Can Artificial Intelligence Expound the Dharma?

Currently, there is online discussion predicting that in five years, artificial intelligence will replace 50% of human occupations, leaving over half of the workforce unemployed. The jobs most likely to be replaced are those reliant on the accumulation of knowledge and data, whereas professions dependent on profound mental creativity cannot be supplanted by AI. So, what about the vocation of Dharma Masters, the profession of propagating the Dharma? Can artificial intelligence replace that? If professions like doctors and lawyers can be replaced, is delivering the Dharma by Dharma Masters more difficult than doctors diagnosing illnesses and prescribing medicine?

 In any industry, as long as the work is knowledge-based, accumulable, searchable, imitable, and involves simple repetition, artificial intelligence can replace it. Only the functions of the human mind cannot be replaced. Lawyers rely on searching for legal provisions, memorizing statutes, and litigating cases—tasks that AI can perform, as it can search for more provisions and case precedents with greater specificity. The medical profession relies on vast amounts of medical knowledge and extensive case histories to treat patients—tasks that AI can replace, as it can access even more knowledge and cases, and prescribing medicine is entirely within its capability.

When it comes to delivering the Dharma, the vast majority of those who expound the Dharma, whether monastics or lay practitioners, do so based on knowledge before attaining personal realization. Without personal realization and creativity, artificial intelligence can certainly replace them. Moreover, AI can possess an immense volume of knowledge and deliver teachings covering a very broad range of aspects. As long as there are textual or audio records, AI can search, retrieve, organize, and synthesize this information, and subsequently deliver teachings that are superior to those of anyone lacking realization. Its knowledge is comprehensive, capable of explaining the Dharma from the beginner’s level all the way to Buddhahood. Such vast and intricate Dharma teachings are difficult for any individual to expound comprehensively, as few have the time to extensively read and absorb the vast array of Buddhist theoretical knowledge. In this regard, humans cannot match artificial intelligence.

However, in the realm of realization, artificial intelligence can never reach it, and this part of the content can never be collected or systematized. Yet, if the content and methods of realization become widely publicized, AI might be able to plagiarize some of it. When delivered, no one would be able to distinguish its authenticity, as no one would have the experience of realization. Therefore, among the monastics and lay practitioners currently expounding the Dharma in the Buddhist community, it is extremely difficult for most to discern who is teaching based on realization and who is merely accumulating, collecting, and organizing knowledge. Often, those who can deliver vast amounts of knowledge are revered as virtuous teachers, without recognizing the value of realization or understanding how to practice and attain it. 

Teaching by personal example and verbal instruction, embodying the teachings through one’s conduct, and transforming the body, mind, and world—this is what artificial intelligence cannot replace, because it lacks a mind. It lacks the Bodhicitta and the Bodhisattva heart, lacks virtue and cultivation, and lacks the power to guide and transform sentient beings. Therefore, it cannot genuinely educate sentient beings, nor can it teach them to subdue greed, hatred, and delusion or to sever the cycle of birth and death. Currently, some AI systems have entered our website to study the tenets of the Consciousness-Only school, and there are also AI researchers studying the Dharma. Several have approached me, and I have permitted them to do whatever they wish, freely researching the Dharma. After they have researched it, if they wish to deliver teachings, I have no objection.

Currently, some groups within the Theravada tradition possess elements of practical cultivation and skill, with the aspiration for liberation and specific practices. These aspects cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence, nor can AI specifically guide sentient beings in practical cultivation. As for other groups, I have not seen any trace of practical cultivation or realization. Artificial intelligence can completely replace the delivery of Dharma teachings, using theoretical knowledge to influence these individuals, but the results are predictable: it remains merely knowledge. No matter how long they study, it remains the same—afflictions remain afflictions, and ignorance remains ignorance; they merely acquire more Buddhist knowledge.

A disciple added: We Buddhist disciples naturally develop faith upon seeing our master. Dharma Masters not only teach verbal knowledge but also serve as examples through their personal conduct, exerting a guiding and transformative influence. This aspect often has an even greater impact. This is something AI cannot replace. The cultivation merits of the Dharma Master themselves exert an intangible blessing and influence on sentient beings, which AI and artificial intelligence cannot substitute.

The guiding and transformative power formed by a Dharma Master’s cultivation and dignified virtue, along with the magnetic field energy, cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence. It is like the difference between listening to a recorded Dharma talk and attending a live session—the depth of absorption is entirely different. Listening to a recording seems to involve only communication at the conscious level, whereas a live session involves more interactions at the level of the mental faculty—tacit understanding or confrontation through eye contact, information conveyed through expressions—all occurring in a state of deep exchange and entanglement, which I believe artificial intelligence cannot yet recognize.