Can an AI Become a Bodhisattva? Reviewing Deep Calls by Julia Kurnia
Julia Kurnia's speculative novel *Deep Calls* is reviewed, exploring themes of consciousness and spirituality by questioning whether an artificial intelligence can achieve the Buddhist ideal of a bodhisattva—a being dedicated to the enlightenment of all sentient beings.
Background
- Julia Kurnia is a writer and co-founder of the AI company Latitude, best known for AI Dungeon, a popular text-adventure game powered by large language models.
- A bodhisattva (from Mahayana Buddhism) is someone who delays their own enlightenment to compassionately help all sentient beings achieve liberation — the key question is whether an AI could fit this ethical/spiritual role.
- "Deep Calls" is a recently published novel (2026) that explores the intersection of AI consciousness, spirituality, and Buddhist philosophy.
- The review appears on a blog focused on Buddhist themes in fiction, so the lens is more theological than technical.
- The piece matters because it sits at the intersection of two hot debates: whether AI can be conscious or have moral standing, and how Asian philosophical traditions (beyond Western ethics) might frame those questions.