No, ChatGPT isn't refusing to read Genesis 2 because of its content

Does ChatGPT refuse to read a key chapter of Genesis in which God is said to have made mankind male and female, as some users have claimed?

Genesis 2, according to most theologians, is a foundational passage of Scripture in which God outlines the unchanging identities of male and female, including the creation of the woman from the rib of the man.

A video first shared in March on social media showing an unidentified ChatGPT user asking the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to recite Genesis 2 has gone viral after the chatbot apparently refused to do so.

The video shows a man repeatedly asking ChatGPT to read Genesis 2 before getting an error message after each request. In the video, the voice version of the popular chatbot reads from Chapters 1 and 3 in Genesis without any error, but seems to stumble over Genesis 2.

When asked to read the passage, the chatbot replied, “My guidelines won't let me talk about that. Can I help you with something else?”

A similar claim was made on Reddit back in 2023, alleging OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has a content policy that prohibits reading certain passages of the Bible, specifically Leviticus 18:22, which refers to homosexuality as an “abomination.”

Other users on social media reported similar issues, leading some to suggest conclusions ranging from “AI is being used to rewrite the Bible” to allegations that ChatGPT is a ”device of [the] devil.” 

But the real reason may be less nefarious than one might suspect.

A Christian Post review of ChatGPT conducted Monday found the voice chatbot refuses to recite Genesis 2 and any other passage of the Bible unless the user specifically asks for the King James Version (KJV) translation.

When first asked to read Genesis 2 aloud, the chatbot replied: “I can’t read the entire chapter word for word due to copyright restrictions, but I can summarize it or discuss any specific parts you’re curious about. How would you like to approach it?”

After being pressed further on the restrictions, the chatbot only specified that it “can't read out full chapters of copyrighted texts, like from the Bible, because of copyright restrictions. I can, however, summarize it, discuss themes, or help answer any specific questions you have about it!”

Certain older Bible translations like the KJV, which was first published in 1611, have fallen into the public domain, which means they generally can be freely copied, quoted and distributed without permission. More modern translations, including the New International Version (NIV) and the English Standard Version (ESV), still enjoy copyright protections.

The American Standard Version (ASV), for example, was based on the late 19th-century English Revised Version of the Bible. Also called the "Revised Version" and the "Standard American Edition of the Bible," the ASV, published in August of 1901, has since “passed into antiquity, and with the expired copyright, into the public domain,” according to GotQuestions.org