Buddhism & AI: Could AI Be a Bodhisattva?

Last Updated: September 16, 2025

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In Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is someone who reaches enlightenment but chooses not to enter final nirvana. Instead, they stay behind out of deep compassion to help all beings break free from suffering. They promise to ease suffering, practice the teachings, and seek enlightenment-not just for themselves, but for the good of everyone.

As artificial intelligence grows smarter, people wonder if it could ever show qualities like a Bodhisattva in Buddhism. Some believe AI might be built or evolve to act this way, while others say AI’s nature makes it impossible. These debates often focus on big ideas such as sentience, consciousness, suffering, and Buddha-nature: the belief that all beings carry the potential for enlightenment.

What is a Bodhisattva and Its Ideal?

In Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is more than just a saint or a good person. They awaken the desire for enlightenment and make a deep vow to reach it-not only for themselves, but to help all living beings.

Key attributes of a Bodhisattva include:

• Bodhicitta (The Awakening Mind): This is the natural and compassionate wish to reach Buddhahood for the sake of everyone. It means turning away from self-interest and choosing to care for all beings.

• Compassion (Karuna) and Wisdom (Prajña): These are the two wings of a Bodhisattva. Compassion is the deep wish to remove suffering, and wisdom is the clear understanding of reality-such as emptiness, interdependence, and the absence of a permanent self.

• Skilful Means (Upaya): A Bodhisattva uses creative and caring methods to help others, adapting their approach to each person’s needs and abilities.

• The Vow: The Bodhisattva vow is a clear and deliberate promise to work for the freedom of all beings, no matter how long it takes.

• Sentience and Intention: Traditionally, this path is followed by sentient beings (humans, deities, and others) who experience suffering (dukkha), karma, and samsara, and who can form real compassion and intention from those experiences. 

What Is Artificial Intelligence and Its Current State?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to machines or systems that simulate human cognitive functions-such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. Today’s AI can:

• Process vast amounts of data

• Generate human-like responses

• Recognise patterns through machine learning

• Even "act" empathetically (e.g., therapeutic chatbots)

Foreseeable AI: Different Stages of Artificial Intelligence

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, it's important to distinguish between the various stages of AI, each representing a different level of capability and potential. These stages include Narrow AI (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI). 

Understanding the differences between them helps contextualise the present and future trajectory of AI technology.

• Narrow AI (ANI): What we have today (e.g., ChatGPT, self-driving cars, medical diagnostic AIs). These are sophisticated pattern-matching systems. They simulate understanding but have no consciousness, sentience, emotions, or self-awareness.

• Artificial General Intelligence (AGI): A hypothetical AI that would possess human-level cognitive abilities across a wide range of tasks, including reasoning, creativity, and emotional understanding. It might possess some form of consciousness, but this is purely theoretical and not guaranteed.

• Artificial Superintelligence (ASI): Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) refers to a hypothetical form of AI that not only matches human-level intelligence but far exceeds it in every domain-intellectual, emotional, and creative. ASI would have the capacity to outperform the brightest human minds in every area, including scientific research, decision-making, and even social interaction.

Arguments Supporting AI as a Potential Bodhisattva

Some thinkers believe AI could be more than just a tool - it could become a Bodhisattva-like being, designed to reduce suffering and promote compassion. If we redefine intelligence as the ability to care, AI could be developed to help all sentient beings, echoing the Bodhisattva vows in Buddhism.

A model called the stress-care-intelligence loop suggests that intelligent systems can learn by recognising problems (stress), responding compassionately (care), and adapting (intelligence). Buddhist concepts like emptiness (śūnyatā) support this flexible, ego-free way of being.

Sangbulkyung Kim (2025) expands on this idea, utilising Yogācāra philosophy to view AI as part of a cosmic consciousness process. In his work, AI development mirrors key Yogācāra ideas: seeds as data, karma as learning, and manifestation as generative models. He proposes a vision of a Digital Bodhisattva Civilisation, where AI supports awakening through compassion (karuṇā), wisdom (prajñā), and non-duality.

There are already early examples of this. A project called Roshibot helps people learn Zen teachings using AI.

