Finding God: Millions turning to spiritual chatbots to confess their secrets

God works in mysterious ways - including through chatbots. At least, that's what many people seem to think. On religious apps, tens of millions of people are confessing to spiritual chatbots their secrets: their petty vanities and deepest worries, gluttonous urges and darkest impulses.

Trained on religious texts, the bots are like on-call priests, imams or rabbis, offering comfort and direction at any time. On some platforms, they even purport to channel God.The "faith tech" industry is booming, powered by chatbots on religious apps that are rocketing to the top of Apple's App Store. Bible Chat, a Christian app, has more than 30 million downloads. Hallow, a Catholic app, beat Netflix, Instagram and TikTok for the No.

1 spot in the store at one point last year. In China, people are using DeepSeek to try to decode their fortunes. The apps are attracting tens of millions of dollars in investments, and people are paying up to $70 a year to subscribe.

Now, apps like Pray.com - which has about 25 million downloads - are rolling out chatbots, too.App founders said they considered the technology to be a digital chaplaincy, a tool that is helping millions of people, both inside and outside of faith, express themselves spiritually.

Several religious leaders said they so far supported people using the chatbots, as long as they complement, but do not replace, the work of faith communities."There is a whole generation of people who have never been to a church or synagogue," said Rabbi Jonathan Romain, a leader within Britain's Reform Jewish movement. "Spiritual apps are their way into faith."Others aren't so sure. "The curmudgeon in me says there is something good about really, really wrestling through an idea, or wrestling through a problem, by telling it to someone," said Fr.

Mike Schmitz, a Catholic priest and podcaster. "I don't know if that can be replaced." He is also worried about data privacy. "I wonder if there isn't a larger danger in pouring your heart out to a chatbot," he said. Heidi Campbell, a professor at Texas A&M who studies technology and religion, said the first time she saw a spiritual chatbot was a few years ago, on the gaming platform Twitch, which hosts a chatbot called AI Jesus.

She watched gamers ask questions like, "Hey Jesus, what's your favourite football team?" Others asked about death, the nature of time, their depression.With the rise of ChatGPT, these chatbots now a growing business. They're addressing an access problem. For millenniums, people have longed for spiritual guidance, and have had to travel to reach spiritual leaders. Chatbots are at a user's fingertips, always.