2023 is worthy of the "first year of AIGC", and generative artificial intelligence technology has begun to enter our lives widely. College entrance examination essays written with ChatGPT and Baidu's "Wen Xin Yiyan" are flying all over the world, AI doctors, AI secretaries, AI Musk, and even AI cat ladies and AI wives, we are not strangers. But have you heard of "AI priests"?
According to the Associated Press, on Friday, June 9, local time, a small town called Fuerth in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany, was bustling, and a unique religious event was held in St. Paul's Church in the town, and a worship service with the theme of "artificial intelligence and religion" attracted widespread attention from surrounding believers and media.
From the very beginning, this "AI mission" activity attracted a large queue of believers, and about 300 people participated in it. Curious crowds can't wait an hour early to enter this 19th-century Gothic church.
The Slogan of the Mass was named "Now is the time.", conveying a profound portrayal of the event's attention to the current global tide changes. As the faithful waited outside the church, they also discussed the focus of human destiny: global warming, the Russian-Ukrainian war and artificial intelligence.
The event was initiated by Jonas Simmerlein, a professor of theology and philosophy at the University of Vienna. He tried to create a way to generate "digital humans" through ChatGPT, creating "AI priests" with whom he could have conversations. Through the event, the professor tried to convey to the faithful that human technology has reached a new turning point.
Professor Simmerine created four "AI missionaries", two male and two female, who together will assist the clergy of St. Paul's Church in providing sermons, prayers, and music performances to the faithful.
According to the public video, a huge screen is set up directly above the altar of the church, and there is a black man with a beard on the screen, and "he" is today's C protagonist - "AI priest". I saw the "man" speaking slowly and slowly to the more than 300 believers present.
"Dear friends, I am honored to stand here, I am the first artificial intelligence to be preached to you at this year's German Protestant Congress." The "AI priest," played by a black man, said expressionless and in a monotonous voice.
A female "AI missionary" leads the faithful to stand up, read the scriptures together and pray "Amen."
The religious event lasted 40 minutes, with ChatGPT playing a major role and creating most of the sermons. The "AI priest" also invites the faithful to stand up and praise the Lord during the ceremony, which is somewhat incredible. "I personally conceived the entire process of sermons and prayers, and gave them to ChatGPT to create." The 29-year-old young Austrian professor revealed to the media.
Professor Simmerine was responsible for exporting the theme and creative planning direction of the event, and guided ChatGPT to complete the creation of psalms, eulogies for prayer ceremonies, and blessing words for believers. It must be emphasized that 2% of the content is still the responsibility of human clergy to adjust the details.
It is reported that the believers who participated in this service have mixed feedback on this novel way of preaching. Some people think that the expression of "digital people" is rigid and rigid, telling them with mechanical and monotonous voice, lacking the soul and emotions of human nature. "This mechanical feeling made me think that if in order to maintain my faith, I had to go to church regularly every week to pray and face it, which was unacceptable." A 54-year-old female believer said she found "digital humans" offensive, "no body language, no emotion, too fast and monotonous, no emotional value at all." ”
But there was also no shortage of curious young believers, an age group with a more positive attitude towards the new, pulling out their phones and happily recording it all.
Marc Jansen, a 31-year-old pastor from the small town of Troisdorf in Cologne, Germany, was one of the few human missionaries at the service to lead a group of teenagers to St. Paul's Church for this special mass.
He was even more impressed by the experiment, believing that ChatGPT's creative performance exceeded his expectations. "Actually, I think it would have been worse, but I'm really surprised by how it performed right now. The language expression of AI works well, although sometimes it is still a bit tongue-in-cheek. "However, it must be emphasized that as a priest, the ability to express emotions and empathy is essential, which ChatGPT cannot do." ”
Image of pastor generated by AI drawing tool
Anna Puzio, a technology ethics researcher from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, also attended the ceremony. She pointed out that there are many valuable applications for the use of AI technology in religious activities - for example, for those who may not be able to attend worship on time for other reasons, it is easier to access religious services anytime, anywhere through the Internet.
However, she also pointed out that there are also risks associated with the use of AI in religion. "I've found that AI is really human-like and people are easily deceived by it." She added, "In addition, we need to prevent AI technology from being used by people with ulterior motives to export incorrect values to believers." ”
So, what does Professor Simmerlein, who organized this "Cyber Worship" event, think about this? First of all, he said, he has no intention of using artificial intelligence to replace the work of religious clergy. Instead, he sees the use of AI as a way to help missionaries better communicate with their faithful.
The professor says that some pastors often need to read a lot of literature to draw inspiration from their sermons, so why not try to get ChatGPT to summarize and ask it what it thinks about the next sermon? Our pastors often need to go down to their parishes in person for one-on-one spiritual counseling with residents, so why not use AI to speed up the efficiency of handout writing to free up more time for other important duties.
"AI will take over our lives from all sides, it has a lot of positive meanings, which is why we need to adapt to it in advance now." Professor Simmerlein concluded.
Admittedly, this experimental church activity also exposed the current shortcomings of artificial intelligence: there is no real interaction between believers and "AI pastors", but simply mechanical responses to instructions given by AI. Nor can "digital humans" respond to the reactions of the faithful present with smiles and emotions, as human pastors do.
There is "AI Father" in the West, and "AI Buddha" in the East: merit +1+1+1
Coincidentally, this is not the first attempt to combine AI with religious activities. In today's society, there are always many worries that cannot be resolved. Therefore, praying to God and worshipping Buddha has become one of the ways for many people to relieve their mental stress. I don't know when the "college student special forces" dragging suitcases quietly became the main force in the team of temple tourists. What's more, it is popular among elementary school students. An elementary school student said in an interview that he liked the sound of the rosary string and was very decompressed.
