Bishop Theoktist proposes regulation of AI and its content

Bishop Theoktist of Pereslavl and Uglich proposed state and church-state regulation of artificial intelligence. In a Vesti interview published on October 18, he said restrictions should protect security and human freedom.

The bishop said Russian-developed models and neural networks used in Russia should be trained within defined limits. He singled out manipulation of human freedom as an area requiring restrictions.

Theoktist cited DeepSeek as an example. He said the model avoided critical discussion of China's policy towards Taiwan.

His proposed approach covers both the technologies and their output. He compared potential church assessment of AI-generated content with the Russian Orthodox Church Publishing Council's review of books, which determines whether church publications are suitable or recommended for distribution.