Welcome to Watson Theologica. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of the Watson Theologica application and website (the “Service”), operated by Watson Theologica (“we,” “us,” or “our”). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
1. The Service
Watson Theologica is a theological study tool. It answers your questions from a curated corpus of historic Reformed and broader Christian writings, alongside Scripture.
How it does that is the point of the Service. The sources are not invented, and they are not recalled from an AI model’s memory. Every quotation is retrieved from a fixed, hand-curated corpus and checked word for word against the original text before it reaches you. A response that quotes something we cannot verify, attributes it to the wrong author or work, cuts it off mid-sentence, or paraphrases inside quotation marks is blocked and rebuilt rather than shown. Where the corpus does not answer your question, the Service is required to say so rather than fill the gap.
Artificial intelligence writes the connecting prose that frames and explains those sources. It does not choose them freely, and it is not permitted to supply quotations of its own.
2. Accounts
You need an account to use the Service. Authentication is provided by our identity provider, Clerk. You agree to provide accurate information, to keep your credentials secure, and to accept responsibility for activity that occurs under your account. You must be at least 13 years old (or the minimum age of digital consent in your jurisdiction) to use the Service.
3. Plans, Trials, and Billing
- Subscription. The Service is offered on a single paid subscription, billed monthly or annually. Current pricing is shown on our pricing page.
- Free trial. Every subscription begins with a 5-day free trial. A valid payment method is required to start the trial. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, your payment method will be charged automatically at the end of the trial and your paid subscription will begin. The trial includes up to 50 responses (see Fair Use below).
- Renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until canceled.
- Cancellation. You may cancel at any time from the account panel inside the app. Cancellation stops future charges; your access continues through the end of the period you have already paid for.
- Payment processing. Payments are processed by Stripe through our billing provider, Clerk. Your card details are handled by these processors and never touch our servers.
- Refunds. Refunds are governed by our Refund Policy.
- Price changes. We may change subscription prices with at least 30 days’ notice; changes take effect at your next renewal.
4. Fair Use Policy
Your subscription includes a monthly allowance set well above ordinary personal use. To keep the Service fast and affordable for everyone, that allowance is defined by this fair-use policy:
- Each response the Service generates (including follow-up turns in a conversation) counts as one response.
- Ordinary use is expected to stay within 200 responses per billing cycle — well above what sustained personal study typically requires. The cycle is anchored to your billing date, not the calendar month.
- We will show you a quiet notice when you reach about 80% of your fair-use allowance. Nothing changes at that point.
- If you pass the allowance, the Service does not cut you off: you can continue at up to 5 responses per day until your next billing cycle begins.
- During a free trial, usage is capped at 50 responses total across the trial period.
- To prevent automated abuse, requests are rate-limited to 5 per minute per account. Human study never approaches this limit.
These limits exist to prevent automated or commercial-scale extraction, not to meter your study. We may adjust the fair-use thresholds with notice; we will not lower them mid-billing-cycle.
5. Acceptable Use
You agree not to:
- access the Service by scripts, bots, scrapers, or any automated means, or attempt to circumvent rate limits or usage caps;
- resell, sublicense, or provide the Service to third parties, or share one account among multiple people;
- systematically extract, harvest, or reproduce the Service’s curated corpus, indexes, or datasets;
- use the Service to violate any law or to infringe the rights of others; or
- interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service.
We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, including the fair-use policy, after reasonable notice where practicable.
6. AI-Generated Content
The safeguards described in Section 1 are real and they are enforced on every response: quotations are retrieved from the curated corpus, verified word for word against the original, and blocked from display if they cannot be verified or correctly attributed. What those safeguards govern is the sources — that they are genuine, whole, and correctly credited.
They do not, and cannot, guarantee that the surrounding prose is a sound theological judgement. That prose is written by artificial intelligence and may contain errors, omissions, or poor emphasis, and the selection of sources may be incomplete. The Service is a study aid: it is not a substitute for Scripture, the counsel of your pastor and church, or professional advice of any kind. You are responsible for evaluating the accuracy and fitness of any response before relying on it.
7. Intellectual Property
The Service — including its software, design, curation, tagging, indexes, and compilations — is owned by us. It incorporates third-party open-source software and typefaces, which remain the property of their authors and are used under their licences. The historic texts we quote are in the public domain; our selection, curation, and arrangement of them are not. You retain ownership of the content you submit — your questions and conversations — and you grant us a limited license to store and process that content solely to operate and improve the Service as described in our Privacy Policy. You may use responses for your personal, non-commercial study, teaching, and writing.
8. Disclaimers
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT RESPONSES WILL BE ACCURATE OR COMPLETE.
9. Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA, USE, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
10. Termination
You may stop using the Service and cancel your subscription at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access for violation of these Terms. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including intellectual property, disclaimers, and limitations of liability) survive.
11. Changes to the Service or Terms
We may modify the Service or these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes to these Terms, we will give you reasonable notice (for example, by email or an in-app notice) before they take effect. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.
12. Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Georgia, and you consent to their jurisdiction.
13. Contact
Questions about these Terms? Contact us at tom@watsontheologica.com.