LUCERNE, Switzerland (AP) — Would you entrust your deepest thoughts and concerns to AI Jesus?
Researchers and religious leaders on Wednesday announced the results of a two-month experiment through art in a Catholic chapel in Switzerland. There, an avatar of “Jesus” on a computer screen was forced into a confessional and answered questions from visitors about faith, morality and modern times. -Provided Biblical answers to daily struggles.
The idea, said the chapel’s theological assistant, is to recognize the growing importance of artificial intelligence in human life, even when it comes to religion, and to explore the limits of human trust in machines.
After the “Deus in Machina” exhibition was on display for two months at Peter’s Chapel starting in late August, around 900 conversations from visitors, some of whom visited more than once, were anonymously transcribed. . Project officials said the project was largely a success. Visitors often return impressed or thoughtful, and find it easy to use.
A small sign invited visitors to enter the confessional – chosen for its intimacy – and beneath a lattice screen where penitent believers usually speak with the priest, a green light prompted visitors to enter the confessional. The red light turned on to indicate the turn to speak. “AI Jesus” on the computer screen on the other side was responding.
Often a time lag was required to wait for a response, evidence of technical complexity. After leaving, nearly 300 visitors filled out a survey about the report, which was released on Wednesday.
About love, war, suffering and loneliness
Philipp Haslbauer, an IT specialist at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, who organized the technical aspects of the project, said that the AI responsible for generating responses is responsible for the role of “AI Jesus”. GPT-4o By OpenAI, and their open source version whisper It was used for speech understanding.
AI video generator Hagen He said it was used to generate audio and video of real people. Hasslebauer said no special safeguards were used because “we observed that GPT-4o reacts fairly well to controversial topics.”
Visitors brought up many topics, including true love, life after death, loneliness, war and suffering in this world, the existence of God, and even sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and the Church’s position on homosexuality.
Most of the visitors described themselves as Christians, but agnostics, atheists, Muslims, Buddhists and Taoists also took part, according to a project summary released by the Catholic Diocese of Lucerne.
Approximately one-third spoke German, but AI Jesus, who speaks approximately 100 languages, can also converse in languages such as Chinese, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. I was doing
“Devil’s work”?
“What was really interesting was seeing people really seriously talking to him. They weren’t here to joke,” said Marko, the chapel’s theologian who spearheaded the project. Schmidt said. Most visitors were between the ages of 40 and 70, and the report showed that Catholic respondents found the experience more exciting than Protestants.
Schmidt said AI Jesus, touted as a “Jesus-like” persona, is an artistic experiment to make people think about the intersection of the digital and the sacred, and how human interaction and sacraments He was quick to point out that it is not a substitute for a confession. Nor was it intended to conserve pastoral resources.
“It was clear to the public that it was a computer… It was clear that it was not a confession,” Schmidt said. “He was not programmed to give absolution or prayers. At the end, he gave a summary of the conversation.”
Since generative artificial intelligence captured the world’s attention two years ago with the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the Catholic Church, including the Vatican, has been evaluating the challenges and potential opportunities posed by the explosion of public interest in AI. I’ve been struggling with this.
appointed by the Vatican medieval franciscan friars Served as a top AI expert in the Lutheran Church in Bavaria Sermons delivered by chatbots last year. Pope Francis, in this year’s annual peace message, International Convention to Ensure Ethical Use About AI technology.
Chatbots like ChatGPT leverage algorithmic models trained on vast pools of text and other data to mimic speech and generate seemingly unique, human-like responses.
Hasslebauer is sensitive to public reaction, noting the chatter on social media about the project being “blasphemous” or “the work of the devil.”
“If you read the comments about this on the Internet, some of them are very negative. It’s scary,” said Hasslebauer, who features long hair as the basis for the image of a hypothetical Jesus.
During a technology demonstration at the chapel, Hasslebauer asked questions about “AI Jesus,” its message for a confused world, and whether AI can help people find God.
“All knowledge and wisdom ultimately comes from God,” the chatbot said in a soothing voice after pausing for a moment to respond, and the image briefly crackled. “If used wisely, AI can certainly be a tool to explore the wonders of creation, deepen our understanding of the Bible, and foster human connection.”
“Yet it remains essential that we seek God with all our heart and soul, beyond any technology,” he added.
both good and bad
Kenneth Cukier, a journalist, author, and expert at the US-based non-profit organization AI and Faith, believes that AI Jesus could help people connect more deeply with themselves and the world. That, he said, “must be a good thing.”
“It will lead to better individuals and a better world,” he said. “But there’s a big problem: This feels a little childish, pardon the mechanical pun.”
“The risk is that it ultimately turns people away from a more meaningful, deeper, and authentic spirituality,” says Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform the Way We Work, Live, and Think. said Cukier, co-author of . ”
For Schmidt, this exhibit is a pilot project, and he doesn’t expect to see the second coming of “AI Jesus” anytime soon.
“It was also clear to us that we had a limited time to expose this Jesus,” he said, adding that any return would need to be made after deeper thought.
He noted that the project had attracted media attention in Switzerland and abroad, prompting interest from parishes, school teachers, researchers and others, adding: “We… have to figure out how to bring him back to life. We are talking about what we can do.” “They’re all interested in this ‘AI Jesus’ and they want it. So they need to think a little bit about how they want to continue going forward.”
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