Church in Switzerland deploys AI Jesus to give spiritual advice

The AI Jesus avatar was trained on the New Testament and can speak ten languages.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen AI increasingly deployed in entertainment, customer service, education, and many other areas. However, this trend was much less applicable to the conservative religious field.

While there have been many AI impersonations of religious figures on the internet, we’ve yet to see an AI-generated Jesus avatar that listens to confessions or gives a sermon. Until now.

St Peter's Church's Confessional in Lucerne, Switzerland, has developed a religious-focused AI model together with a team from the Immersive Realities Research Lab at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

According to Swissinfo, the avatar is trained on the New Testament and interprets religious content found online. It is available 24/7 and can speak ten languages.

As reported by DW, the AI avatar tends to answer questions with more questions.

For example, when asked why women aren’t allowed to become priests, the avatar replied:

“The scriptures teach that certain roles are defined within the church. Each role and task has its place in God's plan. How can you promote peace and harmony in your life?”

Visitors to the church appear to like it. “I was surprised. It was so easy,” one woman said, describing her experience.

“And although it is a machine, it gave me so much advice. Also, Christian point of view. I felt taken care of. And I walked out really consoled,”

DW found that two-thirds of users came out of the confessional with a spiritual experience.