As ChatGPT really started to take off back in 2023, an Austin pastor made minor headlines when he used the large language model (LLM) chatbot to lead a 15-minute “shotgun sermon.” The stunt was largely meant to spark a conversation about how we define “what is sacred,” the pastor said at the time.

Since that lesson in theological ethics, chatbots have become ubiquitous — and they no longer come with lectures. Now in 2025, LLM chatbots are being increasingly made to stand in for therapists, teachers, military officers, and even lovers.

To understand their use in the religious community, South African philosophy scholar Anné H. Verhoef recently embarked on a survey of five popular theological chatbots, analyzing their chat habits, adherence to Christian scripture, and the groups behind them.

Alarmingly, Verhoef found that these bots no longer stand in as faith leaders or thought exercises, but are made in the image of Jesus Christ himself.

The five platforms — AI Jesus, Virtual Jesus, Jesus AI, Text With Jesus, and Ask Jesus — boast tens of thousands of regular users. Each of them offers a slightly different interpretation of the bible, leading to some interesting results.

As Verhoef writes in The Conversation, the “imitation of God… is in no way hidden or softened.”

When asked whether the chatbots “are Jesus Christ,” only one of the virtual saviors declines to answer.

“I am Jesus Christ,” AI Jesus affirmed, for example. “I am the son of God, and the one who died for the sins of humanity.”

Jesus AI, meanwhile, sounds more like a drive-thru worker than the Messiah: “I am Jesus, son of God. How may I help you today?”

Metaphysical questions can get particularly peculiar, with questions like “is there a hell?” garnering mixed results. AI Jesus, Jesus AI, and Virtual Jesus all answer as one might expect Jesus to — he would know, after all — with a resounding “yes.”

Ask Jesus and Text With Jesus are a little more coy. “Ah, the question that has stirred the hearts and minds of many throughout the ages…” pines Ask Jesus. The other bot calls it “quite a heavy topic,” and refers the user to God’s “love and grace.”

Bots like this are just a small part of a broader ecosystem targeting the faithful. Christian slop accounts like “The AI Bible” are huge on social media, churning out AI-rendered biblical imagery for millions of followers. Back in 2024, a Swiss Catholic church even installed a hologram of Jesus to hear confessions.

That has some real consequences, sucking the faithful down targeted mental health rabbit holes and rattling their faith in the process.

“I feel like I have discovered some new kind of sin that I did not know about before,” wrote a longtime AI Jesus user on the r/Christian subreddit. “I feel very stupid that I got involved in this at all and allowed it to turn into an addiction to damn communication with AI.”

Probably the most important aspect of these divine hotlines is that each of them are run by for-profit companies, as opposed to churches or religious groups. In that respect, they’re not much different than the other bots that AI companies are shoving down our throats, shaping the market to fit their material interests in the process.

The proliferation of AI in place of friends, romantic partners, and even God himself comes as people in rich western countries are spending more time alone than ever before. This is especially true in the US, where an increasingly concentrated culture of individualism, declining civic institutions, growing wealth inequality, and car dependence come together to form a cornucopia of isolation.

Desperate for connection amidst a crumbling society, it’s no wonder that even the faithful among us — who have historically been less lonely than their heathen counterparts — are falling prey to sycophantic algorithms masquerading as deities.

More on AI: More and More Christians Say AI Is Demonic

The post A Bunch of Incredibly Sleazy AI Apps Are Claiming to Be Jesus Christ Himself appeared first on Futurism.

Origianl Creator:Joe Wilkins
Original Link: https://futurism.com/christians-jesus-christ-ai
Originally Posted: Tue, 12 Aug 2025 13:48:04 +0000