Artificial intelligence has rocked a corner of the Catholic community after Catholic Answers, a church resource publisher based in San Diego, California, launched “Father Justin,” an AI chatbot, on Monday. The virtual bride was disqualified this weekend, but creators will still allow the chatbot to function simply as “Justin.”
Catholic Answers says ‘Father Justin’ is designed to answer questions about the Catholic faith and is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. The group’s website had the following disclaimer: “At its core, this is a cool search engine, not a replacement for real human interaction. If there is an issue you are struggling with, seek guidance from your pastor or spiritual advisor.”
Despite this, the launch of the AI chatbot and some of its answers received poor reviews.
“I say this with great respect for you and your work, but… this should have been a simple search engine,” wrote Father Mike Palmer, a U.S. Army chaplain. “Dressing as an AI avatar of a soulless priest does absolutely nothing except cause confusion and invite ridicule of your excellent work.”
Other users shared examples of Father Justin’s priestly counsel, including telling one user that Gatorade could be used instead of holy water at baptism and explaining how brothers and sisters could do the same. prepare for marriage. Father Justin also said that after accepting a user’s confession, all of her sins were forgiven.
Meanwhile, Christian scholars shared examples of chatbots. lack of understanding The authority of the Pope within the Catholic Church.
“You should not ask your computer any theological questions any more than you should seek it for spiritual direction or marriage advice,” author and composer Peter Kwasniewski said on Twitter. “This is misdirected and should be deleted.”
“We are doing our best to calm some people’s fears about our use of AI,” Jon Sorensen, COO of Catholic Answers, said on Twitter the day Father Justin launched. “But even if this project fails, I still think it’s worth it because my team and I have a much better idea of how we can use AI in our work than we did six months ago.”
The project failed. Catholic Answers removed Justin from his virtual priesthood after just two days on the job.
“Recently, my colleagues at Catholic Answers and I explored another new technology, the AI app ‘Fr. Justin,’” Catholic Answers President Christopher Check said in a statement. “Among users’ comments, there is widespread criticism about expressing the AI character as a bride.”
“We chose the characters to convey a quality of knowledge and authority, and as a sign of the respect all of us at Catholic Answers have for clergy,” he continued. However, many people have voiced concerns about this choice.
Check said he decided to create a “lay” character in the Catholic Answers app as soon as possible.
“Until then, we will hear ‘Fr. “Justin is just ‘Justin.’” Check said. “We will not say that he was excluded from the priesthood because he was not a real priest! He will be available to thousands of Catholic.com visitors who have already benefited greatly from using the app.”
Catholic Answers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. decryption.
Last summer, when artificial intelligence rapidly emerged into the mainstream, Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, who was the target of deepfakes created by artificial intelligence, sounded the alarm about the destructive potential of artificial intelligence ahead of the International Day of Peace.
“Remarkable advances in artificial intelligence are rapidly impacting human activity, personal and social life, politics, and the economy,” Francis said.
In a separate speech last December, Francis called for the ethical development of artificial intelligence to serve humanity and promote peace.
On Friday, the Italian government reportedly confirmed this to Vatican City news outlets. vatican news Pope Francis is scheduled to speak about artificial intelligence at the G7 summit in Italy in June.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, “I am confident that the Pope’s attendance will make a decisive contribution to defining the regulatory, ethical and cultural framework for artificial intelligence,” and quoted Pope John Paul’s speech in 1979. “Whether it is domestic or international, it comes from people, is exercised by people, and is for people.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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