Artificial intelligence shook up the Catholic community after Catholic Answers — a San Diego, Calif.-based publisher of church resources — introduced an AI chatbot called “Father Justin” on Monday. The virtual priest was canceled at the end of the week, but the creators still allow the chatbot to act simply as “Justin.”
Catholic Answers “Father Justin” is designed for educational and entertainment purposes only about questions about the Catholic faith. The group's website offers the following disclaimer: “Basically, it's a fancy search engine, not a substitute for real human interaction. If there are issues you are struggling with, please seek guidance from your pastor or spiritual advisor.
However, the launch of the AI chatbot and some of its answers were not well received.
US Army Chaplain Father Mike Palmer wrote: “I say this with nothing but respect for you and your work, but this should have been an obvious search engine. “Dressing up as a soulless AI avatar does nothing but create confusion and invite mockery of your otherwise beautiful work.”
Other users shared examples of Father Justin Priest's advice, including one user explaining how to use Gatorade instead of holy water in baptism and how a brother and sister can prepare for each other's marriage. Father Justin accepts the user's confession and then tells her that all her sins are forgiven.
Christian scholars also say the chatbot's understanding of the authority of the Pope in the Catholic Church seems weak.
Author and composer Peter Kwasniewski tweeted: “Theological questions shouldn't be asked on a computer any more than asking for spiritual guidance or marriage advice.” “This is wrong-headed and must be brought down.”
On the day Father Justin launched, Catholic Responses COO John Sorenson said, “I'm doing my best to assuage some people's concerns about our use of AI. But even if this project fails, I think it's still worth it because my staff and I have a better idea of how we can use AI in our work than we did six months ago.
The project went awry—Catholic Answers removed Justin from his virtual priesthood after only two days on the job.
“Recently, my colleagues and I at Catholic Answers received great feedback about another new technology: our AI app, ‘Fr. Justin,'” Christopher Cheek, president of Catholic Answers, said in a statement. “Criticism of the AI character's representation as a priest is prevalent among user comments.”
“We chose the character to convey a quality of knowledge and authority, as well as to show the respect we all have for our priests at Catholic Answers,” he continued. “Many people have expressed concern about this election.”
Cheek said the decision was made to create a “Lay” character as soon as possible for the Catholic Answers app.
“Until then, just ‘Fr. Justin'.” “We're not saying it was,” Czech said. [removed from the priesthood] He has never been a real priest! It is available to Catholic.com visitors, thousands of whom have used the app to great advantage.
Catholic Answers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
Last summer, as artificial intelligence entered the mainstream, AI-generated deep fictions prompted Pope Francis to sound the alarm over AI's disruptive potential, ahead of World Day of Peace.
“The remarkable advances in the field of artificial intelligence are rapidly affecting human activity, personal and social life, politics and the economy,” he said.
In a separate speech in December, Francis called for the ethical development of artificial intelligence to serve humanity and promote peace.
On Friday, the Italian government confirmed to Vatican City News that Pope Francis will address artificial intelligence at the Group of 7 summit in Italy in June.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is convinced that the presence of the Pope in 1979 will make a decisive contribution to defining the regulatory, moral and cultural framework. Whether national or global, it comes from man, is experienced by man, and belongs to man.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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