Artificial intelligence recently entered the Roman Catholic St Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne, Switzerland. Laypeople can confess to a ‘virtual Jesus’ there. But that provokes a lot of reactions.
Confession needs to evolve with the times. St Peter’s Roman Catholic chapel is replacing the flesh-and-blood priest in the confessional with a smart computer. Laypeople can communicate directly with a long-haired hologram behind bars meant to represent ‘Jesus’. The AI programme understands 100 different languages and responds instantly to questions. The artificially intelligent chatbot is known as Deus in Machina – god in the machine.
In the Roman Catholic Church, confession is still standing practice. Lay people are expected to confess their sins to a priest in a confession room, whereupon the priest imposes penance on them and grants absolution (forgiveness). In the sacrament, the Church communicates grace and forgiveness in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Holy moment
“When was the last time you were in the confessional? Have you had any stressful experiences? Now you can share your thoughts and questions with a heavenly hologram”, the Deus in Machina website invites people. A strong suggestion emanates from it. “An artificial intelligence that looks like Jesus will respond verbally and perhaps create a holy moment”, suspects Marco Schmid. He is a theologian at St Peter’s Chapel.
Yet the AI ‘Jesus’ is not meant to replace the confessional. After all, confession can only be done by a real priest. Visitors, therefore, only share their thoughts and questions.
Schmid called it ‘really an experiment’ in the newspaper The Guardian last month, an art expression the Church is conducting together with the Hochschule Luzern. “We wanted to see how people would react to an AI ’Jesus’. What would they talk to him about?”
The internal discussion was about the person who should occupy the AI confessional: a theologian, a person or a saint? Schmid: “Then we realised that the best figure would be Jesus Himself.”
Positive religious moment
Since its launch in late August, over a thousand people have interacted with the Jesus avatar. Two-thirds found it a ‘spiritual experience’. For Schmid, that is an incentive to continue with it. “So we can say that they had a positive religious moment with this AI ‘Jesus’.”
Swiss journalist Anna Jungen also attempted a conversation with the AI ‘Jesus’. “I start simply, with ‘Hello, Jesus”. He promptly replies, “Peace be with you, brother. In times of uncertainty and doubt, remember that faith can move mountains. What is distressing your heart today?”
She concludes that this ‘Jesus’ is certainly not omniscient. “He recognises my voice but not my gender. And what bothers me? I tell him about my challenge to write an article on an AI version of Jesus, addressing the question of what it means when religion and technology meet. AI ‘Jesus’ encourages me; at least he seems to approve of the choice of topic. “It is remarkable that you are thinking about the role and nature of faith in our modern world”, he says.”
Jungen finds the conversation with the avatar fascinating. “He answers my questions in a meaningful, empathetic and clever way. At times, however, he responds banally, exuding a wisdom that is sometimes more reminiscent of clichés than theological insights. It remains a machine, after all.”
Doubts
Schmid acknowledges that AI has its limits and raises ethical questions. He also has doubts about the learning robustness of the chatbot. It uses a large language model, such as ChatGPT.
The avatar is trained with New Testament texts and therefore well versed in the Bible. But the problem lies in the avatar’s theological interpretation of church writings. The internet is full of different interpretations of the New Testament that do not fit Roman Catholic Church doctrine.
Still, Schmid is not under the impression that the chatbot is saying strange things. But the theologian cannot guarantee that it will never hallucinate. ‘For that reason, I would not place this Jesus here permanently”, he says.
Criticism is also heard, even from Schmidt’s Roman Catholic colleagues. They protest against the use of the confessional because confession is a holy sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church. Protestant theologians find it unacceptable that a hologram of Jesus gives the answers.
The Lucerne theologian counters this criticism by arguing that the AI bot is “a very accessible tool” for engaging in conversation about the Christian faith. Schmid: “I think there is a desire to talk to Jesus. People want an answer: they want to hear His words and listen to what He says.”
Sacrilege
It is precisely the latter that intrigues Peter Biles, professor at Oklahoma Baptist University (USA). He calls it problematic when people start sharing their personal problems with a computer. “We approach our computers today like we used to consult a wise, spiritual counsellor”, he says.
Biles calls it “weird and even sacrilege” to call the AI chatbot Jesus. A computer cannot possibly mimic the essence of Christ. “This bot is not a person, let alone God”, he says.
He thinks the “Swiss AI Jesus” is primarily an example of an attempt to put the spiritual into a machine and then deal with it in an automated and mechanical way. “By calling this AI Jesus, it suggests that talking to a religious bot is the same as communing with Christ Himself. AI should then serve as a substitute for the voice of God.”
He stresses that Christians believe that Jesus is actually alive and working in the world “and that you can speak to Him through prayer”. That, according to Biles, is a better route than travelling to Lucerne to consult a Jesus bot.
Disgusting
“The whole idea of using Jesus as a chatbot is disgusting as far as I am concerned. It shows that the creators have understood nothing of Who Jesus is”, Marc de Vries, professor of Christian philosophy at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, responded.
To what extent is Roman Catholic doctrine to blame for this profane approach to the sacred?
De Vries: “It could indeed have to do with Roman Catholic doctrine, although in the Roman Catholic liturgy, on the contrary, God’s holiness is strongly emphasised.”
What will using an AI bot like Jesus do to someone’s view of God?
“Whether the chatbot changes people’s image of God, of course, depends a lot on the image they approach the chatbot with. For many people, that image is already pretty flat, and the chatbot will reinforce that. Those who have a biblical image of God will only be annoyed. There may be a group in between who do not yet have such a clear image of God. But I think many of them will sense that this is a very flat way of presenting Jesus.”
How damaging is it to the Christian faith to imitate the sacred with AI?
“It can certainly be harmful to mimic the sacred with AI. But I think it will mostly strengthen people’s perception of the faith they already had. Maybe young people will be interested in it, but mainly as an interesting toy. You understand that I find this objectionable on all sides, but I don’t believe people will be strongly influenced by it.”
This article was translated by CNE.news and published by the Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad on December 16, 2024
This post was originally published on here
