AI Church Service Draws Large Crowd in Germany

An experimental church service powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot and delivered by avatars on a television screen above the altar drew over 300 people in Germany. The 40-minute sermon included text generated by the chatbot and was led by computer-generated avatars of two men and two women. Reactions to the machine-led service were mixed, with some finding the avatar's lack of emotions and fast, monotonous speech off-putting, while others were positively surprised. The service was the brainchild of a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna, who sees AI as a tool that could assist religious leaders.