Report: Artificial Intelligence Might Be Coming to Religion

Artificial intelligence is so pervasive it might ultimately extend into religion in the form of robotic priests, potentially removing human fallibility, according to a Vox report.

"Take the Catholic Church: It's very male, very patriarchal, and we have this whole sexual abuse crisis – so would I want a robot priest? Maybe!" Christian Theology professor at Villanova University told Ilia Delio told Vox.

"A robot can be gender-neutral. It might be able to transcend some of those divides and be able to enhance community in a way that's more liberating."

There are already robots in use as priests around the world, like Mindar the Buddist priest in Japan, according to the report.

"This robot will never die; it will just keep updating itself and evolving," Tensho Goto told Vox. "With AI, we hope it will grow in wisdom to help people overcome even the most difficult troubles. It's changing Buddhism."

Religious ideals tend to be "fixed," but Delio told Vox it might be time to evolve in the information age.

"We have these fixed philosophical ideas and AI challenges those ideas — it challenges Catholicism to move toward a post-human priesthood," she told Vox.

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