The future in one of the oldest churches in Switzerland. The Saint-Pierre chapel in Lucerne revealed on its website the results of its experiment with the installation “Deus In Machina”, which allows you to engage in a debate with a hologram representing Jesus.
The principle is simple: Participants enter a confessional and an AI-created avatar appears on a computer screen and offers advice in more than 100 languages based on Bible verses.
“Many people came to talk to it,” said Marco Schmid, a theologian at St. Peter’s Chapel, adding that some 900 conversations had been recorded between the machine and people “of all ages.”
“Not a confession”
The hologram was developed by a team from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, which was responsible for programming the installation with information from the New Testament.
According to the results of the experiment, the topics discussed by the visitors ranged from true love to the afterlife, including war and suffering in the world, as well as the existence of God. Other topics were also discussed, such as the relationship between the Church and homosexuality or even sexual abuse committed by religious figures.
However, visitors, who were not entirely convinced by the experience, were invited not to share personal information and that the exchange they were going to have with the avatar was “at their own risk.”
“It is not a confession, our objective is not to reproduce a traditional confession,” said Marco Schmid, however.
Source: BFM TV
