By Jonah McKeown

CNA Staff, November 21, 2024 / 3:50 p.m.

Many reports In recent days, it has been reported that a new artificially intelligent “Jesus” has begun take people’s confessions in a Catholic church in Switzerland.

Claim: A holographic “AI Jesus” was created and deployed in a chapel in Switzerland specifically to hear confessions.

AIIC notes: St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne, a historic parish church, recently installed “an innovative project that explores the use of virtual characters based on generative artificial intelligence in a spiritual context” in collaboration with the Research laboratory on immersive realities at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences.

The AI ​​program was reportedly trained with content from the New Testament, with the aim of allowing the “Jesus” avatar to respond verbally, in one of 100 languages, to questions about the Bible posed by people entering in the confessional.

(Many reports describe the “Jesus” avatar as a “hologram,” which is a 3D projection created with lasers; but a study by Deutsche Welle video of the installation in action showed the artificial face of “Jesus” simply appearing on a curved computer screen behind the confessional screen.)

The installation is titled “Deus in Machina” (a Latin phrase meaning “God in the machine” and a pun on the most commonly used literary expression). “Deus ex machina”). A announcement of the lab said the project, described as an “art exhibition,” “encourages reflection on the limits of technology in the context of religion.”

The distribution: Although it is placed in the confessional, the parish notes on its website that the AI ​​installation is for conversations and not confessions. Confession, also called penance or reconciliation, is one of the seven sacraments of the Church and can only be performed by a priest or bishop, and never in a virtual setting.

A theologian from the Swiss parish said the project also aims to help religious people familiarize themselves with AI. said he sees the potential of AI to help the pastoral work of priests, given that AI can be available at any time, “24 hours a day, so it has capabilities that pastors don’t have.”

Peter Kirchschläger, an expert in theological ethics, responded to Deutsche Welle to the theologian’s comments that “we must be careful when it comes to faith, pastoral care and the search for meaning in religion. This is an area where we humans are actually vastly superior to machines. So we should do it ourselves.

The Swiss artistic project is the latest a series of attempts – including an adoption of technology in the Vatican itself – to make AI work in the service of the Catholic faith, which has yielded mixed results so far.

CatéGPTFor example, an artificial intelligence chatbot designed by another Swiss, engineer Nicolas Torcheboeuf, aims to provide answers to questions about Catholic teaching based on authoritative documents. Other similar AI-based services have gained popularity, such as the American service Magisterium AI.

Less successful was an AI “priest” created and unveiled earlier this year by California-based apologetic apostolate Catholic Answers. critical by some users for his priestly avatar resembling a video game. Additionally, at least one user managed to trick the priest character into hearing his confession, prompting a statement from the apostleship in which he promised to replace the priest character with a lay character named “Justin”.

The verdict: The “AI Jesus” project exists, but it does not aim to hear people’s confessions, nor to replace a priest. Rather, it is an art exhibition created by researchers at a local technical university in concert with theologians who say they want to raise questions about the use of technology in religious contexts and demonstrate the capacity of AI to answer questions about the Bible.

We evaluate this statement misleading.

Jonah McKeown is an editor and podcast producer for the Catholic News Agency. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has worked as a writer, public radio producer and videographer. He is based in St. Louis.