Sacred Meets Synthetic: A Multi-Method Study on the First AI Church Service

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming society, including religious practices and experiences of religious communities. The first large-scale AI church service took place in 2023 in Germany as a Protestant Christian worship event within a biannual religious celebration. Studying this religious service illustrates how AI was developed as a religious agent and provides insights into the experiences of attendees. This research note presents data from a quantitative survey and two qualitative questionnaires of participants conducted at the AI worship service. Findings show diversity of opinion and a range of attendee experiences. By presenting the results of qualitative and quantitative analysis, this research note highlights the possibilities and limitations of incorporating AI into the religious sphere. While most of the responses were skeptical, participants also reported having spiritual experiences. Nevertheless, attendees also reported conflicting feelings regarding experiences of community within an artificial setting. The main concerns were technological limitations, fear of replacing humans, biases in the theology of the underlying large language model, and lack of personality and emotion. Age-based differences include younger attendees finding the AI service more attractive while older attendees found the AI service more stimulating. Implications are drawn for practical theology and AI implementation within religious settings.

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