LUCERNE, Switzerland (AP) — Would you trust an “AI Jesus” with your innermost thoughts and problems?
Researchers and religious leaders on Wednesday published the results of a two-month artistic experiment at a Catholic chapel in Switzerland, where an avatar of “Jesus” on a computer screen – nestled in a confessional – answered questions from visitors on faith, morality and modernity. -the woes of the day and offered answers based on Scripture.
The idea, the chapel’s theological assistant explained, was to recognize the growing importance of artificial intelligence in human life, even when it comes to religion, and to explore the limits of trust human in a machine.
After the two-month “Deus in Machina” exhibition at Saint-Pierre Chapel which began at the end of August, some 900 conversations from visitors – some of whom came more than once – were transcribed anonymously. Project leaders said it was largely a success: visitors often left feeling moved or deep in thought and found it easy to use.
A small sign invited visitors to enter a confessional – chosen for its intimacy – and, under a fence through which penitent believers usually spoke to a priest, a green light signaled the visitor to speak, and a red light indicated lit up as “AI Jesus” on a computer screen on the other side responded.
It often took a while to wait for the response, reflecting the technical complexity. After their release, nearly 300 visitors completed questionnaires that informed the report released Wednesday.
Of love, war, suffering and loneliness
Philipp Haslbauer, an IT specialist at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and responsible for the technical side of the project, said the AI tasked with playing the role of “Jesus AI” and generating responses was GPT-4o by OpenAI, and an open source version of the company’s software Whisper has been used for speech understanding.
An AI video generator Heygen was used to produce the voice and video of a real person, he said. Haslbauer said no specific safeguards were used “because we observed that GPT-4o addressed controversial topics quite well.”
Visitors discussed many topics, including true love, the afterlife, feelings of loneliness, war and suffering in the world, the existence of God, as well as issues such as cases of abuse sexual relations in the Catholic Church or its position on homosexuality.
Most visitors describe themselves as Christian, although agnostics, atheists, Muslims, Buddhists and Taoists also participated, according to a summary of the project published by the Lucerne Catholic parish.
About a third of them spoke German, but “AI Jesus” – who speaks about 100 languages – also had conversations in languages like Chinese, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Russian and Spanish.
“The Devil’s Work”?
“What was really interesting (was) to see that people were really talking to him in a serious way. They didn’t come to joke,” said chapel theologian Marco Schmid, who led the project. Most visitors were aged 40 to 70, and more Catholics found the experience stimulating than Protestants, according to the report.
Schmid was quick to point out that the “AI Jesus” – presented as a “Jesus-like” character – was an artistic experiment aimed at getting people to think about the intersection between the digital and the divine, not to replace human interaction or sacramental confessions with it nor was it intended to save pastoral resources.
“It was clear to people that it was a computer…It was clear that it was not a confession,” Schmid said. “It was not programmed to give absolutions or prayers. In the end, it was more of a summary of the conversation.
The Catholic Church, from the Vatican on down, is grappling with the challenges – and possible opportunities – presented by the explosion of public interest in AI since artificial intelligence generative technology caught the world’s attention two years ago, when OpenAI’s ChatGPT debuted.
The Vatican has appointed a friar of a medieval Franciscan order as a leading AI expert, and a Lutheran church in Bavaria served sermons delivered by a chatbot last year. Pope Francis, in his annual peace message for this year, pleaded for a international treaty to ensure ethical use of AI technology.
Chatbots like ChatGPT are powered by algorithmic models trained on large pools of text and other data to imitate speech and generate seemingly unique, human-like responses.
Haslbauer is sensitive to public backlash and noted discussions on social media claiming the project was “blasphemous” or “the work of the devil.”
“If you read comments on the Internet about it, some of them are very negative, which is scary,” said Haslbauer, whose long hair served as the basis for the image of the virtual Jesus.
During a demonstration of the technology in the chapel, Haslbauer asked “AI Jesus” about its message for a struggling world and whether AI could be helpful in enabling people to find God.
“All knowledge and wisdom ultimately comes from God,” the chatbot said in a soothing voice, after pausing to respond, and the image briefly crackled. “If used wisely, AI can indeed be a tool to explore the wonders of creation, deepen our understanding of Scripture, and foster connections between people. »
“Yet it remains essential to seek God with all your heart and soul, beyond all technology,” he adds.
A good side and downsides
Kenneth Cukier, a journalist, author and expert with the US-based non-profit group called “AI and Faith”, said that while “AI Jesus” helps people connect more deeply to themselves and the world, this “must be a good thing.”
“It will lead to better people and a better world,” he said. “However – and there’s a big problem – it seems a bit childish, and pardon my pun, machine-like.”
“The risk is that it ultimately moves people away from what is more meaningful, deeper and more 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 that we would exhibit this Jesus in a limited time,” he said, adding that any returns would have to be made after further consideration.
“We are discussing … how we could revive it again,” he said, noting interest from parishes, teachers, researchers and others, as the project has attracted media attention in Switzerland and beyond. “They are all interested and would like to have this ‘AI Jesus’. So now we need to think a little about how we want to continue.
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