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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Sinéad Campbell

‘Our assumptions are broken’: how fraudulent church data revealed AI’s threat to polling

Three teenage girls sitting and discuss the bibles they are reading
Stories of young people returning to the flock appeared to be confirmed by survey data that has since been withdrawn. Photograph: sturti/Getty Images

If you had been keeping tabs on the news about church attendance in Britain lately, you would be forgiven for thinking the country was in the midst of a Christian revival.

Stories of swelling congregations, filled with young people returning to the flock, spurred on by everything from social media to a rise in bible sales appeared to be confirmed by a 2024 report from the Bible Society.

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