Buddhism goes digital : new phenomena in the old tradition

The development of digital technologies and the Internet makes the information increasingly more accessible, which implies new phenomena in the sphere of everyday and occasional religiousness. The paper sheds light on some trends and potential threats to Buddhism developing online. Apart from the uncontrolled deluge of content labelled "Buddhism", used for commercial, ambitious and other purposes, as a serious, brand new problem the Author sees the gradual elimination of human teachers or even the human factor entirely, when it comes to conveying Buddhist content. The harbingers of this technological shift can already be observed in East Asia and, in the Author's opinion, the change, supported by artificial intelligence and deep learning, may present a considerable challenge for Buddhism, especially the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna, which are more flexible and adaptive than Theravāda tradition.The development of digital technologies and the Internet makes the information increasingly more accessible, which implies new phenomena in the sphere of everyday and occasional religiousness. The paper sheds light on some trends and potential threats to Buddhism developing online. Apart from the uncontrolled deluge of content labelled "Buddhism", used for commercial, ambitious and other purposes, as a serious, brand new problem the Author sees the gradual elimination of human teachers or even the human factor entirely, when it comes to conveying Buddhist content. The harbingers of this technological shift can already be observed in East Asia and, in the Author's opinion, the change, supported by artificial intelligence and deep learning, may present a considerable challenge for Buddhism, especially the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna, which are more flexible and adaptive than Theravāda tradition