Japanese-made AI Buddha to make debut in Bhutan

An artificial intelligence-based chatbot will start answering questions from a Buddhist viewpoint in English in Bhutan, its developers including a Kyoto University professor said Monday. The team of the university and a startup initially developed a chatbot called Buddhabot in 2021 with the Japanese translation of the Sutta Nipata, considered to be the oldest collection of discourses of Buddha. Data on other classic collections were also incorporated into the AI Buddha later. In 2023, the team remodeled the Buddhabot using OpenAI's ChatGPT generative AI to create Buddhabot Plus, which adds interpretations and explanations to the discourses. The English version of Buddhabot Plus was completed last year following the Bhutanese government's request.