At a recent church service led by artificial intelligence ChatGPT, hundreds of people attended.
An AI chatbot recently became the first to hold a church service in place of a human minister, and hundreds of people were in attendance.
In the Bavarian town of Fuerth, the congregation at St. Paul’s church attended the service.
The ChatGPT AI chatbot addressed a full house at St. Paul’s, represented by an avatar on a massive screen over the altar, which looked like a Black man. The artificial intelligence started preaching to the over 300 people who showed up to the experimental Lutheran church service on Friday morning. Nearly the entire service was generated using the technology.
“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,” said the avatar, while speaking in a monotonous voice and without facial expression.
The AI chatbot’s service ran for 40 minutes and included prayers, a sermon and music.
The service was created by University of Vienna theologian and philosopher Jonas Simmerlein, who used ChatGPT
“I conceived this service – but actually I rather accompanied it, because I would say about 98 per cent comes from the machine,” said Simmerlein in a recent The Associated Press article.
The event drew massive attention from people around the Bavarian towns of Nuremberg and Fuerth, leading to a massive lineup outside the 19th century neogothic structure an hour before the service was to start.
The service was only one of hundreds of events at the convention of Protestants (called Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag) in the towns every two years. The convention usually draws tens of thousands of people to the region, but this technological experiment was certainly a highlight at this most recent event.
The motto of the convention this year was “Now is the time”. Simmerlein fed that motto to ChatGPT when he asked the AI chatbot to develop the sermon for the St. Paul’s congregation.
“I told the artificial intelligence `We are at the church congress, you are a preacher, what would a church service look like?’,” said Simmerlain, who also requested the inclusion of psalms, prayers, and a blessing at the end.
