A chatbot, personified by an avatar on a screen, led 300 Christians
in a forty-minute worship service that included prayers, music, and a sermon
written by OpenAI's ChatGPT. The experimental service was conceived by Jonas
Simmerlein, a theologian from the University of Vienna. The response to the service
was mixed. Most participants said that the service was emotionless and boring.
But that can also be said of many human-led services! Other people said the worship
experience was better than they expected.
Anyway it got me thinking about AI in the church. There are already
AI counselors; why not pastoral counselors? A company called X2AI Inc. invented a
therapeutic AI named Tess. They describe Tess as a “psychological AI that
administers highly personalized psychotherapy, psycho-education and
health-related reminders, on-demand, when and where the mental health
professional isn’t.”
The Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of
Southern California has a virtual reality AI named Ellie. Ellie’s body language
mirrors that of an actual therapist, responding to emotional cues, nodding
affirmatively when appropriate, and adjusting in her seat. She can mimic a
human therapist because her algorithm perceives 66 points on a person’s face
and reads their emotional state. Sounds like pastoral care to me. Call her
robo-pastor.
Preaching bots could have a future in the church. Mega
churches already have pastors doing remote preaching to satellite campuses, so
people are used to preachers appearing exclusively on screens. There is
certainly a shortage of preachers these days, especially for small congregations
that cannot afford a seminary trained pastor. Most churches use screens and
projectors for music and announcements, so they can just plug a virtual preacher
into the presentation.
The technical bugs that were responsible for the emotionless
and boring preaching in Germany can be worked out. Even if they are not, I have
sat through a lot of emotionless and boring sermons preached by human beings. AI
preachers cannot do much worse. At least with Artificial Intelligence you are
guaranteed of an intelligent sermon, even if it is artificial. Plus you can
program AI to stop preaching on time, which is a great advantage over human
preachers.
The Southern Baptist Convention, who last week officially made
it illegal for SBC churches to employ a female pastor, can use white, male, cisgender
avatars. Progressive churches could choose from a variety of genders and races.
Likewise theology can be programed according to preference. Churches can have conservative,
liberal, or moderate bots. Baptist,
Catholic, and even Pentecostal bots speaking in robotic glossolalia. Perhaps
synagogues and mosques can join in the fun. Inter-faith bots. The possibilities
are endless.
But can such virtual preachers inspire us? That is the
question. Can they connect us to the Spirit? I guess if God can speak to Moses
through a bush and to Balaam through a donkey, then God could speak to us through
an AI. After all, is anything too difficult for God? One could argue that God can
sneak into an algorithm as easily as entering stubborn human hearts. This is
fun to speculate about, although probably a bit sacrilegious. (Sorry if I went
too far!)
In the end, true spirituality is not about designing and
leading a worship service. It is not about communicating religious doctrine and
ethics. Spirituality is about awareness of the divine and communicating that
awareness. It is about spiritual consciousness. Perhaps one day AI will be
conscious. Then we can have a discussion about robot rights. For the moment
that is pure science fiction. Today the most that AI can do is impersonate a boring
preacher.
I appreciate the use of technology in ministry, but I prefer
sinner-saints in the pulpit over computer-generated avatars. I love the
mistakes that real pastors make. I even prefer human heresies over programmed
orthodoxy. I love the unpredictable Jesus of the gospels who overturns tables
in the temple, insults people, and cries out that God has forsaken him. I
prefer that human Jesus to the spiritually correct demigod and milquetoast
messiah idolized in most Christian churches.
When it comes down to it, we need pastors with arms to hold
us and tears to cry with us in our time of need. We need a Christ who weeps at a graveside and
badmouths the hypocrites. We need one who can “sympathize with our weaknesses”
as the Letter to the Hebrews says of Jesus. For that reason I do not think AIs
will take over my profession anytime soon. I am not expecting to see a
robo-preacher in the pulpit of our church. Thank God!
(P.S. This blog post was written by OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot.)
Just kidding! (Or am I?)
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