“The pastor is in the congregation, she lives with them, she buries the people, she knows them from the beginning,” Simmerlein said. There was no real interaction between the believers and the chatbot, which wasn’t able to respond to the laughter or any other reactions by the churchgoers as a human pastor would have been able to do. However, the experimental church service also showed the limits to implementing artificial AI in church, or in religion. “And that’s why it’s useful to learn to deal with it.” “Artificial intelligence will increasingly take over our lives, in all its facets,” Simmerlein said. Others would like to have more time for individual spiritual guidance of their parishioners, so why not speed up the process of writing the sermon with the help of a chatbot to make time for other important duties. Some pastors seek inspiration in literature, he says, so why not also ask AI for ideas regarding an upcoming sermon. Rather, he sees the use of AI as a way to help them with their everyday work in their congregations. Simmerlein said it is not his intention to replace religious leaders with artificial intelligence. “We have to be careful that it’s not misused for such purposes as to spread only one opinion.” “Also, we don’t have only one Christian opinion, and that’s what AI has to represent as well,” she said. This year’s gathering is taking place from Wednesday to Sunday under the motto “Now is the time.” That slogan was one of the sentences Simmerlein fed ChatGPT when he asked the chatbot to develop the sermon. They also talk about current world affairs and look for solutions to key issues, which this year included global warming, the war in Ukraine - and artificial intelligence. The convention itself - Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag in German - takes place every two years in the summer at a different place in Germany and draws tens of thousands of believers to pray, sing and discuss their faith. The AI church service was one of hundreds of events at the convention of Protestants in the Bavarian towns of Nuremberg and the neighboring Fuerth, and it drew such immense interest that people formed a long queue outside the 19th-century, neo-Gothic building an hour before it began. “I conceived this service - but actually I rather accompanied it, because I would say about 98% comes from the machine,” the 29-year-old scholar told The Associated Press. The 40-minute service - including the sermon, prayers and music - was created by ChatGPT and Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna. “Dear friends, it is an honor for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year’s convention of Protestants in Germany,” the avatar said with an expressionless face and monotonous voice.
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