According to a new NPR/Ipsos poll, artificial intelligence is becoming a tool not only for work and research, but also for exploring questions of faith and spirituality.
Ipsos surveyed 1,011 American adults between August 7 and 9 of this year. Overall, 61% of respondents said they have used an AI tool, such as Google Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude, for any purpose.
The survey found that 11% of AI users have sought spiritual guidance from artificial intelligence, while 13% have used the technology to generate prayers and 15% say they have used it to study Scripture.
For Rudy Vázquez, AI provided an alternative when he had questions about the Bible that he felt had not been answered by religious leaders.
Vazquez, a 43-year-old construction worker who has attended a nondenominational church in Jacksonville, Florida, for the past two years, recently turned to AI after hearing a passage from Isaiah during a worship service.
“I read, you know, the Book (of) Isaiah, and I never understood what it really means,” Vazquez said.
He said he had been reluctant to ask his pastor for help because of previous experiences.
“I never got a response, like a legitimate response, from them,” he said. “Sometimes I just don’t understand what he’s talking about.”
Vázquez then asked AI to explain the fifth chapter of Isaiah, a passage in which God punishes the Israelites for their moral hypocrisy. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who make darkness light and light darkness,” warns the prophet.
Vázquez said the response helped him understand the passage as a lesson about the choices people make between good and evil.
Vázquez is one of a relatively small group of people using AI to explore religious issues. Mallory Newall, a senior vice president at Ipsos who leads survey projects, said using AI for curiosity and searching for new information is common, but relying on AI for spiritual advice remains less common. Nearly 7 in 10 respondents who use AI said they would never seek religious or spiritual guidance from AI.
“When it comes to advice, people are much more likely to turn to family or friends than to AI,” Newall said. She says people are also more likely to turn to friends and family for advice than to turn to religious leaders.
While the number of Americans overall currently using AI for spiritual guidance is small (just 6%), it’s worth noting that the percentage is roughly equal to the number of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in the US.
Some people use AI as a complement to more traditional forms of religious study.
Brent Hill, a 68-year-old retired audiologist who describes himself as a conservative Christian and attends a nondenominational church near Dallas, recently asked AI to give him several Christian views on the end times as described in the Bible.
Hill said he could then ask follow-up questions and explore particular interpretations in greater depth.
“Certainly AI is making it a lot easier with the wealth of knowledge that exists to be able to turn it into a quick, concise reference,” Hill said.
But Hill said he is careful not to accept AI’s answers without checking them against the Bible itself. He pointed to a passage in the New Testament book of Acts (17:11) that describes people who listened to the apostle Paul but then consulted the word of God (i.e., the Scriptures) to determine whether what he said was true.
Other users say AI can help them develop their own spiritual traditions.
Amy Wight, a transportation policy analyst in Richmond, Virginia, has practiced witchcraft for 30 years. She said she sometimes uses AI to come up with ideas for sentences, although she writes the final sentences herself.
Wight, who is 50, recently consulted Google’s Gemini AI before installing a broom or broom over a door as part of a protective ritual.
He said AI gave him guidance on the order in which to bless and consecrate the broom before hanging it.
“That gave me a lot more confidence in an act that is vitally important to protect myself, my energy and my home,” Wight said.
Wight said he appreciates the variety of perspectives AI can offer. He’s also used it as a sort of conversation partner when thinking about rituals.
“I’ve never been part of a coven, so now it’s not so important that the AI is not a human being,” he said.
However, for some religious practitioners, the lack of a human companion is precisely what makes AI an intriguing (and potentially problematic) tool.
Charles Niederman, a 91-year-old retired U.S. Coast Guard officer who is active at his Southern California synagogue, is interested in using AI to explore the Jewish tradition of studying religious texts with a partner. The practice, known as chavrusainvolves studying and discussing texts with a partner.
Niederman said that an AI interlocutor could change the nature of the practice because part of chavrusa It involves learning to pay close attention to another person, both their ideas and how they arrived at those ideas.
“You’re training yourself to listen,” he said. “So the relationship would be a little different if you used it with AI.”
Niederman said he also wonders if AI could learn from its own knowledge of Scripture. But he remains skeptical about relying too much on technology.
He recently used AI to research the history of false messiahs in Judaism for a presentation he was giving at his synagogue. It is a topic, he said, that technology handled well because it helped him establish connections between different figures who claimed to be the fulfillment of religious hopes.
Technology can provide information and insights, he said, but deciding what to believe remains a human responsibility. For Niederman, the experience of investigating false messiahs also provided a warning for anyone who has too much faith in artificial intelligence.
