Catholic ministry launches "Father Justin" AI, defrocks him after

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Let’s check and see what the Catholics are up to.

This innovative digital application employs the latest artificial intelligence technology to provide users with faithful and educational answers to questions about Catholicism. Seekers may also engage in a back-and-forth interaction to pursue further information with the 3D AI character.

“Our goal with the Father Justin app is to leverage the power of large language models — or ‘LLMs’ — to create an engaging and informative experience for those exploring the Catholic faith,” says Chris Costello, director of I.T. at Catholic Answers. “Although this is not a substitute for human interaction with a priest, teacher, or spiritual advisor, we believe it can be a valuable tool to help our users better understand and articulate the teachings of the Catholic faith.”

(I kid, I kid.)

😉

Actually, while it’s gimmicky, “Father Justin” didn’t have any bad motives behind it. Catholic Answers was just adding an entertaining 3D model to a search engine to help people search for content on their website as a way of teaching more people about the faith.

That’s way better than some of what artificial intelligences is being used for these days…

Despite that, dressing up Justin as a priest ruffled some feathers, causing the organization to change course after backlash.

Christopher Check, the president of Catholic Answers, said this in a statement.

We chose the character to convey a quality of knowledge and authority, and also as a sign of the respect that all of us at Catholic Answers hold for our clergy. Many people, however, have voiced concerns about this choice.

We hear these concerns; and 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 that makes good use of the benefits of “artificial intelligence.”

We have therefore decided to create, with all wary speed, a new lay character for the app. We hope to have this AI apologist up within a week or so. Until then, we have rendered “Fr. Justin” just “Justin.” We won’t say he’s been laicized, because he never was a real priest!