Minnesota spiritual leader on AI's impact on religion

The line between the worlds of artificial intelligence and faith is continuing to blur. In September, the New York Times reported leaders from Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind Claude, held closed door meetings with religious scholars. The same group has also stood alongside Pope Leo, forming a historic conversation centered around AI ethics and machine consciousness. But as AI continues to become more human-like, where is the line? Could it one day gain consciousness or a soul? Or in the meantime, could it become a replacement for pastors, priests or other spiritual leaders? Professor Noreen Herzfeld has spent her entire career leading up to this moment. She has spent decades researching the connection between machine intelligence and spirituality, most recently at St. John's School of Theology and Seminary. "Well, things have changed vastly (recently)," Herzfeld said. "We look at AI and how it has the potential to infiltrate so many aspects of our lives. And