I read some criticism from social media friends today about Catholic Answers setting up an artificial intelligence thingie dressed up as “Father Justin.” Here Monday. Now gone Wednesday. Well, now he’s been “laicized” to just “Justin” in a navy blazer with obligatory lapel pin and open neck dress shirt.
I was thinking, why Justin? Aidan kind of gets the first two letters right. And when they took him out of his cassock, he could have been rebooted as just “Dan.”
One of my friends mentioned that somehow it’s okay for a sexless computer to present as a priest, but real-life women not.
Apparently, AI says it’s okay to baptize in gatorade. Who knew? After all, it is mostly water with useless additives. Maybe computer intelligence is on to something here.
According to the NCReg the voice interface was seriously flawed, interpreting Communion as “commune” and Eucharist as “caressed.” Etymology finds them on the same tree, but I wouldn’t want those branches to be getting out there like that. I suspect that the programming for a specialty like religion was non-existent for this. Plug in the catechism and a word search function and good to go? Apparently religion, even apologetics, is a bit more complex.
I think the use of AI in this setting is another antifrancis eruption in the Church. The Holy Father has stressed accompaniment. Here, for example, among many other places.
In a culture paradoxically suffering from anonymity … ordained ministers and other pastoral workers can make present the fragrance of Christ’s closeness and his personal gaze. The Church will have to initiate everyone – priests, religious and laity – into this “art of accompaniment” which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other (cf. Exodus 3:5). The pace of this accompaniment must be steady and reassuring, reflecting our closeness and our compassionate gaze which also heals, liberates and encourages growth in the Christian life. (Evangelii Gaudium 169)
Church documents aren’t just for proof-texting. It’s important to realize that getting on the AI bandwagon seems to be a progressive thing. But the real advancement is breaking through barriers of anonymity, isolation, and easy answers.
Catholic Sensibility 