Are chatbots changing the face of religion? Three faith leaders on grappling with AI

Mainstream adoption of generative AI and conversational bots has left few spaces untouched, even religious communities

Write a sermon in the voice of a rabbi of about 1,000 words that relates the Torah portion Vayigash to intimacy and vulnerability. Cite Brene Brown's scholarship on vulnerability." That was the prompt Rabbi Joshua Franklin put in ChatGPT, the results of which he used to deliver a sermon to congregants of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in December 2022.

The sermon the chatbot came up with spoke of Joseph, the son of Jacob and a prophet in the Abrahamic faiths. It quoted from a book by Brown, a professor who specializes on topics of intimacy, to define vulnerability as the willingness to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome". Being vulnerable could mean we are able to form deeper, more meaningful bonds with those around us", the chatbot wrote.