The AP (Jamey Keaten) reviews:
Researchers and spiritual leaders on Wednesday launched findings from a two-month experiment by means of 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 based mostly on Scripture….
[S]ome 900 conversations from guests — some got here greater than as soon as — have been transcribed anonymously. These behind the mission stated it was largely a hit: Guests typically got here out moved or deep in thought, and located it straightforward to make use of….
“What was actually attention-grabbing (was) to see that the folks actually talked with him in a severe approach. They did not come to make jokes,” stated chapel theologian Marco Schmid, who spearheaded the mission….
Schmid was fast to level out that the “AI Jesus” — billed as a “Jesus-like” persona — was a creative experiment to get folks fascinated by the intersection between the digital and the divine, not substitute for human interplay or sacramental confessions with a priest, nor was it meant to save lots of pastoral assets.
“For the folks it was clear that it was a pc … It was clear it was not a confession,” Schmid stated. “He wasn’t programmed to offer absolutions or prayers….” …
“For us, it was additionally clear it was only a restricted time that we are going to expose this Jesus,” he stated …. “We’re discussing … how we might revive him once more,”
