Church Installs AI Jesus in Confessional — What’s Next?
Movieguide® Contributor
St. Peter’s Chapel, a landmark church in Lucerne, Switzerland, is using a holographic Jesus in its confessional through means of artificial intelligence.
“Dubbed Deus in Machina, the project was launched in August and is set to conclude with a public discussion of its results next Wednesday,” Relevant reported of the project.
“The installation was developed by Philipp Haslbauer and Aljosa Smolic of the Immersive Realities Center at Hochschule Luzern, alongside theologian Marco Schmid from the parish. Visitors to the confessional are greeted by a holographic representation of Jesus, which opens conversations with a standard greeting — ‘Peace be with you, brother’ — and invites users to share their burdens,” Relevant continued.
The creators insist it’s an art project that encourages thoughts on religion and technology, but some believe its spot in the confessional is taking things a little too far.
“The parish has clarified that the hologram isn’t designed to perform the sacrament of reconciliation, but rather is there to encourage private moments of introspection and foster discussion about AI’s potential role in faith,” Relevant observed.
Despite being in a confessional, the church claims the experiment “is explicitly not a confession.”
“Do not disclose personal information under any circumstances,” visitors are warned. “Use this service at your own risk.”
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The bot can converse in 100 languages and is trained with Biblical and theological passages. Schmid notes that the AI responses could differ from the church’s teaching. However, the AI’s responses align with St. Peter’s theological views so far.
“The installation has sparked mixed reactions, with some praising its innovative approach to exploring faith and others expressing discomfort with the idea of simulating Christ — even if it’s just an experiment,” Relevant said.
“I’m glad the avatar still feels like a technical object,” Schmid said. “It’s not meant to replace real human dialogue.”
The Vatican is also exploring technology in the church. The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences held a conference on the consequences of artificial intelligence for the Church and society last month.
Lucerne’s AI experiment will come to an end next week, but the fascination with AI and the church seems to be felt the world over.
A Mexican AI artist recently created an image of what Mary, Jesus’ mother, supposedly looked like.
“The tech expert said he reconstructed the face of the Virgin Mary after she mysteriously appeared on a piece of cloth more than 700 years ago in Mexico,” The U.S. Sun reported. “Miguel Ángel Omaña Rojas, from Mexico, said he spent weeks studying the intricate facial features as they appeared in the original picture of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe.”
He used AI models trained to study large data sets of human faces and bodies to create a lifelike image of Mary.
“This is the most faithful approximation that artificial intelligence was able to carry out,” Rojas said in a YouTube video.
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