Magic or Mayhem: Translating Dharma in the Age of Intelligent Machines

Our Executive Director, Dolma Gunther, recently wrote a guest post for the Buddhism & AI Initiative on how we’re approaching AI in our translation work—and why it matters for the future of Dharma transmission.

Her essay, entitled Magic or Mayhem: Translating Dharma in the Age of Intelligent Machines, frames the conversation around two questions: What can AI contribute to Buddhism (in translation, preservation, access, study, and practice)? And what can Buddhism contribute to AI (to how we understand intelligence, consciousness, and ethical alignment)? At KVP, we’ve been working at the intersection of both—building custom AI-assisted translation tools while ensuring that expert human review and lineage consultation remain central to our process.

Dolma writes, “At KVP, the question we ask isn’t ‘Should we use AI?’ It’s ‘How do we use it wisely, without compromising what makes us passionate about the work in the first place?’” The essay explores how we’re navigating that question, why there’s urgency to get quality-controlled, lineage-validated translations into AI systems now, and how Buddhist philosophy is uniquely positioned to contribute to larger questions about artificial intelligence.

Read more about how we embrace technological innovation in service of the authentic transmission of the Vajrayāna tradition: