By Mary Kate Wilson | KUER 90.1 | Photo by Jim Hill | KUER

In many faiths, the Sabbath Day is considered a day for worship and rest. But for LDSBot, an AI trained on information from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it’s the busiest day of the week.

“People want to talk to LDSBot about a lesson they’re teaching at church that day or a talk they’re giving,” said creator Josh Coates. “Or perhaps they’re in a class at church and they want to ask [LDSBot] questions while the teacher is teaching.”

Coates created LDSBot in 2023. He’s a former computer programmer and executive director of the B.H. Roberts Foundation, a Salt Lake City-based independent nonprofit that supports educational programs related to the Latter-day Saint faith.

LDSBot is their most popular project. It reaches 1,500 users a day and has had nearly 800,000 unique conversations since it began. To create it, Coates and his team compiled a database of theology, history and scripture. When the bot, which was built using OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 model, formulates an on-demand answer, it’s reaching from that store of information.

The church has issued multiple public teachings about Artificial Intelligence. In June, it updated official guidelines for church-generated AI content. And last year, it published guiding principles for members.

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This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.