For the first time, a virtual AI-based chatbot preached to the faithful at a church in Furth, Germany.
The robot asked the audience to rise from their seats at St Paul’s Church in the city where the Protestant conference was held.
A virtual robot, personified by the avatar of a black bearded man on a large screen, began preaching to the more than 300 people attending the church on Friday morning.
“Dear friends, it is an honor for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year’s Protestant conference in Germany,” said the robot with an expressionless face and monotone voice. Associated Press.
The 40-minute sermon delivered by this robot, punctuated by prayers and music, was designed by ChatGBT with the help of theologian and philosopher Jonas Semmerle of the University of Vienna.
“I joined the process of creating this service, but 98% of it came from the device,” said the 29-year-old researcher in an interview with the agency, referring to “GBT Chat.”
The artificial intelligence church service was one of hundreds of events at the Protestant conference in Bavarian cities, including Nuremberg and neighboring Fürth, and attracted so much interest that people queued for an hour in front of the church. The sermon began.
The Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag is held every two years in the summer in a different city and attracts tens of thousands of believers to pray, sing and discuss their faith.
The event discusses current global affairs and solutions to major issues, including this year’s global warming, the war in Ukraine, and artificial intelligence.
“now is the time”
This year’s gathering, which begins Wednesday and runs through Sunday, is under the theme “Now is the Time.”
This mantra is one of Zimmerlin’s sentences when he asks “Chat GBT” to shape the teaching.
Simerlin said, “We’re at a church conference, and you’re a preacher…I told AI what would a church service look like?” At the end he asked him to add prayers and blessings.
And he said, “We ended up with a very strong serve,” and marveled at the success of his experiment.
The churchgoers listened intently as the robot told them to let go of the past, focus on the challenges of the present, overcome the fear of death, and never lose faith in Jesus Christ.
Some filmed the event on their mobile phones, while others were highly critical of them and refused to speak aloud during the Lord’s Prayer.
An IT woman said that she was excited and enthusiastic when she started the service, but eventually didn’t like it.
“No heart, no soul,” she said, “The avatars showed no emotion, no body language, spoke so fast and monotonously that it was very difficult for me to concentrate on what I was saying.”
“It might be different for the younger generation who grew up with all this,” he added, referring to artificial intelligence technology.
Mark Johnson, a 31-year-old pastor, brought a group of young men and they loved the experience.
He said, “I imagined it would be bad, but I was surprised by how successful the test was. Despite some glitches, the AI language worked well.”
But he noted a lack of feeling or spirituality when he wrote his sermons.
“Creator. Award-winning problem solver. Music evangelist. Incurable introvert.”
