The AP (Jamey Keaten) reviews:
Researchers and spiritual leaders on Wednesday launched findings from a two-month experiment via artwork in a Catholic chapel in Switzerland, the place an avatar of “Jesus” on a pc display — tucked right into a confessional — took questions by guests on religion, morality and modern-day woes, and supplied responses primarily based on Scripture….
[S]ome 900 conversations from guests — some got here greater than as soon as — have been transcribed anonymously. These behind the undertaking mentioned it was largely a hit: Guests typically got here out moved or deep in thought, and located it simple to make use of….
“What was actually attention-grabbing (was) to see that the folks actually talked with him in a critical approach. They did not come to make jokes,” mentioned chapel theologian Marco Schmid, who spearheaded the undertaking….
Schmid was fast to level out that the “AI Jesus” — billed as a “Jesus-like” persona — was an inventive experiment to get folks eager about the intersection between the digital and the divine, not substitute for human interplay or sacramental confessions with a priest, nor was it supposed to save lots of pastoral sources.
“For the folks it was clear that it was a pc … It was clear it was not a confession,” Schmid mentioned. “He wasn’t programmed to present absolutions or prayers….” …
“For us, it was additionally clear it was only a restricted time that we’ll expose this Jesus,” he mentioned …. “We’re discussing … how we might revive him once more,”
