The Xeno Sutra: Can Meaning and Value be Ascribed to an AI-Generated "Sacred" Text?

TL;DR

This paper explores whether AI-generated texts can be ascribed meaning and value by analyzing a fictional Buddhist sutra created by a large language model, raising philosophical questions about technology and human meaning.

Contribution

It presents a detailed philosophical and literary analysis of an AI-generated sutra, highlighting its conceptual richness and implications for societal understanding of AI.

Findings

AI-generated text exhibits rich imagery and allusion.

The text challenges dismissals based on mechanistic origin.

Buddhist philosophy may adapt to interpret AI-generated content.

Abstract

This paper presents a case study in the use of a large language model to generate a fictional Buddhist "sutra"', and offers a detailed analysis of the resulting text from a philosophical and literary point of view. The conceptual subtlety, rich imagery, and density of allusion found in the text make it hard to causally dismiss on account of its mechanistic origin. This raises questions about how we, as a society, should come to terms with the potentially unsettling possibility of a technology that encroaches on human meaning-making. We suggest that Buddhist philosophy, by its very nature, is well placed to adapt.