Non Paywalled: https://archive.is/ubMCA
Didn't know something like ChatwithGod already existed!
The NYT adds Smaller apps and websites have trained chatbots to respond as if they were a god, an approach some app founders and users online criticize as sacrilegious. The website ChatwithGod lets users select their religion and what they are looking for, including comfort, confession or inspiration, and provides tailored responses.
Interesting and more exciting or ridiculous is....
BibleChat has been downloaded more than 30 million times, while another app, Hallow, reached the number one spot in Apple’s App Store last year.
Still...
The chatbots are meeting a need, but they raise deep theological questions.
They present a radical shift from how many religious traditions think about guilt and accountability. The companies train the chatbots on religious texts and consult with theologians about their guardrails. Still, the chatbots are based on foundation models, like ChatGPT and Gemini, that are designed to validate users.
Manipulation and propoganda extension!
The religion is a matter personal inner understanding and nothing that can be assumed outwardly. It's something that your soul believes in. The makeup on religion through buildings and books (and now by these bots), has only been a source of propoganda and created a divide among humans, nothing else.
These Chatbot-Gods are simply an extension of religious propoganda.
What do you say??