Monks and nuns from the Central Monastic Body of Bhutan will soon be able to explore their religion with BuddhaBot Plus. Trained on ancient texts, the generative AI chatbot is designed to disseminate Buddhist teachings through a modern yet faithful interpretation. Created by a team from Kyoto University and Japanese start-up Teraverse, BuddhaBot Plus was previously only available in Japanese. The English version was developed at the request of the Bhutanese government and will be rolled out in a pilot to 200 monastic individuals who will share feedback for improvements and help shape usage guidelines.
First announced in February 2025, the initial trial will last six months. A full roll-out to monastic Bhutans is expected by 2027. Depending on the trial results, the Bhutanese government will consider further expanding access to all citizens. The initiative could help modernize and democratize access to Buddhist teachings, combating a declining interest in the faith, especially among younger generations.
BuddhaBot's creators also aim to expand the chatbot's use beyond religious teachings into other fields of thought, including philosophy, economics and management. The team plans to start by developing interactive avatars of historical philosophers and saints, offering a more intuitive way to explore human history and collective knowledge. Time to consider how your brand could use generative AI to help people tap into age-old teachings and apply them to their modern lifestyles?
Beyond knowledge sharing, BuddhaBot and similar projects could pave the way for broader applications of generative AI in facilitating discourse between groups of different — and opposing — views. Initial studies have shown that a personalized chatbot is more likely to change someone's mind than another human is.
