New poll out today. NPR and Ipsos. About AI spiritual guidance, and whether people actually want it.
Roughly three in five U.S. adults have used AI. About 61 percent. ChatGPT. Gemini. Claude. The usual names.
But look at what they actually ask it.
Among people who use AI, only 11 percent have sought AI spiritual guidance or religious counsel from it. Thirteen percent used it to write or generate prayers. Fifteen percent used it to study scripture.
Small numbers. And nearly seven in ten AI users say they would never seek religious or spiritual guidance from a machine. Sixty-nine percent. Never. That is the headline on AI spiritual guidance.
That tracks with what I keep feeling. People will try a tool. They still know the difference when the question is about God.
Who they go to instead of AI spiritual guidance
Ask Americans who they would turn to on a hard personal topic.
Family first. Sixty-six percent.
Friends. Sixty-three percent.
A religious leader. Twenty-eight percent.
AI. Twenty-six percent. Sitting about even with a pastor for likelihood, and way behind the people who actually know your name.
Three in four AI users trust people they know more than the chatbot. Seventy-five percent. Only 6 percent trust AI more. Seventeen percent say equal.
Only 29 percent of Americans say they are comfortable turning to AI with a personal question. Sixty-eight percent are not.
When people do go to AI instead of a person, the reasons are practical. Available anytime, 31 percent. More information than the people they could ask, 29 percent. Do not want to be judged, 23 percent. Can be more honest with the machine, 18 percent.
And almost half, 47 percent, say they simply would not turn to AI for that kind of topic at all.
Only 5 percent believe AI helps bring people closer to spirituality. Seventeen percent say spiritual AI feels fundamentally different from using it for other advice.
Full write-up here from Ipsos:
https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/most-americans-skeptical-turning-ai-spiritual-guidance
Related: It speaks one at a time · The grass is still green · No ruach in the machine
