What one Finnish church learned from creating a service almost entirely with AI

What one Finnish church learned from creating a service almost entirely with AI

A tale of good versus evil played out on the large screen in the sanctuary of St. Paul’s Lutheran church in Finland. Jesus was shown in robes with long hair and a beard, while Satan was dressed in more modern clothes but with a menacing frown and higher-pitched voice — all created by artificial intelligence.

Also addressing the flock at the Tuesday evening service were avatars of the church’s pastors and a former president of Finland who died in 1986, reading from the Old Testament.

It was the first church service in Finland put together mostly by AI tools, which wrote the sermons and some of the songs, composed the music and created the visuals.

The widely advertised experimental service drew over 120 people to the church in northeastern Helsinki, much more than on a typical weeknight. People came from out of town as did a handful of foreigners who admitted they didn’t speak Finnish well enough to understand it all.

"Usually when people talk about AI, they are talking about what AI can do in the future. But the future is now. … AI can do all those things that people think that it can maybe do in 10 years or so,” said the Rev. Petja Kopperoinen, who came up with the idea and brought it to fruition.

Powered by Froala Editor