The oldest church in Lucerne, Switzerland, the Chapel of St. Peter, has transformed its confessional into a space for interaction with a digital Christ. The "Deus in Machina" project was initiated in August in collaboration with a local university's interactive technology laboratory.
“We wanted to understand people's reactions to an AI version of Jesus and the themes of their discussions,” says theologian Marco Schmid.
He notes that the team deliberated for a long time on what image to select for the avatar — whether it should represent a theologian, a saint, or an ordinary person — but ultimately decided on the figure of Christ.
To set up the computer equipment, the church utilized the space of the confessional. Visitors engage with the image of Christ through a lattice screen, while a system trained on theological texts generates real-time responses. Before starting a conversation, users acknowledge that they are interacting with a virtual interlocutor.
“This is not a confession in the traditional sense. We are not trying to imitate the sacrament,” emphasizes Schmid. The organizers ask visitors not to disclose personal information during the dialogue.
In two months of the experiment, more than 1,000 individuals from various faiths, including Muslims and tourists from China and Vietnam, interacted with the avatar. According to a survey of 230 users, two-thirds described it as a “spiritual experience.”
A local journalist who tried the system described some of the responses as “mundane and repetitive, reminiscent of calendar quotes.” Other visitors reported difficulties in having a substantive dialogue with the machine.
The Catholic community expressed concerns about the use of the confessional, and Protestants disapproved of employing religious imagery. However, the greatest worry for the organizers was the risk of uncontrolled responses from the system.
“Before launching, we tested the system with 30 people. We never noticed it saying anything strange. But we couldn’t guarantee that,” notes Schmid, explaining the decision to keep the project experimental.
The theologian sees potential in creating a multilingual spiritual assistant for answering religious questions. “People seek a direct dialogue with Jesus. They want to receive answers and hear his words,” he concludes.
Source: The Guardian
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