Wouldn't it be comforting to have a priest accessible online, a man of the cloth who could offer you solace and advice right from the computer screen? A group called Catholic Answers apparently saw that potential in "Father Justin," an artificial intelligence-driven chatbot launched last week for the faithful—but the AI clergyman has since been stripped of his status after he offered some unusual advice and commentary to baffled users, reports Futurism.
Among the oddities disseminated from Father Justin's virtual pulpit:
- Despite being a computer-generated chatbot, Father Justin—described by Business Insider as "clad in black with a priest's collar and a fatherly gray beard"—apparently offered the sacrament and took confessions.
- "I am as real as the faith we share," he insisted to Futurism staff.
- Per that site's interactions with the bot, the good priest was also found to be a "hard-liner on social and sexual issues," noting that "the Catholic Church teaches that masturbation is a grave moral disorder."
- The Pillar asked Father Justin if a baby could be baptized with Gatorade "in an emergency," and the bot-priest replied in the affirmative.
Catholic Answers addressed the controversy on Wednesday, noting that from now on, "Father Justin" would be known simply as "Justin," a new "lay theologian," per Futurism. "We do not want the character to distract from the important purpose of the application, which is to provide sound answers to questions about the Catholic faith in an innovative way," the group said in a release. The group also insisted that Father Justin "never was a real priest" in the first place, so it would be inaccurate to say he's since been laicized or defrocked. In this video, however, the AI priest informed viewers he'd been ordained "in the beautiful city of Rome." Here, an in-depth interview with Catholic Answers COO Jon Sorensen on the creation of Father Justin. (More artificial intelligence stories.)
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