Artificial intelligence (AI) is growing every day and taking over many jobs and professions. Yet, nobody expected it to come for religion so quickly. In fact, sermons are now being preached by AI.

ChatGPT is one of the top AI systems that exists right now. It generates text and answers to questions, based on AI.

This system was recently used in the town of Fürth in northern Bavaria, where a congregation of hundreds turned up to listen to what the robot had to say.

ChatGPT was shown as a black guy with a beard talking to these Lutherans and speaking with no expression or vocal intonation.

This experimental sermon was set up by a 29-year-old theology student at the University of Vienna named Jonas Simmerlein. Simmerlein said he input about 2% of the content and the other 98% came from ChatGPT.

The service lasted about 40 minutes in length and went through many standard types of sermon materials. This church service was part of a large convention and gathering of Protestants that took place in the city of Nuremberg and surrounding areas like Fürth.

The convention takes place every two years. It has various services and discussion groups of Protestants. This year focused on how to resolve the war in Ukraine, stop climate change, and work with evolving technology like AI.

Simmerlein ended up being pleased by the service and how it turned out, calling it “pretty solid.”

The main drawback in his opinion was the AI didn’t react in live time when people laughed or had reactions to the sermon itself. Other than that, it seemed like this robot didn’t bother people that much.

Is this the future of religion and faith: AI systems that lead a bunch of liberals in prayer against climate change?