'AI Jesus' enters the confessional: Blasphemy or bold experiment?



Critics have accused a historic Catholic church in a woke Swiss bishop's diocese of engaging in blasphemy and heresy for having a pseudo-AI masquerade as Christ in a confessional.

The controversial project, which has an animated depiction of Jesus on a computer monitor field questions from parishioners, is the result of a collaboration between Marco Schmid, the resident theologian at St. Peter's Chapel in Lucerne, and a duo from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts' Immersive Realities Research Lab, Philipp Haslbauer and Aljosa Smolic.

According to the university, the project, which was launched in August, explores "the use of virtual characters based on generative artificial intelligence in a spiritual context."

"This installation allows visitors to interact with an artificial Jesus Christ in a hundred different languages, who will respond to their questions and offer answers," the university continued in its release. "Can a machine address people in a religious and spiritual way? To what extent can people confide in a machine with existential questions and accept its answers? How does AI behave in a religious context? The 'Deus in Machina' project encourages us to think about the limits of technology in the context of religion."

On Wednesday, the chapel once again referred to its Jesus-themed chatbot as "God in the machine," using the Latin, "Deus in machina," and characterized it further as a "heavenly hologram" and "experimental art installation" that "opens up a space of intimacy."

According to the chapel, one supposed benefit of having the multilingual "AI Jesus" spit out data scraped from the internet is that because "AI is based on data and algorithms, it could provide answers that are free from personal or cultural biases, which can be surprising, especially in controversial or sensitive topics."

Schmid, who maintains that the graven image effectively mocking the sacrament was placed in the confessional for pragmatic not sacramental reasons, told the Guardian, "We wanted to see and understand how people react to an AI Jesus. What would they talk with him about? Would there be interest in talking to him? We're probably pioneers in this."

When discussing who they would like to see parrot answers generated by a machine, Schmid and his collaborators initially considered persons other than Jesus Christ. "We had a discussion about what kind of avatar it would be — a theologian, a person, or a saint? But then we realized the best figure would be Jesus himself," said Schmid.

St. Peter's Chapel is playing with fire with its placement of the chatbot in the confessional and ascription of computer-generated answers to a potentially "idiotic" avatar depicting Christ.

The chapel admitted at the outset that its "AI Jesus" could "give incomprehensible, and in some cases stupid and idiotic answers."

'It has nothing to do with a sacramental encounter.'

Incomprehensibility on the part of the chatbot is hardly the worst that could happen. The bot's reliance on online sources makes it susceptible to passing off views contrary to Catholic teaching. As a result, the nominal Catholics behind the project might have unwittingly installed a heretical machine with a Jesus mask to answer theological questions in the chapel.

Furthermore, while Schmid stressed, "We are not intending to imitate a confession," they came dangerously close.

Rev. Thomas Rausch, a professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University, recently told USA Today that the installation is in no way a substitute for the sacrament of reconciliation, citing canon laws 965 and 966, which underscore only priests can hear confessions.

"Confession, or 'Reconciliation' as it is usually termed today, is an ecclesial sacrament, always private, celebrated with a penitent and a priest who has been authorized by the Church to proclaim God's forgiveness," said Rev. Rausch. "AI is a non-ecclesial, impersonal set of technologies, which assembles collections of data into a programmed readout. It has nothing to do with a sacramental encounter."

David DeCosse, a religious studies professor and ethics expert at Santa Clara University, told the paper, "It's almost a textbook case of the limits of AI in terms of all that we miss when we depart from the bodily, the interpersonal, the face, the subtleties, and feelings of human memory."

While the installation may be radical, Bishop Felix Gmür, the Swiss bishop who oversees the dioceses, is similarly unorthodox.

The Catholic News Agency indicated that Gmür has called for the ordination of women, the end of priestly celibacy, and a decentralization of the church. He has also called for the church to "find meaning" for homosexual unions.

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Swiss suicide pod’s debut turns darker: Doctor raises murder suspicion over victim’s neck injuries



The death of a 64-year-old woman is under criminal investigation as Swiss prosecutors determine whether or not the death was an intentional homicide despite being first thought to be assisted suicide.

The American mother of two, who has not been named, was initially thought to have died inside a capsule called the Sarco in Merishausen, Switzerland, in late September.

Now, a Swiss prosecutor is alleging the woman may have been strangled in an "intentional homicide." A forensic doctor also testified that the woman had, among other things, severe neck injuries.

The Sarco device is a suicide pod meant to allow users to push a button to inject nitrogen gas into the chamber, causing death by suffocation.

The company behind the pod is a firm called the Last Resort. The company commented on the matter, saying, “On Monday 23 September, at approximately 16.01 CEST, a 64-year old woman from the mid-west in the USA died using the Sarco device.”

Co-president of the organization Florian Willet called the woman's death “peaceful, fast and dignified.” He added that it occurred under “a canopy of trees, at a private forest retreat.”

According to LBC, Willet was the only person physically present when the woman died, with Sarco inventor Philip Nitschke reportedly following the process via video call. However, he allegedly did not see the entire process due to technical difficulties.

Willet has been in custody for weeks since the woman's death, originally because the pod is illegal. At the time, Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the Swiss parliament that the use of the Sarco was not legal.

Fiona Stewart, member of the advisory board and COO of the Last ResortPhoto by ARND WIEGMANN/AFP via Getty Images

'She's still alive, Philip.'

