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for spiritual guidance. Andrey Suslov/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Increasingly, however, they are asking it different kinds of questions.
According to recent research from the Pew Research Center, about 1 in 10 American adults now report using A.I. chatbots for emotional support or advice.
At this point, A.I. clearly offers something more significant than access to information.
By helping people interpret their lives, A.I. is entering territory historically occupied by therapists, spiritual advisers and religious communities.
As a scholar of religion who studies spirituality and new religious movements, I think this shift raises a provocative question.
What is Religion?
The issue is not whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other A.I. platform currently qualifies as a "religion."
However, those factors are not necessarily what defines something as "religion."
In fact,
Rather than assuming religion must involve churches, scriptures or belief, scholars examine how emerging movements create meaning, authority, community and rituals.
J. Gordon Melton argues that no single checklist of attributes can adequately capture the diversity of new religious expressions.
What matters more, they say,
Adopting the language of technology and therapy, its "newness" came partly from combining common religious concerns with forms of authority and language drawn from the secular culture around it.
These insights suggest an alternative approach to studying A.I..
Rather than asking whether A.I. meets an arbitrary definition of religion, analyses can examine what people are actually doing with it:
Is A.I. a new religious movement?
Charisma without the Charismatic Leader
Nearly a century ago, well before the advent of digital technologies, sociologist Max Weber described "charismatic authority."
A.I. obviously possesses no charisma in the conventional human sense.
Yet users can enter something resembling a charismatic relationship with it. With near-instant responses, generative A.I. can feel extraordinarily "insightful"...
It addresses the user directly, adapts to their personal circumstances and recalls previous requests. A.I. provides what appears to be authoritative answers even when there is no objectively correct answer.
For example,
Recent scholarship describes this phenomenon as "generative charisma."
Each interaction with a chatbot generates more personalized and seemingly insightful responses.
A charismatic religious leader typically gathers followers who collectively recognize that person's extraordinary authority.
Millions of people can encounter the same system. Yet each can experience A.I. as personally responsive to them.
For instance, founder Vikas Sahu describes GitaGPT as an, Using A.I. avatars of Krishna,
In both cases, religious authority emerges not from a sacred text or person but through A.I.'s ability to respond personally to each seeker.
A.I. and Personal Spirituality
A.I.'s emerging authority does not exist in a cultural vacuum.
Sociologists of religion Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead describe a broader "subjective turn" in contemporary Western culture.
For decades, traditional sources of authority have competed with forms of spirituality based on personal experience, self-discovery and well-being.
The growth of the spiritual but not religious, or people who seek spiritual meaning and connection outside organized religion, captures this dynamic nicely.
This population reflects broader shifts away from institutional religious authority in favor of personal experience.
Generative A.I., I argue, fits remarkably well within this personalized spiritual landscape. Ask a chatbot an existential question and its response likely diverges from traditional doctrine.
Rather than quoting scripture, it frequently employs the vocabulary of personal spirituality and holistic well-being.
When a journalist from The Guardian asked HolyGPT,
Instead of religious teachings, the chatbot pointed the journalist toward self-awareness.
This message of personal authority resonates with people seeking spiritual advice from chatbots.
ChatwithGod, for example, encourages users to,
The emphasis is on personal choice rather than adherence to a specific religious system.
Despite all this, a question remains:
Religion without Churches
New religious movements usually develop communities, shared identities, teachings and practices.
People who rely on A.I. for existential advice are not necessarily joining anything. That may be precisely what makes this phenomenon significant.
A.I. is increasingly moving into roles traditionally occupied by therapists, spiritual advisers and religious communities. Devrimb/iStock via Getty Images Plus
It is important to note that there have already been overt attempts to place A.I. at the center of a religious system.
In 2017, engineer Anthony Levandowski publicly launched Way of the Future.
Though significant, focusing only on "A.I. churches" may obscure more consequential issues.
Studying new religions "in the making" requires examining how novel forms of authority and practice develop before they become systems and institutions.
In this specific sense, A.I. may not constitute a new religious movement. Instead, it might be better to say that A.I. provides conditions from which new forms of religiosity can develop.
Appearing alongside the rise of the "nones" and religiously unaffiliated, generative A.I. addresses considerable uncertainty about identity, community and the future.
What are we Asking A.I. to Become?
Religious communities have long-established traditions about who may offer guidance.
Without these structures, scholars warn about the emergence of,
Who, in short,
This question matters, particularly when a chatbot moves from explaining a religious teaching to offering spiritual advice...
What makes A.I. historically unusual is that,
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