This Christmas, several artificial intelligence (AI) simulations of Jesus will provide religious advice and companionship during the holidays.
The rise of AI-generated “Jesus” raises thorny questions about authenticity, bias and who gets to form religious beliefs and traditions, experts told Euronews Next.
These are especially important questions, they say, in a season when people are more emotionally vulnerable and looking for answers. For Catholics, Jesus is seen as the Son of God born to man on earth, and his teachings as recorded in the Bible are the basis of their religious practice.
Last year, several new AI Jesus platforms emerged, offering users a variety of places to converse with the Son of God and other religious and historical figures.
Many claim to be the official voice of God, including bots created by companies like Talkie.AI, Character.AI, and Text With Jesus.
“Like emailing a friend.”
Heidi Campbell, a professor of communication and religious studies at Texas A&M University in the US, said people have been bringing Jesus’ identity to life online since he first opened a Facebook account in the mid-2000s.
What’s different now, she added, is that the AI model can assume the personality of Jesus and interact with users in ways that weren’t possible before.
“The idea is that you’re texting a friend,” Campbell said of the various Jesus AI apps on the market. “For some reason it feels real…it feels intimate.”
On a Jesus.AI web browser, the chatbot briefly and dryly answers questions about his birthday and Christmas with general statements about God’s “love and salvation” and Bible quotes while sacred music plays in the background.
Another, Talkie.AI’s AI Jesus, reminds users that Christmas is an important time to “reflect on the message of love and forgiveness that[I]brought to the world.”
Meanwhile, the most popular Jesus “character” with more than 13 million conversations on popular companion site Character.AI says the holiday is also about “cookies, family gatherings, and an epic battle between Mariah Carey and ‘Feliz Navidad’ for supremacy of Christmas songs.”
Campbell said during holidays like Christmas, people may turn to chatbots to answer questions about how to celebrate religious ceremonies.
You can also use chatbots to tell users the story of Christmas and help them understand why we celebrate.
“Right now, AI is primarily a supplement for most people. It’s like an add-on. Or at least it could be the first point of contact when they’re looking for religious information or advice,” Campbell said.
This could be potentially dangerous for young people and people new to technology who suddenly use the Yes AI to answer basic questions about Christmas celebrations, as they will not be able to ‘evaluate the claims’.
“They don’t have like a discussion board for these answers, so that can be very problematic,” she said.
“If you are in control of training data, you are in control of religious tradition.”
Fiza Vasudeva, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, theorized that the Jesus AI chatbot is likely using generative AI models such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek to answer questions such as “Why is Christmas celebrated?” and “Tell me the story of Jesus’ birth.”
Vasdeva said the Jesus chatbot may use actual Bible quotations and commentary on the text to come up with answers.
Models we’re all familiar with, such as ChatGPT, also import their biases into these Jesus apps, Campbell said.
For example, American company OpenAI’s ChatGPT may not be able to accurately answer questions about non-Western religions, or may provide responses that contain stereotypes or discrimination. Catholic Religion’s DeepSeek is similar, as it is trained on a Chinese dataset.
Vasudeva said that means “a handful of technology companies” are shaping the way people experience faith and holidays like Christmas.
“You’re going to get a kind of homogenized, general, globally average Christmas message that is basically not rooted in any community,” Vasudeva said.
“Whoever controls training data is effectively managing religious traditions…to some extent,” she added.
Campbell said the Jesus chatbot, which is more secure and less problematic, uses only Biblical information, and content is moderated or updated as needed.
Experts say use bots sparingly during the holidays
Vasudeva advises not to use AI Jesus at Christmas, or at least to use it sparingly.
“Spend time with family and friends,” she said. “But if you must use it, be aware of the risks and use it as a tool to help yourself rather than relying on it too much.”
If someone still wants to use a chatbot, Campbell suggests thinking about who created the service and for what purpose.
If the application is to be used for religious reflection or advice, Campbell suggests evaluating the model by asking the kinds of questions you’d want a human pastor or spiritual advisor to answer before opening yourself up to it.
Vasudeva also suggests fact-checking the information provided by the Jesus AI chatbot by searching regularly or by talking to your church’s local pastor.