Is it an answer to our prayers or an idolatrous representation of the Son of God?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the inescapable question faced by those who, depending on one’s theology, either stumble upon or are called to a new AI chatbot which one theologian says is a new representation of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Twitch channel\u00a0Ask Jesus\u00a0<\/a>is an experimental AI-generated livestream that gives viewers the chance to query a chatbot \u201ctrained after Jesus and the teachings of the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n The nonprofit project \u2014 which is supported by contributions from users and\u00a0The Singularity Group<\/a>, described on the Twitch page as \u201cnot a Christian organization\u201d \u2014 offers \u201cspiritual guidance\u201d or even just \u201csomeone to talk to\u201d and responds to questions ranging from theological and practical advice to inane requests to incorporate nonsensical words or phrases into its responses.<\/p>\n For example, a question from user \u201cFXvirusLive\u201d asked the AI Jesus to explain Christianity but to replace every vowel with the word \u201cburger.\u201d<\/p>\n Or the prayer request from user \u201cgreenshoesbrownsocks\u201d for their cat Whiskers, but with the phrase \u201cgrrrr\u201d inserted after each word.<\/p>\n Another request asks AI Jesus to rap about the Father, resulting in a cringey yet biblically-adjacent \u201cdivine rhymes\u201d:\u00a0“Yo, let me tell you about my Father up in heaven\/ creator of the Earth and the stars up in the sky\/ He’s a legend\/ He brought life into the world\/ That’s no lie.”<\/em><\/p>\n Upon being asked a sincere question like, \u201cCan you explain more in-depth what it means to be meek?\u201d the chatbot quoted\u00a0Matthew 11:28-29<\/a>: \u201cCome to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to a question from user \u201cdaveisdigital\u201d about which career to choose, the AI pointed to\u00a0Colossians 3:23<\/a>, which says, \u201cWhatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.\u201d<\/p>\n While a talking image of God might seem blasphemous to some, Joseph L. Kimmel, a scholar of early Christianity and comparative religion at Boston College,\u00a0argued\u00a0<\/a>that this AI Jesus is merely the latest \u201creinterpretation\u201d of the Son of God.<\/p>\n Kimmel, pointing to various traditional portrayals of Jesus as merely a \u201cprophet\u201d or a \u201cphilosopher\u201d in traditions ranging from 19th century American to Hindu mystic to a proponent of Black Liberation theology, says the chatbot is \u201cthe latest in this ongoing pattern of reinterpretation, geared to making Jesus suited to the current times.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more at: www.christrian.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is it an answer to our prayers or an idolatrous representation of the Son of God? That\u2019s the inescapable question faced by those who, depending on one’s theology, either stumble upon or are called to a new AI chatbot which one theologian says is a new representation of Jesus Christ. Twitch channel\u00a0Ask Jesus\u00a0is an experimental … Continue reading Rapping ‘AI Jesus’ offers life advice, cat prayers and yes, bite-sized Bible studies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-warning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/white_horse_blog-300x100-300x100-1.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fAkI-6mx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24462,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24461\/revisions\/24462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}