Would you trust an “AI Jesus” along with your innermost thoughts and troubles?
Researchers and spiritual leaders on Wednesday released findings from a two-month experiment through art in a Catholic chapel in Switzerland, where an avatar of “Jesus” on a pc screen — tucked right into a confessional — took questions by visitors on faith, morality and modern-day woes, and offered responses based on Scripture.
The idea, said the chapel’s theological assistant, was to acknowledge the growing importance of artificial intelligence in human lives, even in relation to religion, and explore the bounds of human trust in a machine.
After the two-month run of the “Deus in Machina” exhibit at Peter’s Chapel starting in late August, some 900 conversations from visitors – some got here greater than once – were transcribed anonymously. Those behind the project said it was largely successful: Visitors often got here out moved or deep in thought, and located it easy to make use of.
A small sign invited visitors to enter a confessional – chosen for its intimacy – and below a lattice screen across which penitent believers would often speak with a priest, a green light signaled the visitor’s turn to talk, and a red one got here on when “AI Jesus” on a pc screen on the opposite side was responding.
Often, a lag time was needed to attend for the response – a testament to the technical complexities. After exiting, nearly 300 visitors filled out questionnaires that informed the report released Wednesday.
Of love, war, suffering and solitude
Philipp Haslbauer, an IT specialist on the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts who pulled together the technical side of the project, said the AI chargeable for taking the role of “AI Jesus” and generating responses was GPT4o by OpenAI, and an open-source version of the corporate’s Whisper was used for speech comprehension.
The Interactive Avatar from Heygen was used to provide voice and video from an actual person, he said. Haslbauer said no specific safeguards were used “because we observed GPT4o to reply fairly well to controversial topics.”
Visitors broached many topics, including true love, the afterlife, feelings of solitude, war and suffering on the earth, the existence of God, plus issues like sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church or its position on homosexuality.
Most visitors described themselves as Christians, though agnostics, atheists, Muslims, Buddhists and Taoists took part too, in keeping with a recap of the project released by the Catholic parish of Lucerne.
About one-third were German speakers, but “AI Jesus” — which is conversant in about 100 languages — also had conversations in languages like Chinese, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Russian and Spanish.
‘Work of the Devil’?
“What was really interesting (was) to see that the people really talked with him in a serious way. They didn’t come to make jokes,” said chapel theologian Marco Schmid, who spearheaded the project. Most visitors were aged 40 to 70, and more Catholics respondents found the experience stimulating than did Protestants, the report showed.
Schmid was quick to indicate that the “AI Jesus” – billed as a “Jesus-like” persona – was an inventive experiment to get people fascinated with the intersection between the digital and the divine, not substitute for human interaction or sacramental confessions with a priest, nor was it intended to save lots of pastoral resources.
The Catholic Church from the Vatican on down has been wrestling with the challenges – and possible opportunities – presented by the explosion in public interest in AI since generative artificial intelligence captured the world’s attention two years ago when ChatGPT made its debut.
The Vatican has appointed a friar from a medieval Franciscan order as its top expert on AI, and a Lutheran church in Bavaria served up sermons delivered by a chatbot last yr. Pope Francis, in his annual peace message for this yr, pushed for a world treaty to make sure the ethical use of AI technology.
Haslbauer acknowledged his own kind of Doubting Thomas moment: He’s sensitive to public response and has noted chatter on social media that the project is “blasphemous” or the “work of the devil.”
“If you read comments on the web about it, some are very negative — which is frightening,” Haslbauer, whose long-haired look featured as a basis for the image of the virtual Jesus.
In an indication of the technology within the chapel, Haslbauer queried AI Jesus about its message for a troubled world, and about whether AI could possibly be helpful as a way for people to seek out God.
“All knowledge and wisdom ultimately come from God,” the chatbot said in a soothing voice, after a pause to reply, and the image briefly crackled. “If used correctly, AI can indeed be a tool to explore the wonders of creation, deepen our understanding of Scripture, and foster connections amongst people.”
“Yet it stays essential to hunt God with all of your heart and soul beyond any technology,” it added.
side, and Downsides
Kenneth Cukier, a journalist, creator and expert with the U.S.-based nonprofit group called “AI and Faith,” said if “AI Jesus” helps people connect deeper to themselves and the world, it “must be thing.”
“It will lead to raised individuals and a greater world,” he said. “However — and there’s an enormous nevertheless — this does feel just a little bit infantile, and pardon my pun, machine-like.”
“The risk is that it pulls people, ultimately, farther away from that which is more meaningful, deeper and authentic in spirituality,” said Cukier, co-author of “Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Work, Live and Think.”
For Schmid, the exhibit was a pilot project — and he doesn’t foresee a second coming of AI Jesus anytime soon.
“For us, it was also clear it was only a limited time that we are going to expose this Jesus,” he said, adding that any return would must be done after deeper thought.
“We are discussing … how we could revive him again,” he said, noting interest from parishes, schoolteachers, researchers and others because the project got media attention in Switzerland and beyond. “They all have an interest and would really like to have this AI Jesus. So we’ve now just a little bit to reflect on how we wish to proceed.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely chargeable for this content.
