A Southern California tech startup is using artificial intelligence to simulate one of the most revered figures in human history by offering users paid video calls with an AI-generated avatar of Jesus Christ.
According to a report from New York Post, the company Just Like Me allows users to interact with a digital figure presented as Jesus, delivering prayers, guidance, and conversation for a per-minute fee. While marketed as a tool for spiritual connection, many are concerned the platform crosses a significant ethical and theological line by effectively impersonating a figure Christians believe to be the Son of God.
The AI avatar is designed to create a sense of personal relationship, remembering details from past conversations. CEO Chris Breed has acknowledged the emotional bond users could form, saying, “They’re your friend. You’ve made an attachment.” But that very feature is at the center of growing scrutiny. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, this system does not merely provide information—it presents itself as a source of spiritual authority, potentially blurring the line between faith and fabrication.
The rise of so-called “AI Jesus” tools reflects a broader expansion of religious artificial intelligence, building on the popularity of chatbots used for therapy, companionship, and advice. Yet the comparison may understate what is at stake. While a chatbot recommending restaurants or offering productivity tips operates in a clearly artificial domain, an AI claiming to speak as—or on behalf of—a central religious figure raises fundamentally different questions about deception, authority, and belief.
Beyond ethical concerns, many Christians would view such a tool as crossing into outright blasphemy. Traditional Christian theology holds that Jesus Christ is not merely a teacher or symbol, but fully God and fully man, making any attempt to replicate or impersonate Him a spiritual violation. For believers who take these doctrines seriously, the issue is not just technological overreach, but a profound boundary being crossed.
Some developers within the Christian community are attempting to draw clearer boundaries. Cameron Pak has argued that faith-based AI tools must explicitly disclose their artificial nature and avoid misrepresenting scripture. He also stresses a core theological concern: “AI cannot pray for you, because the AI is not alive.” Through his platform faith.tools, Pak promotes responsibly designed applications, while warning that misuse of the technology could mislead believers or distort doctrine.
Scholars studying religion and technology say the implications extend beyond individual apps. Beth Singler of the University of Zurich notes that AI systems in religious contexts have already raised concerns about misinformation and data privacy. More broadly, different faith traditions are grappling with whether such representations are even permissible. In Islam, for example, long-standing prohibitions on depicting human-like forms have led to debates over whether AI-generated religious figures could be considered forbidden.
The commercialization aspect was also a major point of contention. Charging users for conversations with AI portraying Jesus introduces a profit motive into what is supposed to be sacred, directly contradicting Jesus’s teachings.
In Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, author Wynton Hall argues that artificial intelligence is increasingly encroaching on domains once considered uniquely human, including faith. He suggests that the tension between traditional religious belief and rapidly advancing technology is not new, but is now intensifying in ways that could reshape how humanity understands authority, truth, and the divine.
Supporters of religious AI tools argue they can make faith more accessible, especially for people who lack access to clergy or Christian communities. But even some proponents acknowledge that tools claiming to embody or directly represent a divine figure raise a different category of concern. Critics argue this risks exploiting desire for spiritual guidance, particularly if users begin to rely on the system as a substitute for authentic religious teaching or community.
As AI continues to evolve, the emergence of a pay-per-minute “Jesus” underscores how quickly technological capability can outpace ethical consensus. For many critics, the issue is not simply innovation but whether such systems risk trivializing, distorting, or even replacing deeply held religious beliefs with algorithmic simulations that carry the appearance, but not the substance, of spiritual depth.
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