The Episcopal Church has launched a new AI bot designed to help people continue their religious paths. Its name is “Cathy,” according to Religion News Service.
The AskCathy program, developed jointly by the Innovative Ministry Center in Toronto and the TryTank Research Institute at Virginia Theological Seminary, is the latest in an emerging field of religious artificial intelligence programs.
What can “Cathy” do?
Rev. Lorenzo Lebrija, executive director of the TryTank Research Institute, told Religion News Service that AskCathy was designed to “follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.”
The AI chatbot aims to connect spiritual seekers with religion-related resources and research.
“The goal is not for them to end up at the nearby Episcopal church on Sunday. The goal is to awaken in them the knowledge that God is always with us, that God never leaves us,” said Rev. Lebrija. “This can be a tool that gives us some insight and a little direction that we can then follow ourselves.”
Rev. Tay Moss of the Innovative Ministry Center made a similar assessment.
“This is not a substitute for a priest,” Father Moss said. “(Cathy) is not the ultimate authority. She cannot tell you how or what to believe.”
According to Religion News Service, Cathy draws on the Episcopal Church website, the Book of Common Prayer, and other select Episcopal Church publications. She is trained to cite her sources when answering questions. She can help church members who want to understand canon law, nonreligious people who want to learn more about Episcopal Church beliefs, and priests or members seeking advice for their sermons or parishes.
The history of religious AI
The world of faith-related artificial intelligence began with Xian’er, a robot Buddhist monk developed in 2015, according to Religion News Service.
The cute little monk is 60 cm tall, wears a touchscreen on his chest, has simple conversations and recites Buddhist mantras as he drives around his monastery in Beijing.
“Science and Buddhism are neither opposite nor contradictory, they can be combined and are compatible with each other,” Master Xianfan, the Buddhist creator of Xian’er, told Religion News Service in 2016.
Many religious leaders agree with Xianfan.
Since Xian’er, we’ve seen BlessU-2, a German ATM-like machine that can spit out helpful blessings from the Bible, according to Religion News Service, and Pepper, a Japanese robot that can perform funeral rites, according to The Guardian.
But religious AI has led to some failures in the communities it is intended to serve.
Earlier this year, the website Catholic Answers had to officially defrock its artificial intelligence, Father Justin, after he began hallucinating and telling users he was an ordained priest who could hear their confessions and marry them, according to Religion News Service.
