From Gutenberg and his printing press to The Salvation Army and the first motion picture, the Church has a long tradition of using new technology to spread the Gospel. Now, a congregation in Finland has taken the next step on this journey, using AI tools to organise and conduct a worship service.
St Paul’s Church, located in the Vallila neighbourhood of Helsinki, saw over 120 people attend its experimental service, which had been heavily advertised. Many worshippers came from out of town, including several foreigners who did not speak Finnish, but wanted to be part of this new experience.
The church is known for its willingness to use novel approaches in its services, having incorporated screenings of soccer and ice hockey matches, as well as holding dance and film festivals. After attending a conference on AI and religion, Rev Petja Kopperoinen was inspired to suggest using AI to conduct a service, receiving support from Rev Kari Kanala, the vicar at St Paul’s, and Bishop Teemu Laajasalo of Helsinki.
“Usually when people talk about AI, they are talking about what AI can do in the future. But the future is now … AI can do all those things that people think that it can maybe do in 10 years or so,” he said.
As well as using AI tools to compose the songs used, and write the sermon, it was also used to create avatars who took part in the service. Alongside the two pastors, AI created an avatar of former Finnish President Urho Kekkonen to read from the Old Testament, as well as producing an exchange between Satan and Jesus. According to Kopperoinen, seeing himself onscreen speaking words he had never actually said felt “eerie”, The Associated Press reports.
Clergy and worshippers were still involved, singing hymns with live organ music between the AI elements. The response to the experiment from congregation members was generally positive, however, many seemed to feel that there was something lacking.
“It was pretty entertaining and fun, but it didn’t feel like a Mass or a service…It felt distant. I didn’t feel like they were talking to me,” Taru Nieminen told The Associated Press.
Rev Kanala agreed, saying, “The warmth of the people is what people need.”
While calling the service “interesting” and “different”, many worshippers found it confusing at times, with the AI’s speech patterns hard to follow. They also noted a lack of the spiritual depth that comes from human interaction.
“I did like the songs. They were really catchy, although they lacked the kind of soul the humans have,” student Jeera Pulkkinen said.
This need for the human elements makes it unlikely that AI will ever replace real people in carrying out worship, Kopperoinen says.
“It can’t be empathetic towards people. AI can’t really answer your questions in a spiritual way,” he said.
While Kopperoinen put clear guidelines in place, such as not involving AI in the forgiveness of sins or performing the Eucharist at the Helsinki, he acknowledged that there are ethical and moral concerns around AI that need to be explored.
He also said that any content created by AI needs to be fact-checked and edited by a human being to ensure it does not contain anything false or harmful. Members of the church have also expressed concerns over the morality of using AI for entertainment considering its impact on the environment due to its intensive energy and water consumption.
Tom Stoneham, a University of York philosophy professor and an ethicist with the Center for Doctoral Training in Safe AI Systems in the UK, said that he believes that AI can only replace humans “where the function of the human is purely instrumental” such as “in customer service situations”.
Stoneham said this is especially true in a religious setting: “It’s that humanity that is adding value to the situation.”
However, Anna Puzio, a researcher on ethics of technology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, said that it is vital for the Church to be involved in the development of AI.
That way, she says, it can help “shape these AI processes and develop AI and design it in a responsible way.”
