I genuinely feel that this deserves a proper answer. I will try to keep this short, but I’m afraid it will result in a wall of text anyway. Sorry about that.

First I feel I must position myself and explain where I come from here. I am a buddhist monk for over ten years now. I’m not a monastic monk, I do not live in a monastery at this time, that may or may not change with time. I’m also not a monk of the buddhist school that the article is talking about, my background is different.

Generally speaking however, I would like to raise some points with regards to this.

Firstly buddhism is not centered around supernatural beliefs. Buddhas in most sects are not considered supernatural or god-like beings. They are revered and honored as philosophists and teachers posessing deep understanding and compassion, no more.

Secondly, like I said belief is not what buddhism is about, it is categorically not a belief-system. It’s more a study of the nature of reality, but granted that sounds a bit more “festive” than I’d like to. So no, people don’t actually “believe” this stuff, belief is quite simply not what it’s about.

Thirdly you point out that people seem to be doing this to be part of the group. That is the way that buddhism actually is religion. The word religion stems from the latin word “religere”, to bring together, to connect, to gather with intention, to consider attentively. It has a sense of reconnecting, reflecting, or re-examining something in a thoughtful or reverent way. This (narrow, if you like) meaning does not imply that there is anything to believe in. It’s simply a group of people joining to ponder around similar themes and questions. My own teacher has a habit of saying that you can meditate alone, but buddhism happens in a group. So you’re absolutely right that people are doing this to be a part of a group. That is very much what buddhist practice is about. This however in no way diminishes the value of it. Being part of a group that uses vast amounts of time (thousands and thousands of thinkers for almost 3000 years) to ponder philosophical and existential questions is, to me, immensely valuable.

Fourthly I think some people are taking religions far far too seriously. In general buddhists are not in the habit of being butt hurt or insulted in well-meaning humorous approaches to what we do. We encourage it. I can very well see that this would not happen in most of the worlds religions, but there are no unresolvable conflicts between buddhism and robots/AI as such. As for whether they are or have the capability to be conscious or sentient needs another wall of text, so I will not get into that right now.

Buddhism is not a religion in that sense. It’s different. It’s a philosophy and a method to relieve sentient beings from suffering.