A story of good and evil unfolded on the big screen of the sanctuary of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Finland.
Jesus was shown with long hair and bearded robes, while Satan was dressed in more modern clothes, but with a frightening, frowned voice, all created by artificial intelligence.
Also, in Tuesday evening service, the church pastor Avatar and the former Finnish president who passed away in 1986, read from the Old Testament.
The first church service in Finland was primarily compiled by AI tools, where he wrote sermons and wrote some songs, composed music and created visuals.
The widely advertised experimental service attracted over 120 people at churches in northeastern Helsinki, far more than a typical weekday night.
People came out of town, as was the case with a small number of foreigners who admitted not to speak well enough to understand all of Finnish.
“Usually, when people talk about AI, they talk about what AI can do in the future. But the future is now. …AI can do everything people think they can do in a decade or so,” said Pastor Pettiha Koppeloinen, who came up with the idea and realized it.
The clergy and worshippers said they enjoyed it, but they quickly agreed that it would not replace human-led services.
“It was pretty interesting and fun, but it didn't feel like the masses or the service. …It felt far away. They didn't feel like they were talking to me,” Tar Nieminen told The Associated Press.
The Rev. Kari Kanala, pastor of St. Paul, reflected her feelings.
“People warmth is something people need,” he said.
Other experiments using AI Church Services
Churches and pastors around the world, like other parts of society, experimented with AI to understand what role they could play in their lives and whether it could attract more admirers.
In 2023, AieLED services were held at a German church. Last year, the “Yes” avatar on the computer screen of a Catholic chapel in Switzerland received questions from followers and provided biblical answers.
St. Paul's churches like to see pastors incorporate screenings of soccer and ice hockey games into their services, and try new things along with dance and film festivals.
After attending a conference on AI and religion in Geneva and hearing about service in Germany, Koppeloinen says he thought: Why not give it a try?
Kanara was on board, similar to Bishop Tiem Rajasalo of Helsinki.
Kopperoinen worked for several weeks with various AI tools that assemble 45-minute services, except for those from the Bible, to assemble 45-minute services, including Open Ai's ChatGPT-4O. Snow composes songs that resemble pop music. The Synthesia AI platform also creates video avatars for themselves, Kanala and another pastor of existing footage.
He saw himself in words that he never said in real life and felt “creepy,” Koppeloinen said.
Meanwhile, another tool, Akool, has created an exchange between Satan and Jesus with the avatar of former Finnish president Urho Kekkonen, whom he read from the Old Testament.
Among the AI-generated elements, clergy and worshippers sang hymns in live organ music.
Limitations imposed
There were clear limitations to the exercise. The AI was not involved in tolerating sin at the Helsinki Service, and the Eucharist was not performed.
According to Kopperoinen, the output must be fact-checked and edited by humans, and copies of AI are often based on stereotypes.
AI tools were generally thought to be reluctant to compose religious content, he said. Chatgpt initially did not write a dialogue between Jesus and Satan, and only went with it after Koppeloinen assured him that he was a Lutheran pastor and that there was no problem writing it.
Chatgup also refused to give pardon or blessings, which are good guardrails. “Because somehow we can separate things that are very intimate and religious.”
Kopperoinen also said it is aware of the impact of AI tools on the environment, such as the amount of water used to power them. Several members of the Lutheran Church in Finland criticized St. Pauls for using AI to entertain people at the expense of the environment, he said.
The importance of human touch
Worshippers said they found the service differently, not only interesting and entertaining, but also sometimes confused. The audio patterns were quick and difficult to follow.
“I liked singing. They lacked the kind of soul that humans have, but they were really catchy,” said student Jeera Pulkkinen.
Eeva Salonen, Chief Development Officer of the Helsinki Parish Union, said the service felt “like performance” and more impersonal than “will be with real people.”
“But I really liked it,” she added.
Kopperoinen said the need for the human element is one reason why AI is unlikely to replace real pastors.
“You can't empathize with people. AI can't really answer your questions in a spiritual way,” he said.
Still, both Kopperoinen and Kanala believe there is a place in the church of AI.
St. Pauls already uses it in bookkeeping, and Koppeloinen sometimes turns to chatgpt to help him make sermons, or when he needs to find poems on a particular topic.
Kanala admits that AI is “always against” but decides to stand head on, and now believes he can help clergy like the study of sermons and speech.
Tom Stoneham, a professor of philosophy at York University and an ethicist at the UK's doctoral training centre for secure AI systems, points out that AI can only replace transactions such as “human functions are purely musical instruments” and “customer service situations.”
But even in these situations, smiles and short, friendly exchanges add value that AI can't do, Stoneham said.
In a religious setting, “it's about humans, not instruments. They're more than just a means of achieving something,” he said. “It is the human race that adds value to the situation.”
Anna Puzio, a researcher on technology ethics at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, said it was important for churches and religious groups to experiment with it given their concerns about AI.
That way, it will “help shape these AI processes, develop AI, and design them in a responsible way,” she said.
