A church in Switzerland has experimented with artificial intelligence by creating a digital version of Jesus.
It sparked robust debate over whether it brought people closer to God — or was just “blasphemous.”
The 300-year-old St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne had visitors speak with the digital avatar powered by AI, inside a confessional booth.
It was projected onto a computer screen and offered advice based on scripture in more than 100 languages.
Participants were warned not to divulge any personal information.
“Many people came to talk with the avatar. There were young people, older people. People really talked with the avatar in a serious way,” said Chapel theologian Marco Schmid.
About 900 conversations were transcribed from the visitors, some of whom came more than once.
Nearly 300 of the visitors filled out questionnaires after exiting the booth.
The project leaders found that the experiment was largely a success, and that those who took part came out of the booth “moved or deep in thought.”
Visitors revealed they covered topics ranging from the afterlife to true love, to feelings of solitude and the existence of God.
Most of them, mainly between the ages of 40 and 70, reported on the questionnaire that they were Christians, but agnostics, atheists, Muslims, Buddhists and Taoists also visited the booth.
Many described the experience as useful, while online detractors dismissed the two-month experiment dubbed Deus in Machina as “sacrilege.”
The project was developed by a Swiss IT expert Philipp Haslbauer from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, who said he used OpenAI’s GPT-4o and an open-source version of the company’s Whisper product to power “AI Jesus,” according to the Associated Press.
Mr. Haslbauer told the news agency he saw chatter on social media calling the experiment “blasphemous” and “the work of the devil.”
“If you read comments on the internet about it, some are very negative, which is scary,” he added.
Bishop James Long posted on TikTok the experiment was “not sacramental” and “truly just sacrilege.”
Theologian Marco Schmid said the “AI Jesus” was never meant to replace a priest, but was instead implemented to get people thinking about the intersection of the digital and the divine.
