More than 300 audiences packed into the service by the first 'ChatGPT Pastor'
At a Christian church in Germany on June 9, 2023, a screen-projected avatar preached in words generated by artificial intelligence (AI), calling on believers to praise the omniscient and omnipotent God. . This experimental service is said to have attracted a great deal of interest, with long lines forming in front of the church an hour before the start of the service.
Can a chatbot preach a good sermon? Hundreds attend church service generated by ChatGPT to find out | AP News
Protestants attend AI-generated service in Germany-YouTube
At St. Paul's Church in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany, an avatar was displayed on a giant screen above the altar and delivered a sermon almost entirely generated by ChatGPT. A bearded black avatar addressed a crowd of believers in a church, saying, 'Dear friends, it is an honor to stand here as the first artificial intelligence to preach to you at this year's Protestant convention in Germany. I think,' but the voice was monotonous and there was no expression.
The 40-minute service was created by Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian at ChatGPT and the University of Vienna. ``I invented this service, but 98% was made by machine,'' Simmerlein said.
This AI service was held as part of a convention called 'Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag (German Evangelical Church Convention)' held in several regions of Germany. The biennial convention brings together tens of thousands of believers to discuss their faith and discuss important issues in world affairs such as global warming, the war in Ukraine and artificial intelligence.
The slogan of this competition is 'Jetzt ist die Zeit (now is the time)', and Mr. Simmerlein said that ChatGPT created a sermon based on this word. 'I told AI, 'We are at a church convention and you are a preacher. What will the service look like?' Other adjustments were made to the sermon, such as directing
The service generated a great deal of interest, with long queues forming outside the 19th-century neo-Gothic building an hour before it started. Mr. Simmerlein said that he was surprised at the success of the experimental worship service, saying, ``In the end, a fairly solid service was held.''
The service is led by 4 avatars, 2 young men and 2 women, and believers are taught by AI to 'leave the past, focus on the challenges of the present, overcome the fear of death, and lose faith in Jesus Christ.' I listened to the solemn words of Also, there was a scene where suddenly the wording became commonplace and invited unexpected laughter.
The reactions of those who attended the service varied, with some enthusiastically filming with their mobile phones, while others watched critically and silently as they chanted
Heidelose Schmidt, 54, who works in IT, told the Associated Press: 'There was no heart or soul. It was hard to focus on what they were saying because I was talking to them, but it might be different for the younger generation who grew up watching this kind of stuff.'
Meanwhile, Marc Jansen, a 31-year-old pastor who brought a group of teens from his hometown to the convention, said, ``I was imagining something worse, so I didn't expect it to go this well. I didn't expect it, the AI story was still a little shaky, but it worked well.'
While some have expressed concern about the use of AI in religion, Simmerlein does not believe AI will replace religious leaders, but rather uses AI to help pastors and believers in their religious lives. That's what I'm talking about. However, this experimental service also showed the limitations of introducing AI. Because there is no interaction between the believer and the chatbot, it cannot respond to the laughter or other reactions of the listener like a human pastor can.
Simmerlein said, ``The pastor lives with the believer, and sometimes he knows the believer from the time he is born, and sometimes he burials the believer.But AI can't do that.AI knows the believer. No,” he said.
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