--- title: "ChatGPT Delivers Church Sermon, Tells Congregants Not to Fear Death" description: "Over 300 parishioners gathered in Germany last week to attend a church service written by ChatGPT and delivered by AI-powered avatars." date: "2023-06-13" modified: "2023-06-13" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/chatgpt-delivers-church-sermon" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "germany" - "religion" - "the digest" --- # ChatGPT Delivers Church Sermon, Tells Congregants Not to Fear Death ![Over 300 parishioners gathered in Germany last week to attend a church service written by ChatGPT and delivered by AI-powered avatars.]() *St Philips, Episcopal Church, Germantown, North Carolina, USA \Image: Getty Images\* ## GPT-Preach Over 300 parishioners gathered in Feurth, Germany last week to attend a church service written — and delivered — by AI, the [*Associated Press* reports](). "I conceived this service — but actually I rather accompanied it, because I would say about 98 percent comes from the machine," Jonas Simmerlein, a 29-year-old theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna and the human behind the AI sermon, told the *AP.* Per the report, Simmerlein used OpenAI's ChatGPT to write the service's script, which was delivered to a packed crowd during the country's [biennial Protestant convention]() by four AI-powered avatars. "Dear friends, it is an honor for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year's convention of Protestants in Germany," one avatar reportedly opened the sermon with what the *AP* described as an "expressionless face and monotonous voice," before launching into a ceremony that brought up themes of "leaving the past behind, focusing on the challenges of the present, overcoming fear of death, and never losing trust in Jesus Christ." First off, a religious service where the emotionless visage of an AI "preacher" tells a churchgoing crowd to release their fear of death and never quit loving Jesus doesn't *not* sound dystopian. But considering that there was reportedly a queue around the corner starting an hour before the event, maybe add preacher to the list of roles that might go the way of AI automation. ## Stations of the Bot On that note, a common complaint among service attendees seemed to be that the chatbots sounded a little too much like... bots. "There was no heart and no soul," Heiderose Schmidt, a 54-year-old IT worker, told the AP. "The avatars showed no emotions at all, had no body language, and were talking so fast and monotonously that it was very hard for me to concentrate on what they said." Another attendee, a 31-year-old Lutheran pastor named Marc Jansen, told the *AP* that he "had actually imagined it to be worse," but similarly noted that the AI-powered avatars failed to show any emotion or spirituality. But while the service was well-attended and the sermon, in the words of Simmerlein, was "pretty solid" as far as the words and structure, preachers aren't likely to be replaced just yet. "The pastor is in the congregation, she lives with them, she buries the people, she knows them from the beginning," Simmerlein told the *AP*. "Artificial intelligence cannot do that. It does not know the congregation." **More on AI:** [*OpenAI CEO Says He Loses Sleep over Decision to Release ChatGPT*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()