<\/p>\n

People are turning to artificial intelligence for a seemingly unending variety of reasons<\/a>. Many ask AI what to cook for dinner or how to develop a workout plan. Some even rely on AI to create school handouts or revise a work email.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, however, they are asking it different kinds of questions<\/a>. How do I cope with grief? Why does suffering occur? Should I leave my relationship? What kind of person should I become? What gives my life meaning?<\/p>\n

According to recent research from the Pew Research Center<\/a>, about 1 in 10 American adults now report using AI chatbots for emotional support or advice. Among adults under 30, the figure rises to 1 in 5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At this point, AI clearly offers something more significant than access to information. By helping people interpret their lives<\/a>, AI is entering territory historically occupied by therapists, spiritual advisers and religious communities. It provides companionship<\/a> while offering directed advice for improving one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

As a scholar of religion<\/a> who studies spirituality and new religious movements, I think this shift raises a provocative question<\/a>. Could artificial intelligence represent the beginnings of a new kind of religious movement?<\/p>\n

What is religion?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The issue is not whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI platform currently qualifies as a \u201creligion.\u201d AI has no recognized system of beliefs or shared practices. It has no collective creed, congregation or membership, and most users do not consider it a religious experience.<\/p>\n

However, those factors are not necessarily what defines something as \u201creligion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, scholars of new religious movements<\/a> have long recognized the difficulty of deciding where religion begins and ends<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rather than assuming religion must involve churches, scriptures or belief, scholars examine how emerging movements create meaning, authority, community and rituals. J. Gordon Melton<\/a> argues that no single checklist of attributes can adequately capture<\/a> the diversity of new religious expressions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What matters more, they say, is how new religious movements relate to the world in which they emerge. They may adapt, challenge or depart from ideas and institutions that a society already takes for granted.<\/p>\n

Scientology, for example, emerged from a culture increasingly interested in psychology, science and self-improvement. Adopting the language of technology and therapy<\/a>, its \u201cnewness\u201d came partly from combining common religious concerns with forms of authority and language drawn from the secular culture around it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These insights suggest an alternative approach to studying AI. Rather than asking whether AI meets an arbitrary definition of religion, analyses can examine what people are actually doing with it<\/a>: How does AI generate authority<\/a>? How does it provide meaning? In what ways does it provide belonging<\/a>? How do people come to trust a new source<\/a> of answers to questions historically addressed by religions?<\/p>\n