Can AI Help Us Find God?

A Reply to Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen argues that AI will transform religion by deflating the value of religious information. When a chatbot can explain Vatican II better than most clergy, the priest’s “information premium” evaporates.

Cowen is directionally right. But he overstates the disruption because he overstates what clergy were selling. The information premium in religion has been small for five hundred years. AI finishes a job that was almost finished.