a digital Jesus ‘confesses’ 900 visitors – Swiss Catholic Portal

«Will I ever find true love?” «What happens after death?« – «Have I done enough to get to heaven?« These are some of the questions asked the digital avatar of Jesus placed behind the grille of a confessional in the Saint-Pierre chapel in Lucerne.

Wolfgang Holzkath.ch / translation adaptation Maurice Page

In two months of operation, from August to the end of October 2024, the artistic installation Deus in Machina in the chapel of the old town of Lucerne found its audience. No less than 900 people came to question the digital Jesus installed in the confessional. A symposium, organized on site on November 27, 2024, made it possible to present the first lessons of this theological-artistic experience.

“Will I ever find true love?” – “How can I show my love better?” – “What happens after death?” – “Have I done enough to get to heaven?” – “Why is there so much suffering in the world?” – “What should I do if I feel lost?” – “How to find God’s love?” – “Does God really exist?”

These are questions of this kind, existential, religious and spiritual, that the approximately 900 visitors to the chapel of Saint Peter in Lucerne asked the digital avatar of Jesus. Until the end of October, the experimental and participatory art installation Deus in Machina was presented there in collaboration with the University of Lucerne.

love, life, death

These ‘interviews’ showed that the main themes discussed remain love, relationships, death, solitude and peace. For the organizers, it was a purely artistic experience that explored the interaction between technology and spirituality, without ever claiming to replace the sacrament of reconciliation. But the participants spoke with the “AI Jesus” about their deepest worries, their hopes and also questions of faith.

According to the transcripts, visitors often took leave with expressions of thanks, underscoring the emotional resonance of the project. The installation attracted not only believers, but also atheists and agnostics.

Inspiring and respectful

At the end of the confessional, people were offered a brief questionnaire on their experience. Many interviewees indicated that they found the experience inspiring and respectful. Christians, in particular, reported that the discussions often sparked spiritual moments.

“In any case, these discoveries raise new questions: How is faith evolving in the digital age? project collaborator and theologian Marco Schmid explained to kath.ch. What role can technology play in the spiritual quest? The AI ​​project not only provides answers, it also shows how questions about love, death and peace remain relevant – regardless of religious background.

A new religious ideas box

More broadly, will artificial intelligence eventually become the new religious suggestion box for questions that humans cannot answer? Questions that we no longer dare to ask humans – especially because, unlike artificial intelligence, humans end up reacting with annoyance? Or because today there are fewer and fewer people and clerics in whom people trust and who listen to them?

“I observe in my close circle that ChatGPT is often used by people when they need advice and there is no person with whom to exchange at the time,” notes Marco Schmid. According to him, the importance of the use of AI among isolated people should probably not be underestimated.

For the theologian, “it would therefore be interesting, from a pastoral point of view, if there was a tool to help responsible AI, permanently available, and which could provide advice from a point of view Christian”.

Less shame in asking personal questions to AI systems

For Marco Schmid, it is clear that low-threshold access to AI has certainly been one of the reasons why the “digital Jesus” has been visited in such large numbers and by such different people. “The shame of asking even personal and sensitive questions is arguably less with AI systems. Because the system does not judge or condemn, but simply responds without reservation.

The project did not make it possible to measure people’s general trust in pastoral actors. “What is certain is that trust is the decisive basis of the pastoral relationship. If people were to have more trust in AI systems than in human beings, it would be a very serious questioning of our action, we pastoral agents,” concludes Marco Schmid. (cath.ch/kath.ch/wh/mp)

Spiritual avatars
St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne, in collaboration with the Immersive Realities Research Lab of the University of Lucerne, launched this innovative project to explore the use of virtual characters based on generative artificial intelligence in a spiritual context.
An accompanying study is being carried out jointly by the Immersive Realities Research Lab, the Faculty of Pastoral Theology of the University of Lucerne and the Chapel of St. Peter in Lucerne. The goal of the study is to examine the themes that arise during conversations with an AI system for spiritual purposes and to analyze how the AI ​​approaches different topics.
“I am impressed by the way the system worked,” noted Professor Aljosa Smolic, of the Immersive Realities Research Lab, during the closing of the installation on October 20, 2024. “In this case the AI was very credible and very ’emotional’. There were positive and negative controversies, but in all cases the technical level was good. PM