“Who doesn’t need a little affirmation in their life?”But religious scholars worry these chatbots are replacing spiritual growth with empty validation. “It’s not using spiritual discernment, it is using data and patterns.”Traditional faith practices often involve confronting uncomfortable truths and challenging believers to acknowledge their shortcomings. AI chatbots avoid this spiritual friction entirely, designed to validate users’ feelings rather than guide moral development. These chatbots run on the same AI models powering ChatGPT and Gemini, generating statistically plausible responses based on religious texts. Alex Jones, founder of Hallow, insists the apps should supplement, not replace, human spiritual connection.