What did a Finnish church learn from creating a service almost

A tale of good versus evil played on the great screen in St. Church of Paulâ Lutheran in Finland.

Jesus was shown in long-haired clothes and beards, while Satan was dressed in more modern clothing, but in a clumsy and loud voice-all created by artificial intelligence.

Also addressing the flock to Tuesday evening service were the avatars of church pastors and a former President of Finland who died in 1986, reading from the Old Testament.

It was the first church service in Finland united mainly by the Tools, who wrote the sermons and some of the songs, composed the music and created the footage.

The widely advertised experimental service attracted over 120 people to the northeast Helsinki church, much more than a typical weekly week.

People came from outside the city, as well as a small part of foreigners who admitted that they did not speak Finnish well so well to understand them all.

â € its when people talk about him, they are talking about what he can do in the future. But the future is now. â € ¦ He can do all those things that people think he can do in 10 years or more, – said Rev. Petja Kopperinen, who came up with the idea and brought it to the realization.

The clergy and worshipers said they enjoyed it, but agreed they would replace the human -led services at any time soon.

â € œI was fun and entertaining, but it did not feel like a measure or a service. â € ¦ felt distant. I didn’t feel like they were talking to me, “Taru Niamenn told the Associated Press.

Rev. Kari Canal, parish priest in St. Paulâ echoes her feeling.

“People’s warmth is what people need,” he said.

Other experiments with church services he

Churches and pastors around the world have experimented with him, like the rest of society, try to understand what role he could play in their lives – and if he can attract more worshipers.

In 2023, a service led by him was held in a church in Germany. Last year, an Avatar of “œjezusâ on a computer screen in a Catholic hat in Switzerland received questions from believers and offered answers based on the scriptures.

Rarely, the church of Paulâ as new things, with pastors involving football shows and scams on ice in their services, along with dance and film festivals.

After attending a conference on him and religion in Geneva and heard about the service in Germany, Kopperine said he thought: Why not try it?

The channel was on board, such as Bishop Teem Laajasal of Helsinki.

Kopperinen has worked for weeks with differential tools to collect 45-minute service, including open chatgt-4o to write words except those from the Bible; The sun to compose the tunes, similar to pop music; And the Synthesia Platform he to create Avatar Video of himself, Channel and another pastor from the existing way.

Seeing himself on the screen of speaking words, he never said in real life – € œeerie, “Kopperinen said.

Another tool, Akool, meanwhile, created the avatar of former Finnish President Urho Kekkonen reading from the Old Testament, and the exchange between Satan and Jesus.

Among the elements produced by him, the clergy and worshipers sang hymns with live organs.

The limits of imposes

The exercise had clear boundaries. It was not included in the forgiveness of sins in the Helsinki service, and the eukarist was not done.

Each exit must be checked and edited by a man, and the copy of it is often based on stereotypes, Kopperinen said.

The tools in general seemed ready to compose religious content, he said. Chatgpt would initially not write dialogue between Jesus and Satan and went with him only after Copperine assured him that he was a Lutheran pastor and there was nothing wrong with writing it.

Chatgpt also refused to give solutions or blessings, which is a good guard, Channel said, “because it can somehow share things that are very intimate and religious.”

Kopperine also said he was heard about the impact of he’s tools on the environment, including, for example, the amount of water used to strengthen them. Some in the Finnish Church Lutheran criticized St. Paulâ is for using it to have people at the cost of environment, he said.

The importance of human touch

The fans said they found different, interesting and entertaining service, but also confusing. Speaking patterns were fast and difficult to follow.

â € œ I liked the songs. They really catch, though they lacked the kind of spirit that humanans have, ”said student Jeera Pulkkinen, who does not like the tools” quick text distribution.

Eeva Salonen, the leading development official in the Helsinki Parish Union, said the service felt – more like a performance “, finding it more unexpected than” would be with real people.

“But I liked it a lot,” she added.

The need for a human element is one of the reasons he is unlikely to replace the real pastors, Kopperinen said.

“There can be no beathetic to people. He can’t really answer your questions in a spiritual way,” he said.

However, both Kopperine and Channel believe there is a place in the church for him.

Rare Paulâ already uses it for accounting, and Kopperine sometimes turns into chatgpt to help him compose preaching or when he has to find strings on a special top.

Channel admits that he has “always opposed”, but decided to handle him with his head and now thinks he can help clergy on things like preaching and speeches.

Tom Stoneham, a professor of the University of York and an ethics at the Doctoral Training Center in the UK’s safe systems, notes that he can replace people alone – where human function is purely instrumental and transactional, such as “€

However, even in these situations, a smile or a brief friendly exchange adds value that it cannot be, Stoneham said.

In a religious environment, it is about man, not an instrument. They will not be just one means just to achieve something, “he said. â € € € € ™ is the humanity that is adding value to the situation.â €

Anna Puzio, a research on the ethics of technology at the University of Twenty in the Netherlands, said that given the concerns with him, she would import to churches and religious groups to experiment with her.

In this way they can help – € Presecrate these processes of him and develop him and his design in a responsible way, ”she said.