Hundreds attend ChatGPT-powered church service in Germany

The service featured a sermon generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot, delivered through avatars on a television screen above the altar.

The AI-powered church service was conducted at St. Paul's church in Fürth, Germany, drawing a large crowd of over 300 attendees.

The concept was conceived by Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna, who guided the creation of the service using the event's motto: "Now is the time."

The sermon, created with AI and made up of 98 percent machine-generated content, touched on topics such as leaving the past, overcoming the fear of death and keeping the faith. Simmerlein worked closely with the AI chatbot, giving specific prompts to include psalms, prayers and blessings.

The reactions of the congregation were varied. While some found the impassioned speech of the computer avatars amusing, others expressed concern about the lack of emotion and monotonous tone. However, there were also those who were pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of the AI-led service.

Simmerlein emphasized that the intention behind the experiment was not to replace human spiritual leaders but to explore AI as a complementary tool. The use of AI could offer ideas for sermons and streamline the sermon-writing process, allowing pastors more time for personalized guidance.

The sermon using artificial intelligence drew a lot of interest, and people formed a long line outside the church an hour before the service began.