「Buddhism rejects modern science and artificial intelligence (AI) because they represent worldly technology, materialism, and a threat to spirituality.」

This claim understandable arises from a desire to preserve human dignity and spiritual depth against mechanical reductionism. However, it conflates traditional Buddhist critique of spiritual blindness with a rejection of physical tools. Buddhism opposes neither empirical observation nor mechanical innovation. Rather, it cautions against taking conditioned mental constructs, scientific models, or artificial agents as ultimate reality or absolute selves.

Scriptures clarify that material innovations are conditioned phenomena, while ultimate truth transcends physical and conceptual constructs. In the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, the Buddha explains that analytical conceptualization deals only with domain-specific signs, whereas ultimate reality is realized internally by the sages [Source 3]. Furthermore, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra compares complex worldly constructs—including mechanisms and artificial forms—to puppetry and magical illusions: they operate through an aggregation of causes and conditions ('like mechanisms set in motion'), yet lack an independent self [Source 6]. The Samyutta Nikāya (SA 1202) similarly illustrates that just as a collection of parts is called a chariot, conditioned aggregates are merely conventionally called a living being [Source 4]. Buddhism does not denounce the mechanism itself; it simply warns against projecting an inherent 'self' or ultimate truth onto temporary combinations.

It's completely natural to wonder if modern technologies like AI conflict with ancient spiritual paths. However, Buddhism doesn't oppose science or AI; it simply reminds us not to mistake the tool for ultimate truth. Just as a chariot is a functional combination of parts without a soul of its own, technologies and concepts are useful conditioned tools, not ultimate realities. Buddhism encourages us to use scientific tools to help others, while maintaining the wisdom to look beyond external constructs.