In the Peter’s Chapel in Luzern, the Catholic Church has made it possible to go to confession, while you are interacting with an AI (Artificial Intelligence) Jesus. It is an avatar of Jesus that is sitting in the box next to you, listens to your questions and the avatar answers you, based on ‘intelligence’ it gathered on the internet. The ‘intelligence’ is based on a wide variety of sources.
The sources include Biblical, Christian sources, but of course, it will not neglect liberal theological sources, non-Christian sources and sources that interpret the Bible and what it says from a critical angle, as if the Bible is wrought with mistakes and half-truths. “Garbage in is garbage out” is very much applicable to this AI-Jesus.
This AI-Jesus is man-made, man-produced, and as such it has many features of what the Bible calls an ‘idol’. Instead of wood, stone, gold and silver, it is made of bits and bytes, information technology and algorithms.
One more thing that struck me: the avatar very much looks like a long-haired, scruffy Westerner. Really?
However, AI goes a step further than producing the information it acquired. It is supposed to be ‘self-learning’. That’s where it gets tricky. Not only for the AI-Jesus, but for all applications that use AI. Already for a long time, AI-specialists warn against the uncontrolled, unbridled use of AI and its self-learning qualities. Who controls AI and the ‘knowledge’ it learns? Who checks if this knowledge and its applications is something we want and wish to implement? Bits and bytes don’t have any morals, no inherent sense of right and wrong.
The real big thing about Christmas – you will have heard this last Sunday in church – is that God chose to become a human being. Not an image. Not an avatar. Not a 3-D image in the sky. No, a human being. Like you, like me. So that we have a Leader and Saviour who knows what it is like to be a human, but still reflects to us how God really is like.
In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Hebrews 1:2+3).
If you’re looking for a quick way to connect to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I won’t recommend you go to Lucerne. There are many other reasons you want to see Lucerne: Lake Lucerne, Titlis, Rigi, Seebodenalp; but not for the AI-Jesus. The distance to connect with Jesus is about half a meter: where your knees touch the floor.
To find answers to your questions, you will need to do some tough work: pray, dig into God’s word, the Bible, listen to the Spirit guiding and leading you and listen to good teaching. Do not trust in instant answers that are generated by AI-Jesus, because remember: “garbage in is garbage out”.