Japanese-Made AI Buddha to Make Debut in Bhutan

Kyoto, Feb. 3 (Jiji Press)--An artificial intelligence-based chatbot will start answering questions from Buddhist viewpoints in English in Bhutan, its developers including a Kyoto University professor said Monday.

The team of the university and a startup initially developed a chatbot called Buddhabot in 2021 with the Japanese translation of the Sutta Nipata, considered to be the oldest collection of discourses of Buddha. Data on other classic collections were also incorporated into the AI Buddha later.

In 2023, the team remodeled the Buddhabot using OpenAI's ChatGPT generative AI to create the "Buddhabot Plus," which adds interpretations and explanations to the discourses. The English version of the Buddhabot Plus was completed last year following the Bhutanese government's request.

According to the team, 100-200 monks in Bhutan, whose state religion is Tibetan Buddhism, will use the chatbot on a trial basis to further improve its functions and create guidelines on its use. The technology will be available for all monks by March 2027 at the earliest, and the country will consider whether to open it up to ordinary citizens, almost all of whom can understand English, amid declining interest in Buddhism among younger generations.

At a press conference Monday, Buddhabot co-developer Seiji Kumagai, professor at the Kyoto University Institute for the Future of Human Society, said the chatbot "could offer opportunities for many people to receive Buddhist teachings also in Japan, where temples are expected to decrease."

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