this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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What one Finnish church learned from creating a service almost entirely with AI. (apnews.com)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Tea@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A tale of good versus evil played out on the large screen in the sanctuary of St. Paul’s Lutheran church in Finland. Jesus was shown in robes with long hair and a beard, while Satan was dressed in more modern clothes but with a menacing frown and higher-pitched voice — all created by artificial intelligence.

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[–] PugEnjoyer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The clergy and worshippers said they enjoyed it, but agreed it wouldn’t replace services led by humans anytime soon.

“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.

The Rev. Kari Kanala, the vicar at St. Paul’s, echoed her sentiment.

“The warmth of the people is what people need,” he said.

I mean, isn't that basically how every AI project goes? "It's a fun novelty, but actually expecting anything deeper from it always gives you a hollow experience"? Maybe we don't need to try doing everything with AI, maybe we can just assume it'll be the case and move on

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

This is actually false, which was surprising to me upon hearing this podcast episode: The TED AI Show: AI therapy is here. What does it mean for you?

Some people actually prefer AI counselors because they never judge, they're infinitely patient, and they remember everything. There is a role for them. For me, while they've always messed up code, they've typically shown me a different way to attempt to do something that I didn't think of before, which eventually led me to newfound tinkering that got me to develop working code needed for my projects.

For this case, I think it's the framework of AI being inserted into an existing institution that is causing this emotional stigma. If it was started separately as its own AI pep talk program or motivational system for social outreach and equality, then maybe it would thrive. So I think it can't replace church activities simply because of their innate history.

[–] PugEnjoyer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly that's totally fair and I can see how an AI therapist could help more than a human one. I personally have wanted to have a regular therapist for a number of years, and I had one that really helped me when I was first figuring out I'm trans, but then I moved and now whenever I try to look for therapists, it feels like I can't find anyone that gives me those right mix of "LGBT literate", "(Polish) immigrant literate", "autism and ADHD literate" and on top of those, being able to figure out if I can vibe with them AND won't "queer broken arm syndrome" me, and I've basically given up looking. A lot of my progress in mental health development lately have been just really reflecting about the ways of thinking I'm stuck in that maybe are hindering me, but that's largely worked for me because (despite the state of the world) I've had a period of good stability and a wife to bounce thoughts off of.

Thank you for sharing your experience, I can definitely relate to those kinds of struggles and understand how having a tool that just gives you other perspectives generated from a composition of average people's posts would be useful unto itself! I guess I get really knee jerk about AI because I've seen so many projects that do treat the AI tools we have now as "actual literal synthetic sentient intelligence or something damn close" when it's nowhere near that. Your use of it is actually a perfect understanding of what it does now, what it can give you, and how to make use of it, and I should be more careful in how I talk about AI when there are people who do gain genuine use from it.

Thank you again for sharing your perspective!

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 10 hours ago

Yeah, TBH it's still probably not actual "AI" and is really just complex, inaccurate autocomplete—proven by the fact that GPT 2.0 can be run entirely in Microsoft Excel lol (even though it's certainly a massive table). So it's just a buzzword...

Nevertheless, I think if it's free and open-source, I can mildly get behind AI usage in certain situations. The profiteering models I have more of a problem with.

[–] sndmn@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You won't learn a fucking thing in a church.

[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's just wrong. I've learnt many things! Such as

  • I don't like it
  • Regulars smell
  • Everyone's constantly guilt-tripped into giving money
  • The harmonics of that fancy version of piano (it's not called that, slipped my mind atm) are actually awesome

And many more!

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

fancy version of piano

The organ? Or did the church you visited have something else?

[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 1 points 1 day ago

Yes! Thank you

[–] shyguyblue@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I love me some organ music.

There's a video game called Stellaris that uses it, and I find myself pausing the game, just to zone out to that ethereal sound.

[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I had to suffer through someone's wedding that had an impressive but out of tune pipe organ. Shame because the musician seemed talented, and at least while it lasted I didn't have to hear about how great the guy in the sky is.

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Now that's blasphemy.

[–] random_character_a@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Church service without a single soul involved?

We have done this before all over the world with people with no soul.

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I am not saying church isn't far from God. I am saying that the whole concept of using AI for this is pretty offensive by itself.

[–] random_character_a@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Sure is. ...and I'm an atheist ...and finnish.

Then again church services here mean so little to general public, only few will give a shit. We do have our "fundie zones", but they usually don't belong in to that sect.