a robot becomes a monk in South Korea

His saffron cape surrounds metallic shoulders from which emerges a head-screen, at the top similar to the tonsure of monks. Gabi, the six-foot-tall android, promised to be faithful to his monastic vows, clasping his gloved hands in a gesture of prayer, before receiving a rosary around his neck.

At the beginning of May, a South Korean Buddhist monastery “tonsured” the first monk of its kind. Along with three other metal classmates, Gabi then marched in Seoul, South Korea on May 16, 2026, during the Lantern Festival, marking the anniversary of Buddha’s birth.

The event is something to make you smile. As proof, the laughing faces of the real monks surrounding Gabi at the end of the ceremony. But above all, this communication operation pushes us to think. If the robot monk is able to answer simple questions about Buddhist tradition and perform certain rituals, should we be concerned that this would blur the line between machine and human?

We are faced with a cultural gap that the “globalization” of technology would quickly make us forget. Buddhist thought does not absolutize the person in the same way as the biblical religions, for which the human being is created in the image and likeness of his Creator (Gen 1:26).

The existence of robot monks is therefore less shocking to an Asian mentality. More than ever, this phenomenon calls on Christians to rethink their anthropology in light of the dazzling technical progress that everyone is facing.

This is precisely the reflection what does the new papal encyclical intend to formulate, Magnificent humanity, that your Pilgrim dissected in a special file and which questions our relationship with artificial intelligence.

Its title is programmatic: it is about expressing the beauty and singularity of humans within the created world. By drawing global attention to the supposed moods of a machine, the monk Gabi could well be the best ambassador of the highly anticipated text of Leo XIV.