Preaching the gospel in times of artificial intelligence
Columbia, Maryland, United States
Seventh-day Adventist Church communications leaders from the three major regions of the Americas—North, Central, and South America—met for a few days to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) and its intersections with the Adventist mission of preaching the gospel to the world. Lectures, debates, and panels led participants to conclude that they cannot escape from AI; they must learn how to make it an ally.
This gathering of more than 100 participants, known as the Global Adventist Internet Network (GAiN), has always had the goal of reflecting on technology and communication and applying them to mission.
The Adventist Church already has some practical applications for AI. An example coming from South America is the chatbot, or virtual Bible assistant, called Hope, built and implemented six years ago. The system provides people with real-time support, in Portuguese and Spanish, for their studies. It has a database of nearly 6,000 official web articles produced by the Adventist Church.
Emmanuel Arriaga, who works at Google, understands that AI is useful for the elaboration of proposals, documents, and research. He reminded GAiN participants, however, that the development of platforms and models should include ethical discussions.
Erick Sperandio Nascimento, a university professor and researcher, stressed that AI tools are opportunities to implement unprecedented content creation models to evangelize. He mentioned, for instance, the importance of using tools for theological counseling and Bible studies.
“It is possible to structure systems to provide personalized studies based on people’s preferences,” he said.
William Timm, the coordinator of the Novo Tempo Digital Bible School, explained that from 2019 to 2023, the tool had assisted 278,422 students, with more than 40,000 of them just in 2023.
“It is possible to use technology in a way that is useful for the spiritual nurturing of people,” Timm said.
According to coordinators, thousands have been baptized as a result. [Felipe Lemos, South American Division, and Adventist Review]
Adventists in Germany discuss artificial intelligence
Alsbach-Hähnlein, Germany
On May 7, 2023, Hope Media Europe, the media center of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, organized the Twelfth Media Day in Alsbach-Hähnlein (near Darmstadt). Coming from German-speaking countries, about 50 media professionals, students, and people interested in media met at this exchange-and-networking event with the theme “Artificial Intelligence (AI): The Beginning of a New Era?”
William Timm, theologian, digital media expert, and department head of Novo Tempo, the Adventist TV station in Brazil, which belongs to the Hope Channel broadcasting family, formulated some rules for dealing with artificial intelligence:
- People should familiarize themselves with it and apply it.
- People should not trust it 100 percent; it sometimes delivers wrong results.
- AI should not have the last word in decisions and assessments.
- Everyone should prepare for a future shaped by AI through critical thinking; professional adaptability; and the training of creative, social, and communicative skills.
- Christian values should play a crucial role in the application of AI.
Danillo Cabrera, a software expert at Hope Media Europe, then presented several practical applications for AI in his talk. They ranged from video, image, and music generators to text-based tools, such as ChatGPT, and avatars with a human appearance that could be used, for example, to conduct customer conversations. [Alsbach-Hähnlein/Adventistischer Pressedienst (APD)]
Hundreds attend AI church service in Germany
Nuremberg, Germany
Hundreds of German Protestants attended a church service in Bavaria that was generated almost entirely by artificial intelligence.
The ChatGPT chatbot led more than 300 people through 40 minutes of prayer, music, sermons, and blessings.
“Dear friends, it is an honor for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year’s convention of Protestants in Germany,” the avatar said with an expressionless face and monotonous voice.
The service—including the sermon, prayers, and music—was created by ChatGPT and Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna.
“I conceived this service—but actually I rather accompanied it because I would say about ninety-eight percent comes from the machine,” the 29-year-old scholar told the Associated Press.
The AI church service was one of hundreds of events at the convention of Protestants in the Bavarian towns of Nuremberg and Fuerth, and it drew such immense interest that people formed a long line outside the nineteenth-century, neo-Gothic building an hour before it began.
The convention itself takes place every two years in the summer at a different place in Germany and draws tens of thousands of believers to pray, sing, and discuss their faith. They also talk about current world affairs and look for solutions to key issues, which this year included global warming, the war in Ukraine, and artificial intelligence.
“Now is the time” was one of the sentences Simmerlein fed ChatGPT when he asked the chatbot to develop the sermon.
“I told the artificial intelligence, ‘We are at the church congress, you are a preacher . . . what would a church service look like?’ ”
He also asked for psalms to be included, as well as prayers and a blessing at the end.
The believers in the church listened attentively as the artificial intelligence preached about leaving the past behind, focusing on the challenges of the present, overcoming the fear of death, and never losing trust in Jesus Christ.
The entire service was “led” by four different avatars on the screen: two young women and two young men.
At times, the AI-generated avatar inadvertently drew laughter when it used platitudes and told the churchgoers with a deadpan expression that “to keep our faith, we must pray and go to church regularly.”
Some people enthusiastically videotaped the event with their mobile phones, while others looked on more critically.
Heiderose Schmidt, a congregant, said she was excited and curious when the service started but found it increasingly off-putting as it went along.
“There was no heart and no soul,” she said. “The avatars showed no emotions at all, had no body language, and were talking so fast and monotonously that it was very hard for me to concentrate on what they said. But maybe it is different for the younger generation who grew up with all of this.” [The Journal]