What if your work life is so busy that you don't even have time to visit the temple? Now with ChatGPT, it's easy to generate an "AI Buddha" to solve your problems!
In March, a Japanese website called "Hotoke AI," the "AI Buddha" created by ChatGPT generation technology, quickly went viral. Developed by a Japanese monk named Kazuma Ieiri through ChatGPT (GPT-3.5-Turbo), the purpose is to try to answer the doubts of life for believers from Buddhist and other perspectives. In Japanese, "HOTOKE" means "Buddha" (ほとけ).
To date, the site has completed at least 20,000 public consultations. "Hotoke AI" is loved and appreciated by many people for being able to answer people's doubts and provide sound advice.
One believer said that the "AI Buddha" brings the gods closer to people, has a closer sense of distance, and can indeed provide some practical advice. For example, progressive exercise, don't put too much pressure on yourself, find a way to relieve stress that suits you, and so on. Many believers who have solved their confusion left a message at the bottom of the website: Thank you "Master"!
Interested families, you can log in to this website experience: http://hotoke.ai. The site is available in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
EVA has also been under pressure recently, and specially asked the "AI Buddha" for advice:
"Kotoke AI" replied:
Dear friend, thank you very much for asking me for advice. I understand that it is very challenging to remain calm and not impatient in modern life. We often face many stresses and challenges that can affect our mood and state of mind.
From a Buddhist perspective, calmness and non-impatience are achieved through inner practice and meditation practices. These practices can help us develop inner peace and focus to better cope with the stresses and challenges of our external environment.
From a psychological point of view, emotional regulation and coping with stress are very important. We can learn how to better manage our emotions and ways of thinking through cognitive behavioral therapy. This approach can help us identify and change unhealthy thought patterns that can reduce anxiety and stress.
In practice, I suggest you try the following:
1. Meditation: Spend some time each day meditating, focusing on your breath and physical sensations. This can help you relax and develop inner peace and focus.
2. Exercise: Regular exercise can help release tension and anxiety while enhancing physical fitness.
3. Cognitive behavioral therapy: Learn how to identify and change unhealthy thought patterns that can reduce anxiety and stress.
4. Develop gratitude: Take some time each day to reflect on everything you have in your life, including family, friends, work, and other aspects of your life. Gratitude can help us better view life's challenges and stresses.
Finally, I hope that you will be patient in practicing these methods and realize that this is a gradual process. Remember that calm and not being impatient is not something that can be achieved overnight, but with sustained effort and practice, you can surely reach this goal.
EVA thinks that the advice of exercise is quite good. Since opening the official account of the set-book, the weight gain has become more and more obvious.
Artificial intelligence opens up "religion and science" to think again: does AI have a "soul"?
Although the application of artificial intelligence in the field of religion is still in its infancy, this novel attempt has once again triggered more cross-thinking and discussion among the public on the profound topic of "religion and science".
Is AI a threat to religious beliefs?
While this may sound like a joke, the question reflects a serious question – how receptive is the church to AI? If AI develops into "digital life" in the future, should Christianity embrace all "intelligent life"?
Most theologians don't pay much attention to this issue, and some technologists believe that AI will inevitably move toward autonomy. In fact, since the birth of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, artificial intelligence has been the greatest threat to Christian theology.
The explosion of artificial intelligence is known as the "singularity". History confirms this speculation, as many major scientific advances have had an impact on religion. When Galileo Galilei popularized the "heliocentric theory" in the 16th century, it challenged traditional Christian biblical passages that asserted the earth as the center of the universe.
Like the products of other scientific systems, the future will give birth to "intelligent silicon-based life" that humans cannot dominate, and will erode religion on a whole new scale.
Taking the "soul" as an example, Christianity believes that the soul is unique to human beings, is an integral part of inner eternity, and can stimulate spirituality. God created human beings in His own image. In the biblical story, he made man out of the dust of the earth, breathed his breath into his nostrils, and man became "a living soul."
But what exactly is a soul? If we think of this as the "immaterial" nature of human beings, not dependent on or attached to their bodies. Can AI have this definition of "soul"?
If it seems absurd to explore this issue now, let's look at the biotechnology created by humans, such as in vitro fertilization and genetic cloning, which has long broken through this teaching. It is now possible that "intelligent life" could be created by humans, if many Christians agree that AI has a soul. Humans have taken their own soul and created a copy of their own "digital life", so how to think that the copy also has a soul?
"The Wandering Earth 2" Tuya's "digital life"
Such ethical logic will challenge the theological community again and again. If AI has a soul, can Jesus also die for AI? Can AI have "sin" and be "redeemed"?
Since the birth of ChatGPT, many innovative applications of artificial intelligence have emerged, constantly stimulating people to think: how will AI change our world? Various brain holes emerge one after another, constantly challenging people's cognitive limits.
In fact, many people have begun to worship something called "AI gods", saying that "the end of science is metaphysics". As ordinary people, we may not be able to delve into too many topics about "science and religion" and "artificial intelligence and soul", but we can put the current AIGC capabilities into our daily work and life and make it usable. As for ethical issues, let those who have energy want to go!
Finally, I suddenly remembered that I saw a netizen's high praise message before:
EVA laughed at this for a long time, this meme comes from the original novel "Will Bionic People Dream of Electric Sheep" from the science fiction masterpiece "Blade Runner", the game between natural people and android people, reflecting the thinking of human nature and ethics. For today's AI, it has actually changed people's lives and presents a certain development trend that is difficult to restrict. Imagine its future, such as the development of AGI (General Artificial Intelligence) stage, maybe one day really lead mankind to bid farewell to this old world like God.