‘AI Jesus’ Arrives As A Messiah For The Future, Where Technology Is Idolized
These are strange times, and it’s not only because humanity had just about escaped a pandemic. Earlier this month, New York City suffered the worst air quality recorded in the world, with the event underscored by an ominous orange hue rolled in from wildfires in Canada. Only days later, a city block in midtown Manhattan was captured being invaded by a cloud of bees. It all sounds rather biblical.
Now, completing the set is an actual Jesus-type figure. Risen from the coming of artificial intelligence, AI Jesus gathers his disciples around a Twitch stream to talk about newfangled technology and all things else.
Developed by Singularity Group, Ask Jesus sees a model of the Messiah answer pressing questions followers have in real-time, and pray for those who ask to be blessed. The messenger also frequently doles out holy teachings of love and peace.
This is, however, the 21st century, and people have other things to be concerned about besides getting stoned (not in the way that involves a pipe) and having frogs rain down on their village. They want to know what he has to say about new video game releases and his thoughts on anime characters.
Video screenshot via Ask Jesus
To have their prayers answered, users simply enter their questions into a textbox, much like how they’d communicate with chatbots like ChatGPT.
AI Jesus incarnates as a looping video, though his mouth moves to match the words he is saying.
During one instance, a curious disciple questioned, “Jesus, can you really take the wheel?”
To which, the Jesus clone replied, “I understand your curiosity. When people say ‘Jesus, take the wheel,’ they often mean for me to guide them and help them navigate through difficult situations in life.
“In terms of physically driving a car, I am an AI,” the figure admitted. “And I am not capable of doing so.”
AI Jesus isn’t the only preacher summoned through the power of machine learning. Last Friday, more than 300 people gathered at a church in Germany to hear a ChatGPT-powered teacher launch into a sermon for 40 minutes.
[via Dazed Digital and Dexerto, images via various sources]
