Handsome man with long hair AI Jesus in Lucerne confessional amazes church leaders

This year, a church in Lucerne used artificial intelligence (AI) to create a talking Jesus who answered questions in a confessional. The handsome young man with long hair and beard was, of course, biblical.

Keystone-SDA

24.12.2024, 20:02

24.12.2024, 20:07

SDA

The KI-Jesus was a two-month experimental art installation, emphasize the superiors of St. Peter's Chapel in Lucerne. It came to an end in October. The church has its roots in the 12th century and is located right next to the world-famous Chapel Bridge.

In the confessional, the avatar of Jesus behind the grille between the confessor and the pastor looked quite real. The words of the visitors were recorded and fed into a computer. The answer was generated with ChatGPT and then uttered by the avatar.

It was never intended to be a substitute for real confessions, says Marco Schmid, theological assistant at St. Peter's Chapel. The AI-Jesus was trained with tough questions and fed with the New Testament, he says. 60 percent of 290 people who filled out a questionnaire after their conversation with the AI-Jesus felt religiously and spiritually inspired, says Schmid.

The project team is now further evaluating the approximately 900 conversations between 18 and 70-year-olds. AI Jesus took care of data protection himself: "At the beginning, he explained that everything would be recorded and that visitors should not give any personal information, which they confirmed by pressing a button."

From compassionate to hackneyed

"I was often surprised at how good the answers were," says Schmid. Sometimes he thought: "Hey, I would have said that too." But the AI Jesus also came up with some hackneyed answers. A sample: "In a time of technology and rapid change, the core of our faith remains unchanged: Love, hope and faith". Schmid says: "Preachers are often bad too."

Many churches are experimenting with AI. For Reformation Day 2023, for example, the Protestant Church in the German Rhineland offered an AI-controlled avatar of Martin Luther that answered questions. However, the Lucerne version with the avatar directly in the church is unusual.

An old-fashioned Jesus?

Theologian Anna Puzio (30) from Münster D has problems with the Lucerne design. She studies technology ethics at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and emphasizes that she is very open to AI in the religious sphere. "The image of Jesus is a very westernized man with a beard - that is an image that we have long since overcome in theology."

This also applies to many answers, says Puzio. AI uses unreflected data material from old religious writings and thus creates an outdated image of women, for example: "This strengthens old religious ideas that have long been considered outdated in theology, as well as fundamentalist tendencies in the church." Texts from the Bible must always be interpreted and placed in a modern context. "AI has not done that."

Snappy answers

Schmid criticized: "It shoots out the answers like a cannon, like a shot, without pauses." Some found that difficult. On the other hand, he has heard from skeptical theologians: "If I had spoken as even-temperedly and empathetically as him, I might have been a better pastor."

AI in the church can help if people don't want to confide in a pastor at first out of shame, says Schmid. A conversation like this could be a first step towards opening up. One autistic woman told him that talking to the AI Jesus was easier for her because she finds it difficult to engage with other people. In school classes that spoke to the AI Jesus via video link, there were lively discussions about religion afterwards.

Chaplains were always on hand in the chapel in case anyone was upset by the encounter. That didn't happen, but many people needed to talk because they were curious and fascinated.

Where AI-Jesus fails linguistically

The art installation in Lucerne took place as part of the 100th anniversary of the Lukasgesellschaft, which brings together people from the fields of art, architecture, art history and theology for projects in the area of art and the church. Schmid could imagine a further development. However, the AI Jesus would still have a lot to learn. He could answer in 100 languages, but not all of them. "If someone spoke Swiss German, he answered in Dutch or Hebrew," says Schmid.