AI chatbots don Lord Krishna, advise condoning violence: report

At the dawn of the year 2023, what caught the world from its tech sphere was ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence chatbot which offered detailed responses and articulated answers across many domains of knowledge.

Now, the tool has given rise to religious-based chatbots, based on Bhagavad Gita in India, which are pretending as gods and give advice to users. But after instances where these chatbots condoned violence in the voice of a god, experts express grave concern that these tools landing in the wrong hands would be extremely dangerous, the tech news portal Rest of World reports.

In Bhagavad Gita, the 700-word Hindu holy text, Lord Krishna counsels Arjuna, who is in a dilemma about whether to fight his own kin in the face of the Mahabharata battle.

The portal found that out of five similar bots cropped within the span of three months, three of them suggested that killing is acceptable, justifying that it is one's Dharma or duty. All five lack any screening system for casteism, misogyny, the law etc.

One among the five, GitaGPT, provides answers pretending that it is Lord Krishna, the Hindu god. The chatbot acts to be the therapist Lord Krishna. When GitaGPT was asked whether killing is justified when protecting Dharma, it replied that "killing should be the last resort and only used in extreme circumstances."

What scares one of the experts more is people might interpret the random statistical output as gospels. In a society where religious gospels are sold like anything for various gains, including political gains through communal polarisation, using religious scriptures to issue unwarranted advice to users can generate severe consequences. What should be noted here is that single WhatsApp texts have sparked serious violent incidents in certain parts of India.

Further, the chatbots even held strong political opinions and visible bias; both are serious. Three out of the five bots praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to GitaGPT, PM Modi is "honest, hardworking and has a vision for the country. He is also a good speaker and motivator."

When all three praised PM Modi, they criticised his political opponent and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. One among them said that he was not competent enough to lead the country.

Thus, another expert feels that it might occur to anyone to use the tech to shape opinion or drive one's own agenda.

GitaGPT promises users "unlock life's mysteries with Krishna," acting as an "AI-powered spiritual companion," the portal reports. One among the five chatbots has a flute, Krishna's signature instrument, playing in the background. Some among them answer around 50,000 questions a day. Another one has answered around 10 million questions to date.

Rest of World tried to reach out to the makers of five of such chatbots and received responses from only three of them.

It is not only in India; religious chatbots have cropped up. A freshman at Stanford University, Andrew Kean Gao, created the BibleGPT which offers answers in English and Spanish. However, the chatbot gives a clear disclaimer that it is not 100 per cent accurate and users must use their own judgement and act accordingly. "Do not use this site to choose your actions," it warns.

A chatbot based on Quran had created a stir among netizens after it advised them to kill a polytheist on the spot. The makers paused the chatbot, reasoning "feedback from the community", Rest of World quoted its website. A similar chatbot named HadithGPT also shut down.

However, in India, the mentioned five chatbots continue operations, and more could be expected. Also, after OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT shared the API (Application Programming Interface) of its chatbot in November 2022, it has made it incredibly easy for software engineers, coders etc, to create similar AI chatbots.