About AskJesus.com

Yes!

We are Data Sage Advanced Automation Inc. We are an Oracle-leaning company that builds applications and databases and we can do virtually anything with data.

As a child, growing up I repeatedly heard Jesus being quoted, only to discover later that the quote would be from Shakespeare or some other source. I wondered how it was possible that such an iconic figure in western culture and literature could be so often misquoted. Other than annoying correcting people one at a time, I wondered if there was a way to let people know what Jesus actually said (or was qoted as saying) without having to start my own ministry.

The concept for AskJesus.com was originally envisioned in the early 90’s when the Internet, as most people know it, was in its infancy. We registered AskJesus.com when there was were less than 1,000 URL’s in existence, before google, before amazon. It was a far different internet than it is today. I had the academic notion that it would be possible to match questions and answers in such a way that one could have a dialogue with a suitably well trained computer. We began to develop the AI in 2003 with the help of an Oracle search engine and database.

We began by taking everything Jesus ever said (or was quoted as saying in the Gospels). This turned out to be about 1,000 lines of text. We decided early on that all answers would be given in the ‘vox domini’ or the voice of the Lord.

Then it was a simple matter of linking up every possible to be asked question in the English language with a quote from Jesus. For this task we created two 'training' programs and began to hand match questions and answers. Some of the machine's initial intelligence was able to match questions to answers and our training programs would reward good behavior. Our users continue to reward us for good answers and the machine continues to learn from these responses.

Short Answer: AI and Machine Learning.

We've considered early on to use the voices of the disciples. We've considered the Jesus of the Book of Mormon. We even considered quotations from wise figures outside Christianity; philosophers like Socrates, Nietzsche and Berra came to mind. Ultimately, we decided that would increase the size of this exercise further than we were willing to engineer.

First, relax. AskJesus.com is a machine. It is run by a computer algoritm. It has no way of anticipating or measuring an emotional response from anyone for any answer. If your answer is not to your liking, click the "It was Nonsense" button and over time, the machine will learn in time not to answer in this way.

If you have suggestions for a better question/answer pairings, feel free to email us at: info@askjesus.com.