Decades ago, Microsoft had an assistant for Windows who pretended to be Einstein. Now, thanks to AI it is possible to deal with another historical figure. A team of scientists and religious leaders released the results of a two-month experiment conducted in a small church in Switzerland, where an avatar of Jesus located in a computer screen (inside a confessional), answered questions about faithmorality and the evils of modern times, based on the Holy Scriptures.
The idea of the project called Deus in Machina (a reference to the popular Deus ex Machina) was to recognize the growing importance of artificial intelligence in human lives, even when is about religion, and exploring the limits of human trust in a machine.
A small sign invited visitors to enter a confessional, chosen for its intimacy, and beneath a lattice screen through which penitent believers often speak to a priest, a green light signaled the visitor’s turn to speak, and a red light came on when “AI Jesus” responded on a computer screen on the other side.
A wait time was often needed for the response, which testifies to the technical complexities. After leaving, almost 300 visitors completed questionnaires that served as the basis for the report published Wednesday.
After two months, Some 900 visitor conversations were transcribed anonymously (some occurred more than once). Those responsible for the project said it was largely a success: Visitors often came away moved or deep in thought, and they found it easy to use.
Philipp Haslbauer, an IT specialist at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts who organized the technical part of the project said that the AI responsible for taking on the role of “AI Jesus” and generating responses was GPT-4o from OpenAI, and was used an open source version of Whisper for speech understanding. A Heygen AI generator was used for the video part
Most visitors described themselves as Christians, although agnostics, atheists, Muslims, Buddhists and Taoists also participated. About a third of the attendees were German-speaking, but “AI Jesus,” who He speaks about 100 languages, and also held conversations in Chinese, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Russian and Spanish..
“What was really interesting was seeing people actually talking to him in a serious way. They did not come to make jokes – explained the theologian Marco Schmid, who headed the project -. Most visitors were between 40 and 70 years old, and more Catholics than Protestants responded that they found the experience stimulating. But You have to understand that this is an artistic experiment to get people to think about the intersection between the digital and the divine.not a substitute for human interaction or sacramental confessions with a priest.”
One example was when “AI Jesus” was asked about his message for a troubled world and whether AI could be useful as a way for people to find God.
“All knowledge and wisdom ultimately come from God – the chatbot explained -. Used wisely, AI can be a tool to explore the wonders of creation, deepen our understanding of Scripture, and foster connections between people. However, it remains essential to seek God with all your heart and soul beyond any technology.”