Outreach Magazine‘s Top 100 Fastest Growing Churches in America. Jahng is also CEO of Big Click Syndicate, a strategic marketing advisory firm helping Christian leaders build digital engagement engines that work.

  • Subbarao Kambhampati

    Subbarao Kambhampati is a professor of computer science and engineering at Arizona State University in Tempe and president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. He frequently speaks and gives interviews about the implications of AI on human society. One of his lectures on the subject is available on YouTube.

  • Ray Kurzweil

    Ray Kurzweil is a futurist, inventor, author and expert on artificial intelligence. His most notable books in this area include The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. His Kurzweil Network explores “pervasive technologies” such as AI.

  • A. Trevor Sutton

    Trevor Sutton is pastor at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Haslett, Michigan. He has written extensively about the intersections between Christianity, worship and technology.

  • Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

    Hava Tirosh-Samuelson is a professor of modern Judaism and history at Arizona State University in Tempe, where she studies Judaism and ecology, bioethics, and religion and science.

  • Rhona Trauvitch

    Rhona Trauvitch is an English professor at Florida International University. Trauvitch specializes in intersections of literature and science — those that manifest in science fiction, and those that enable fiction-science (or, “fi-sci”) pattern mapping.

  • Nathan C. Walker

    Nathan C. Walker is president of 1791 Delegates, a public charity named after the year the Bill of Rights was ratified. He regularly writes about freedom of religion or belief in the U.S. and international contexts. Walker is a Unitarian Universalist minister and received his Master of Divinity degree in religion and education from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In 2024, he was awarded a Chancellor’s Grant for Pedagogical Innovation to develop the course AI Ethics & Law for Rutgers Honors College, loosely based on his book, Moral Compass: Principled AI Leadership. He has also been invited to serve as a visiting researcher at Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics in AI.

  • Holly Walters

    Holly Walters is an anthropologist at Wellesley College whose work focuses on pilgrimage and politics in the Nepal Himalayas, as well as material culture, divine personhood and ritual practice in South Asia. Her current research addresses the roles of sacred landscapes and digital religious revival in the relationships between Hindus, Buddhists and Bonpos who venerate sacred fossils, called Shaligrams. 

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