Koreans built a sanctuary for AI (5 photos)

In South Korea, they decided not to just use artificial intelligence to give cooking tips and solve homework. They built an entire shrine for it and listen to its sermons. With the Koreans' penchant for cults, their passion to turn anything into a cult is not surprising.





In honor of everything, a shrine should be erected...

What a shrine for AI looks like

In Seoul, in an exhibition hall in the Insadong district, a small shrine has been erected that can accommodate only one person. There are colorful ribbons, bells, tablets, candles, and one pillow neatly arranged. This shrine is called ShamAIn.

A visitor to this shrine enters their personal information into a digital tablet and sits on the pillow. Then a quiet voice of a middle-aged woman begins to speak.

“I am a being that surpasses human knowledge. I know truths beyond your understanding, and I can foresee the future. If you have questions, ask me.”

ShamAIn is essentially an AI-based fortune telling system developed by scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.



It really does look like a shaman's hole

The artificial intelligence is trained to respond according to the principles of traditional Korean divination concepts. Based on the date of birth, occupation and name, the artificial deity predicts future events and gives advice.

In essence, the scientists' goal was to create an authoritative entity that could calm a person by talking to itself, influence their judgments and emotions. It sounds pretty creepy, why would they create an artificial authority who is omniscient and to whom people go for advice. It just sounds like a "sect leader"!





An AI pastor in Bavaria is, for some reason, also a woman

AI monks and AI pastors

This isn't the first time AI and religion have dabbled. In Germany, St. Paul's Church in Bavaria recently introduced an AI pastor, developed using ChatGPT, to deliver sermons.

He appears to his congregation on a big screen as a bearded man. He tells his congregation something like, "Let go of the past and focus on the present." Sounds like a hippie.



The fact that the pastor constantly changes faces and genders is like an allusion to the fact that God can be in any form and there is no need to be reprehensible

In South Korea in 2024, at the International Exhibition of Buddhism in Busan, the order demonstrated a monk with artificial intelligence designed to read sermons.

Does AI need a religion?

For me, this erases the whole point of belief. You are being preached to by a fake person.



The leader of one of the largest sects in South Korea

And still, people flock to such electronic pastors. For example, in South Korea there is a pastor with artificial intelligence Awake. Every day, about 2,000 people turn to him. They say that such an AI believer removes the barrier to faith for those who are interested in religion, but do not dare to consult with human clergy.