Robot preachers get smaller donations: How people interact with AI preachers

While AI technologies become more and more advanced, some things never change - people still like human connection more.

The emergence of AI and robot preachers offering new ways to share religious beliefs has raised concerns about their impact on reliability and donations for religious individuals.

Let's find out more.

Unusual AI preachers

Specialists conducted tests with the Mindar humanoid robot at a Buddhist temple in Kyoto.

Despite the sophisticated design of Mindar, which delivers sermons on Buddhist principles with humanlike features, donations decreased after its sermons compared to those given by regular human Buddhist priests.

A similar experiment in another temple using the humanoid robot produced similar results, with individuals perceiving the robot as less credible and contributing smaller donations.

What it means

While some participants considered robot preachers moderately credible, the majority still favored human preachers.

The testing suggest that while AI and robots offer new ways to disseminate religious teachings, human qualities and emotions remain vital for fostering credibility and connection in religious leadership.
 

• Related news:
• research
• trust
• communication
• artificial
• 2 August 2023

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