News

blackday - stock.adobe.com

Alireza Doostdar, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the Anthropology of Religions, spoke to Rolling Stone magazine for their story "People Are Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in AI. Religious Scholars Have Thoughts," by Miles Klee. 

"That said, there are certainly precedents for 'technologically-mediated communication from the beyond,' according to Alireza Doostdar, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School who studies the intersections between religion, science, and the state. He mentions 'telegraphic messages communicated through spiritualist seances, which started in the U.S. in the mid-19th century and quickly spread all over the world.' These seances involved purported communications from the dead, sometimes through sounds in the room, surfaces with letters (such as the Ouija board), or a medium who relayed the message. 'These messages became very significant for a religious movement that quickly swept much of the world, and the movement and various offshoots persist to this day, Doostdar says."

Read the full story here: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-chatbot-god-religion-answers-1235347023/