Confession Without a Priest. In Switzerland, the Church Installed a Digital Avatar of Jesus.

In Switzerland, rumors are circulating that robots will replace people in all spheres of activity. No one dares to suggest that a digital avatar could take the place of a priest in the church, let alone become Jesus. However, in Lucerne, such an experiment has already been conducted.

In one of the local churches, an installation called Deus in Machina was set up, in which a digital avatar of Jesus replaced the priest in the confessional. Thanks to artificial intelligence, it could answer people's questions in real-Time. For this purpose, a computer with a program trained on theological texts was installed in the church. Visitors were invited to ask the avatar questions, which were transmitted onto a screen, and it responded instantly. The experiment lasted two months, during which many people conversed with AI-Jesus. According to theologian Marco Schmidt, most of them experienced spiritual enrichment, but some expressed negative feelings towards such a mode of communication.

Of course, this innovation has drawn criticism from church communities. Catholics protested against the use of the avatar in confession, while Protestants were outraged by the use of Jesus's image in this manner. Schmidt believes it’s better to keep the avatar within the experiment's framework.

In alternative news...

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