Taking religious vows

A vow binds a life to something for as long as the life lasts, which is why every tradition that uses them asks for a novitiate first and lets the person leave during it. In January 2025 two Vatican departments published a note on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence, approved by the pope, running to a hundred and seventeen paragraphs. It treats these systems as instruments and reserves for the person what is promised, believed and answered for. Machines already write homilies, answer doctrinal questions and lead people through prayers, and some of it is good. None of it is a vow, because a vow costs the rest of a life and there is no rest of a life to spend.