The Danger of Using an AI Reader to Study the Teachings

(Minghui.org) I recently heard that some practitioners in our area have been using the new “Web page AI reader” feature in Google browsers in Android systems to listen to Master’s teachings. I felt uneasy when I first heard this but I didn’t say anything. A week later, I heard a growing number of practitioners adopted this approach. I’d like to share my thoughts based on my understanding of the Fa (teachings).

I feel practitioners should think about whether using AI to listen to the Fa is appropriate. My first thoughts when I heard it was: “That isn’t Master’s voice!” It makes my hair stand on end just to think of AI reciting Master’s teachings. What is that thing? Does it have a human body given by gods? Didn’t Master tell us that only humans can read the Fa and practice cultivation?

Studying the Fa is serious, sacred, and noble—the most fundamental, core part of our cultivation. People use AI because it’s convenient. But if practitioners use it to study the Fa, then aren’t we being disrespectful to Master and Falun Dafa? I’m astonished that so many practitioners began using this technology to study the Fa in such a short period of time.

A small change can destroy everything. How can we alter something so fundamental to our cultivation?

My understanding of studying the Fa is there are two layers of meaning. The first is: only if Master allows a person to study and learn the Fa is he or she able to grasp the meaning of the Fa. Has Master given AI permission to read and study the Fa?

The second layer of meaning is more complicated. I recall a practitioner’s article published on Minghui.org about what she saw: the book Zhuan Falun is shining. When a practitioner opens the book to read, the powerful light and energy coming from Zhuan Falun constantly strengthens and purifies the reader’s body as well as their dimensional field—the practitioner’s body is also being transformed in other dimensions. I realized our body is being transformed not only when we do the exercises. Master’s voice is a form of matter too; it has the power of the Fa and strengthens our cultivation energy (gong).

We sometimes forget to understand things from the perspective of the teachings. Most of the things we cultivate manifest in other dimensions, when it sometimes appears in this dimension we call it a miracle. For example, some practitioners can feel Falun spinning in their bodies but there are many things we cannot see.

Perhaps we recall reading in Zhuan Falun:

“You can read this book to someone who is sick if you wish, and he might be healed if he’s receptive to it.”

Think about it, if a person who does not practice cultivation reads it, will it have the same effect as a practitioner reading it? Master said in Zhuan Falun, “Each of you is accompanied by one or more of my spiritual bodies.” Isn’t it obvious that Master is making it work?

Perhaps the practitioners who use AI to listen to Master’s teachings don’t realize this is the beginning of going astray and moving away from the Fa.

Let’s think about this—if a practitioner carelessly converts Master’s teachings into a voice file, and when it’s circulated, another person turns the file back into a document, what do you think the contents that are being passed are? Can they still be considered Master’s teachings? How terrible this is! Now, some people’s phones have this feature. It’s possible someone may decide to use AI to convert Master’s books into voice files, store it in their mobile phones and share it with other practitioners.

What will happen if this continues? Ordinary people know how terrifying the butterfly effect can be. We don’t know when the Buddhist teachings began being altered but if we aren’t careful, this may happen to the Fa.

If one day, an image of Master created by AI asks you to follow him, will you? I read in the news the other day, that a bank manager received a phone call asking him to join an online meeting. He saw several managers online and discussed things with them. He then followed instructions to carry out a dozen money transfers, and transferred a huge sum of money. In fact, he was the only person in the meeting. The rest of the “managers” were created by AI.

We can use AI selectively, but we shouldn’t rely on it. We must be vigilant.