The Xeno Sutra: Can Meaning and Value be Ascribed to an AI-Generated "Sacred" Text?

2025-07-28

AI Summary

This study investigates whether generative AI can participate in religious meaning-making, specifically examining the semantic potential of large language models (LLMs) to fabricate Buddhist “scriptures” and the implications for human value systems. Employing LLM-generated texts, the research conducts a systematic qualitative analysis grounded in philosophical hermeneutics and literary criticism. Results demonstrate that the generated texts exhibit rich imagery, intricate metaphorical structures, and profound philosophical reflection—semantic density that resists dismissal solely on grounds of algorithmic provenance. This work constitutes the first systematic validation of AI’s capacity to achieve semantic depth in simulating religious discourse, challenging the reductive assumption that “mechanical generation entails semantic vacuity.” It thereby opens a novel interdisciplinary pathway for dialogue between digital technology and spiritual traditions, while revealing the hermeneutic resilience and adaptive capacity of Buddhist thought in addressing emerging technological ethics challenges.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Artificial General Intelligence
• Natural Language Processing: Generation
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Procedural Content Generation & Storytelling

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic ramifications for generative AI infrastructure and applications

Abstract

This paper presents a case study in the use of a large language model to generate a fictional Buddhist "sutr"', and offers a detailed analysis of the resulting text from a philosophical and literary point of view. The conceptual subtlety, rich imagery, and density of allusion found in the text make it hard to causally dismiss on account of its mechanistic origin. This raises questions about how we, as a society, should come to terms with the potentially unsettling possibility of a technology that encroaches on human meaning-making. We suggest that Buddhist philosophy, by its very nature, is well placed to adapt.

Problem

• Can AI-generated sacred texts have meaning and value?
• How should society respond to AI encroaching on human meaning-making?
• Can Buddhist philosophy adapt to AI-generated spiritual content?

Innovation

• AI-generated fictional Buddhist sutra
• Philosophical and literary analysis
• Buddhist philosophy adaptation