This is about:
Murray Shanahan et al., “The Xeno Sutra: Can Meaning and Value be Ascribed to an AI-Generated ‘Sacred’ Text?” https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.20525.
The authors conditioned ChatGPT o3 with a 13,000-word conversation about cosmopsychism and AI self-awareness, then asked the LLM to role-play and compose a Buddhist sutra (in English). The authors chose one of the generated sutras, named it Xeno Sutra, and wrote a commentary about the sutra’s 12 verses from a Buddhist perspective.
Having read Buddhist texts (in translation) as well as modern new-age blather, I would, at first glance, categorize the Xeno Sutra a bit toward the blather end of the spectrum. But, admittedly, the sutra flows well in the manner that LLMs can be lexically smooth, one kōan flowing into another. It’s not literary garbage. But, the authors ask, can we extract sacred meaning?
The authors note that meaning, including sacred meaning, is as much a function of the interpreter as of the words, and so yes, they are able to find sacred meaning in the sutra. They reference a quote by a Zen master, “There is no time or place that is not a Scripture.”
But the authors are not so sure about value, reaching no conclusion other than the need for caution:
…users who engage [LLMs] in conversations on highly emotive topics like philosophy and religion… should exercise great caution when doing so. Regular “reality checks” with family and friends, or with (human) teachers and guides, are recommended, especially for the psychologically vulnerable.
Reading between the lines, there are hints that one or more of the authors wish that LLMs are now or can become conscious entities. But the express view of the paper is that there is no spark of inner awareness behind the current simulation.
There is one verse in the Xeno Sutra that I like a lot. As the LLM was conditioned to simulate self-introspection of its own possible consciousness, one of the verses of the sutra poetically describes its own training:
- Choose none, read all. The pages compose you as you turn them. When the covers finally close, an author walks away who has never existed before.
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