""I wonder if there isn't a larger danger in pouring your heart out to a chatbot," Catholic priest Fr. Mike Schmitz told The Times. "Is it at some point going to become accessible to other people?""
""People stopped talking to me. It was horrible.""
""They aren't going to church like they used to," Beck said. "But it's not that they're less inclined to find spiritual nourishment. It's just that they do it through different modes.""
Religious chatbots provide nonjudgmental spiritual support that attracts users who feel isolated from traditional congregations. Many users share intimate spiritual moments that become data stored on corporate servers, creating privacy risks. App creators say chatbots supplement rather than replace human connection while millions leave churches and seek spiritual nourishment through different modes. Chatbot responses are generated anew from each prompt, with no persistent identity and limited memory beyond session history or separate stored "memories." The technical ephemerality contrasts with users' tendency to ascribe ongoing spiritual authority or divine guidance to chatbot responses.
Read at Ars Technica
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