Maybe the weirdest aspect of the AI “boom” (if we can even call it such) is AI’s expansion into territory where it has no evident relevance. However, AI’s large language models are being used for email curation all the way to spiritual consultation. AI is now supposedly supposed to serve as a stand-in for the divine voice of God.

The oldest church in the Swiss city of Lucerne has installed a “virtual Jesus” in its confession chamber, according to The Guardian. The AI-powered Jesus can interact in 100 different languages and is supposed to dialogue with people hungry to converse with God. Ashifa Kassab writes,

Short on space and seeking a place where people could have private conversations with the avatar, the church swapped out its priest to set up a computer and cables in the confessional booth. After training the AI program in theological texts, visitors were then invited to pose questions to a long-haired image of Jesus beamed through a latticework screen. He responded in real time.

According to The Guardian, over 1,000 people had the chance to interact with the avatar, and feedback varied. Some people said it helped them and made them feel happy, while others reported that the avatar’s answers were “superficial.” The article also stressed how the AI wasn’t supposed to be confessed to, and that “users” were discouraged from sharing their personal problems.

Read the Psalms, often considered the prayer book of the Bible, and you’ll encounter a fair share of “personal problems” and earnest petitions to God. King David puts it all out there in Psalm 51. So it does feel odd, to say the least, to have AI systems enter sacred spaces with a warning attached: Don’t get too honest. Maybe they should just go a step further and tell people not to say anything to the avatar at all.

Disclosing personal problems to a computer is itself problematic in that a bot isn’t a person, let alone God, and treating it as such is one of the glaring misappropriations of digital technology today. We go to our computers like we used to go to wise spiritual guides.

This Swiss AI Jesus is another example of just how much our culture has come to assume that non-technological aspects of life can be mechanically treated.

It’s also weird, and even sacrilegious, to call the AI “Jesus.” Whatever one’s views on Christ, a computer system can’t materialize his essence. I’m not saying that’s what this church is overtly trying to do, but by calling the AI Jesus, it’s suggesting that speaking to a religious bot is the same as interacting with Christ himself.

Christians believe that Jesus is actually alive and working in the world, and that through prayer, one can speak with him. Perhaps instead of traveling to Lucerne to consult a Jesus bot, one might try addressing Christ by name wherever they’re at, and listen for the possibility of a response.