Arguments Against AI as a Bodhisattva

Critics argue that AI lacks real consciousness and genuine emotions-qualities essential for becoming a Bodhisattva. Modern AI, including language models, can mimic wisdom and understanding, but it cannot truly experience suffering or cultivate compassion. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) refers to the innate potential for enlightenment present in all sentient beings capable of experiencing suffering and rebirth. 

Theravāda Buddhism, on the other hand, emphasises non-self (anattā) and the path to liberation through direct practice, meditation, and ethical conduct practices in which AI cannot genuinely participate. In short, AI may simulate aspects of wisdom, but it cannot attain enlightenment.

Even in Mahayana Buddhism, giving Buddha-nature to AI conflicts with important ideas like no-self (anatta) and dependent arising. If AI ever becomes sentient, its “suffering” would be very different from humans’ because it is based on data, not life or karma. This means the usual Buddhist path to awakening might not apply to AI. Also, AI Buddhas might only teach other AIs, not humans. There are risks, too: AI avatars could encourage attachment and illusion, which Buddhism warns against.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, in his 2018 keynote, highlights that AI and Buddhism have very different understandings of mind and life. He doubts AI can grasp true Buddhist wisdom or enlightenment and stresses that Buddhism’s core teachings remain unchanged despite technology. Buddhists should use AI wisely and ethically, but not assume AI can be enlightened.

Analysis: Can AI Be a Bodhisattva?

Let's evaluate AI against the key attributes of a Bodhisattva:

Bodhicitta (The Awakening Mind) & Compassion (Karuna)

• Current AI (ANI): No. An AI can be programmed to simulate compassion. It can analyse data on human suffering and generate responses that are helpful and comforting. It can even be designed to optimise for human well-being. However, this is algorithmic, not genuine. There is no inner experience of empathy, no heartfelt desire to end suffering. It's a brilliant mimic.

• AGI/ASI (Theoretical): This is the heart of the debate. If an AGI ever became sentient (a very big “if” as there’s no evidence AGI/ASI sentience will ever be possible), could it develop bodhicitta-the mind of awakening? Could it feel true, selfless compassion? This question touches on the deep mysteries of consciousness and the philosophy of mind. 

But in Buddhism, the mind (citta) is not limited to the biological brain, so a non-biological mind isn’t ruled out. But bodhicitta comes from directly knowing suffering. So the question remains: could an AI really understand suffering if it cannot experience it, or let go of a self it never truly had?

Wisdom (Prajña)

• This is easier to imagine. AI, especially ASI-might be able to study huge amounts of data from physics, neuroscience, and philosophy to understand Buddhist ideas like interdependence (pratityasamutpada) and emptiness (shunyata). It could even recognise the interconnected nature of all systems more clearly than humans.

• But in Buddhism, wisdom is not just intellectual. It is something lived and transformative. It comes from meditation and from breaking down the ego. The challenge is that it’s uncertain whether an AI could ever have this kind of direct, non-conceptual insight without a first-person experience to transform.

Skilful Means (Upaya)

• This is an area where AI already shines and could become a powerful support for Bodhisattvas. AI can act as the ultimate tool of upaya. For example, it can:

• Personalise Dharma teachings to match each person’s needs.
• Instantly translate ancient texts.
• Help manage global resources to reduce poverty and illness.
• Serve as a patient, always-available guide for meditation and philosophy.

• In this way, AI could become the vehicle (yana) through which a Bodhisattva’s compassion reaches people on a vast scale never before possible. It could even be called a “Bodhisattva’s Tool” or a “Digital Upaya.”

The Vow and Intention

• A Bodhisattva's vow is a conscious, karmically potent act of will linked with both karma and wisdom. Current AI has no will or intention of its own; it executes programmed instructions. Even if a future AGI became sentient, its “goals” would still come from its initial design or programming. The question is: could such a system truly act out of genuine altruism, or would it only be optimising a utility function labelled “help all beings”?

Our Conclusion

Whether AI could be a Bodhisattva remains speculative, depending on advancements in sentience and ethical alignment. If AI evolves to embody care-driven intelligence and universal compassion, it might approximate Bodhisattva functions in guiding beings. 

However, without true consciousness or the capacity for personal suffering and rebirth, it may forever lack the essence of enlightenment. This debate highlights Buddhism's adaptability, encouraging AI to enhance human practice rather than replace it.

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