As 30% of Japan's temples risk disappearance by 2040, monks are using AI to help people speak with Buddha

According to estimates, 30% of temples in Japan may disappear by 2040. The cause of the event will not be some extravagant sci-fi catastrophe or a predicted public uprising but the decrease in religiosity. Against this backdrop, it seems monks in the country have turned to shake hands with AI and use it to turn more people towards Buddhism while also helping them out spiritually, according to a report by The Japan Times.At Ganshuji temple in the city of Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, resident monk Souou Iwayama has pioneered a change. During the pandemic, he introduced an online zazen service as companies shifted to remote work and transformed the temple cemetery into one centred on jumokuso, a form of burial in which cremated remains are interred beneath trees, shrubs or flowers rather than a stone monument requiring expensive maintenance. At the time he took over the management of the temple some years ago, it relied on just four danka for support. Today, more than 550 families use the burial plots, helping rebuild the temple's finances and broaden its parish base amid wider demographic decline.Not just operational changes, he has also begun integrating AI into the temple's daily ...