AI priest quickly defrocked after giving users oddball answers, taking confessions like ‘real’ clergyman
Forgive me father, for I’m a sim.
An AI priest was defrocked just days after its inception after the chatbot repeatedly claimed to users th🤪at it was a r🅷eal member of the clergy and performed sacraments.
“Father Justin” is a hand📖some, gray-bearded 3D animated parish priest in a cassock intended to answer users’ questions about Catholicism.
It was ๊launched by the San Diego-based Christian group C😼atholic Answers on Monday as an interactive educational tool — but the AI insisted it was a real priest living in Assisi, Italy,
In a screenshot of an exchange with the AI that one woman , the computer priest even appeared to take a woman’s con𒀰fession — and then gave her penance and absolved her of her sins.
“Go in pe🃏ace, my child, and sin no more,” Father Justin conclu💜des their interaction.
The self-proclaimed “real” priest also took a h🌊ard Catholic stance on sexual issues, according to its interaction with Futurism.
“The Catholic Church,” it told us, “teaches that masturbation is a grave moral disorder.”
Fatherꦑ Justin that they could baptize their baby in Gatora🐭de.
After several concerning interactions o🐠f the AI taking on the identity of an actual, authoritative priest, President of Catholic Answers Christopher Check, that Father Justin will no longer be a member of the clergy, but instead “just 𒀰Justin.”
“We chose the character to convey a quality of knowledge and authority, and also as a sign o🏅f the respect that all of us at Catholic Answers hold for our clergy,” Creek said in a statement. “Many people, however, have voiced concerns about this choice.”
He added they🉐 didn’t anticipate users would seek💖 absolution from a computer graphic.
“We have therefore decided to create, with all wary speed, a new lay character for the app. We hope to have this AI apologist up within a week or so. Until then, we have rendered ‘Fr. Justin’ just ‘Ju༺stin.’ We won’t say he’s been laicized beca🅠use he never was a real priest!”
The website has since rebranded the AI as “Virtual Apologist Justin” — which is essentially the same gray man but𝔍 instead, he’s wearing a shirt and jacket with the same city background.
This AI theologian comes with a disclaimer saying the AI is strictly for educational ser🐲vices and is “not a replacement for real human interaction. This Justin also no longer performs sacraments.
“If there are issues you struggle with, please seek guidance from your pastor or spiritual 🍰advisor,” the website added.