The Last Resort has said its program is legal, however, and does not require specific approval because the user presses the button. The company also states that the user must prove sound mental capacity before the act is carried out.

The woman who allegedly took her own life with the machine reportedly did so because of a bone marrow infection.

However, when Willet spoke to Nitschke over the video call, he reportedly told the inventor, "She's still alive, Philip."

The comment reportedly came six and a half minutes after the user pressed the button in the machine.

The court also allegedly heard that Willet was continuously leaning over the Sarco to look inside and was confused by an alarm that may have been a heart-rate monitor.

An unspecified number of people were arrested following the woman's death, likely from the Last Resort company. However, all have since been released except for Willet.

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Report: Scientists can now control lightning with lasers



Humanity now boasts the ability once attributed to mythological gods such as Zeus, Marduk, and Thor.

Scientists atop a Swiss mountain proved themselves capable of steering lightning bolts using lasers, effectively deflecting four lightning strikes on a telecommunications tower.

While this field of research has been active for decades, physicist Aurélien Houard of the École Polytechnique and his team documented the first experiment that demonstrates the efficacy of lightning guidance using lasers.

Where there's thunder, there may be lasers

In a study published Monday in the academic journal Nature Photonics, researchers discussed how laser-induced beams of light, formed in the sky via intense and repeated laser pulses, can guide lightning bolts over considerable distances.

The scientists experimented on the Säntis mountain in northeastern Switzerland during the summer of 2021 with a "high-repetition-rate terawatt laser."

They set up this 1.5 meter by 8 meter laser, weighing in at over three tons, nearby a telecommunication tower that is struck by lightning over 100 times a year.

The scientists activated their laser as a lightning rod "with a propagation path passing in the vicinity of the top of the [telecommunication] tower" during thunderstorms, as seen here:

\u201cLaser beam used to successfully divert lightning strikes!\nA laser lightning rod has been placed at a Swiss mountain top to protect telecommunication towers! The laser is 6x more effective than standard lightning rods! \u26a1\ufe0f\n#TechNews #laser #lightning\u201d
— Digital Daze (@Digital Daze) 1673977526

The telecommunication tower, itself equipped with a lightning rod, was struck by 16 lightning bolts between July 21 and Sept. 30, 2021. Only four of these strikes occurred during the 6.3 hours the scientists had their laser operational and targeting the thunderclouds above.

In all four cases, the laser reportedly steered the lightning discharges.

According to the Guardian, the laser steers the lightning flashes by "creating an easier path for the electrical discharge to flow along."

"When very high power laser pulses are emitted into the atmosphere, filaments of very intense light form inside the beam," Jean-Pierre Wolf, one of the study's authors, told Sky News. "These filaments ionise nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the air, which release electrons that are free to move. This ionised air, called plasma, becomes an electrical conductor."

The scientists indicated that snapshots of one of the events showed "that the lightning strike initially follows the laser path over most of the initial 50 m distance."

According to the study, this achievement "will lead to progress in lightning protection and lightning physics."

The Hill reported that there were nearly 198 million lighting events in the U.S. in 2022, which altogether claimed the lives of 19 people. The ability to divert and/or steer lightning could therefore be lifesaving.

"This work paves the way for new atmospheric applications of ultrashort lasers and represents an important step forward in the development of a laser based lightning protection for airports, launchpads or large infrastructures," wrote the researchers.

Whereas the "laser conditions" in this experiment had a length of at least 30 meters, Sky News noted that future devices could extend a ten-meter lightning rod by 500 meters, offering far more protection.

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Man who gave Hunter Biden laptop hard drive to NY Times, WaPo flees to Switzerland over fears for his safety



The man who distributed the Hunter Biden laptop hard drive to media organizations and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has reportedly fled to Switzerland over fears the Biden administration will retaliate against him.

What are the details?

Jack Maxey, the man who provided the hard drive to numerous media outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post, told the Daily Mail that he fled to Zurich two weeks ago over fears for his personal safety.

While there, Maxey said he is working with IT experts to continue a forensic examination of the hard drive.

"I came here so that we could do a forensic examination of Hunter's laptop safely in a country that still respects human liberty and the ideals of liberal democratic principles," Maxey said. "I do not believe this would have been possible inside the United States. We had numerous attempts on us from trying to do things like this there."

Maxey reportedly received a copy of the laptop hard drive from Rudy Giuliani, who received a copy from the owner of a Delaware computer shop where the laptop was allegedly abandoned by Hunter Biden in 2019.

Maxey claimed in his interview with the Daily Mail that black SUVs appeared outside his home last year after he contacted media outlets about the hard drive.

Maxey also told the Daily Mail that he has recovered "450 gigabytes of deleted material" on the hard drive, including more than 120,000 archived emails and tens of thousands of pictures and videos. The "erased material" is going to be published online, British newspaper the Times reported.

What is the background?

Hunter Biden, and controversy surrounding his purported laptop, was thrust back into the national spotlight after the New York Times and Washington Post reported they had authenticated the emails from the laptop as belonging to Hunter.

As the Justice Department's investigation into Hunter continues, new revelations involving Hunter are making headlines, including the allegation that Joe Biden wrote a college letter of recommendation for the son of one of Hunter's Chinese business associates in 2017. The White House is not commenting on the allegation.

Meanwhile, CBS News reported this week that "more than 150 financial transactions involving either Hunter or James Biden's global business affairs were flagged as concerning by U.S. banks for further review." James Biden is the president's brother.

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