Father Patrick Briscoe challenges Catholic Answers’ newly-launched AI chatbot, “Father Justin.” He writes: “There are enough robots and programs. What souls need today is accompaniment. They need friendship. In a word, they need a priest.”
Catholic Answers introduced an anthropomorphized apologetics AI named Father Justin in late April. The bot appeared to be a kindly, gray-bearded priest. The reaction on the internet was swift and savage, leading Catholic Answers to change the name and appearance of the
A new AI priest, launched by a Catholic teaching apostolate to answer questions about the faith, has been "laicized" after sparking more backlash than belief online.
The nonprofit apologetics website Catholic Answers debuted a "Father Justin" interactive AI app April 23, aiming "to
Artificially intelligent chatbots are becoming a normal means for accessing information while omnipresent algorithms largely determine the type of content people encounter online in search results and on social media. And the Catholic Church is taking notice.
The annual New York Encounter, held Feb. 16-18 and organized by the Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation, had as this year's theme, "Tearing Open the Sleeping Soul," addressing with music, poetry and panel discussions, "a sense of paralysis in front of
Any response to AI can find a foundation in Catholic social teaching, famously emphasized in Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical on capital and labor "Rerum Novarum."
"The tradition of Catholic social teaching started as a kind of a response to the industrial revolution,"
For those who follow the daily churnings of Congress, Capitol Hill is a familiar venue for the official political theater of committee hearings -- hearings so routine and numerous they can sometimes fade into the public subconsciousness, if registering at all.
But Jan.
While artificial intelligence can be a formidable tool to facilitate communication and exchange information, it cannot provide the uniquely human wisdom needed to promote the good of people and their communities, Pope Francis said.
"No doubt, machines possess a limitlessly greater capacity than
"In a recent discussion of the potential benefits and dangers of artificial intelligence, a friend expressed that those developing such technologies were ‘playing God.’ At this point everyone nodded solemnly. No one needed to say that this was a bad thing. But
"Artificial intelligence ought to serve our best human potential and our highest aspirations, not compete with them," the pope said in his message for the Jan. 1 commemoration of World Peace Day.
The message, "Artificial Intelligence and Peace," was addressed to all men