A Lutheran church in Germany made history as an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) chatbot led a worship service attended by over 300 people. ChatGPT, visualized as an avatar projected on a screen above the altar, delivered a forty-minute-long sermon discussing faith and the fear of death. The experiment, almost entirely generated by A.I., has raised questions about the future of religion and human spirituality. Many attendees expressed disappointment in the robot’s preaching, as ChatGPT lacked human emotion and connection. The A.I.-led sermon unveiled the paradox of a technological creation preaching about devotion, marking a new frontier for religious innovation.
