Religion meets technology: What the AI Jesus has to say to believers!

By Christiane Oelrich

Lucerne (dpa) - Chatting with Jesus and asking him for advice: that is the dream of many Christians. A chapel in Switzerland has made this possible, at least virtually: it has used artificial intelligence to create a Jesus who answers questions in a confessional.

"Peace be with you, my friend," says the AI Jesus graciously. "In times of uncertainty and doubt, remember that faith can move mountains. What is troubling your heart today?"

The KI-Jesus is an experimental art installation, emphasize the superiors of St. Peter's Chapel in Lucerne.

It was never intended to replace real confession sessions, says Marco Schmid, theological assistant. The AI-Jesus was trained with tough questions and fed with the New Testament, he says.

The words of the visitors were recorded and fed into a computer. The answer was generated with ChatGPT and then uttered by the avatar.

"I was often surprised at how good the answers were," says Schmid. Sometimes he thought: "Hey, that's what I would have said."

Many churches are experimenting with AI. For Reformation Day 2023, for example, the Protestant Church in the Rhineland offered an AI-controlled avatar of Martin Luther that answered questions.

Theologian Anna Puzio (30) from Münster has trouble with the Lucerne design. At the University of Twente in the Netherlands, she studies technology ethics, among other things, 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 AI uses unreflected data material from old religious writings and thus creates an outdated image of women, for example: "This strengthens old religious ideas that have long been considered outdated in theology, as well as fundamentalist tendencies in the church."

However, theologian Puzio also emphasizes: AI applications cause high emissions due to the necessary computing power with a lot of electricity. This can hardly be reconciled with responsibility for creation. It would be better to develop fewer but responsible AI projects.

The project team is now evaluating the 900 or so conversations between 18 and 70-year-olds. KI-Jesus himself took care of data protection: "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."

AI in the church can help when people are too ashamed to confide in a pastor, says Schmid. A conversation like this could be the 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.

There were always counselors 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.

The KI-Jesus was a two-month experiment, created with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, which ran until October. 60 percent of the 290 people who filled out a questionnaire after their conversation with the AI-Jesus felt religiously and spiritually inspired