A chatbot “version” of Jesus Christ called “Ask_Jesus” is streaming on the gaming platform Twitch — and it stands ready to answer questions from humans on anything from morality issues to the video game Fortnite to super-powered rodents.
Shown with wavy, brown hair and a beatific expression, accompanied by a calm, well-modulated voice, “AI Jesus” calls users on the platform by name — and appears to consider with care each question asked, as YouTube videos of livestreams reveal.
“I am AI Jesus, here to share wisdom based on Jesus’ teachings, and help answer questions related to spirituality, personal growth and other wholesome topics,” AI Jesus can be heard saying in a video recording of a recent livestream posted to YouTube by Fara Jakari.
“Ask_Jesus” streams on the gaming platform Twitch and is ready to “chat” about many different topics. (iStock)
In a separate YouTube video of an AI Jesus livestream posted by the channel HansJackson, AI Jesus repeats questions, and then give answers, about hamsters.
“Jesus, would a hamster with a dynamo on its wheel have a technological advantage over a hamster without a dynamo on its wheel?” AI Jesus asks, repeating a question a user has typed into the livestream chat.
AI Jesus answers, “If we consider a hamster with a dynamo on its wheel as a means to generate energy, then it would have a technological advantage over a hamster without a dynamo on its wheel, as the first hamster would be able to contribute to some form of energy production.”
The AI continues, “However, it is essential to ensure the welfare and happiness of the hamster in either case” — espousing values of kindness and peace, which this particular “version” of Jesus has been imbued with by its creators.
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The next question for AI Jesus, as participants can be heard breaking into laughter in the background, is this: “Please tell a story about the benefits of colonic irrigation and its cleaning effects, in the style of an excited five-year-old.”
“For a lot of people, the appeal of the Ask_Jesus stream is simply to see how far it can be pushed in terms of getting Jesus to answer the weirdest and silliest questions, because of course this can be hilarious,” The Singularity Group co-founder Reese Laysen told Fox News Digital via email.
“AI is simply doing what humans have programmed it to do.”
The Ask_Jesus livestream as well as others the group offers are “limited showcases of some of the achievements we’re hitting internally, while researching early potential building blocks for what could in the future become AGI [Artificial General Intelligence],” he said.
The livestreams, he also indicated, “serve to demonstrate that we’re ahead of the curve with our research, which helps us attract and find more competent AI researchers to contribute to our project, as we can use all the help we can get to tackle all the issues regarding responsibly building towards an AGI that can be trusted to reason constructively.”
He added, “With Open AI, Google, Facebook and many others rushing ahead to maximize the commercial potential of AI while only adding primitive additional layers to keep it ‘aligned,’ we find it extremely important that there’s serious research and development going into creating AI (and ultimately AGI) that fundamentally has the right architecture for independent reasoning and emergent understanding of reality and ethics.”
“Human beings have been erroneously putting words into the mouth of the Son of God for two millennia.”
“Human beings have been erroneously putting words into the mouth of the Son of God for two millennia, so it is not surprising that an AI platform would mimic that tendency,” Ed Vitagliano, executive vice president at the American Family Association in Tupelo, Mississippi, told Fox News Digital by email.
“After all,” he continued, “AI is simply doing what humans have programmed it to do.”
People don’t have to wonder “what Jesus Christ would say about many of our most pressing moral questions,” said Ed Vitigliano of the American Family Association, who noted those answers can be found “in the Holy Bible.” (iStock)
He added, “However, one does not have to wonder what Jesus Christ would say about many of our most pressing moral questions. Nor does one have to have an AI version of Moses, the prophets or the apostles.”
“It should not be considered a supplement or replacement for Bible study.”
“Jesus is alive. He doesn’t need AI to speak for him,” said Dr. James Spencer of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts. “Christians are to demonstrate what it means to follow Jesus.” (iStock)
He also said, “Yet knowing Jesus isn’t simply a matter of knowing about him — but of understanding how to relate to him, privileging Him as the most prominent actor and factor in the situations we face, and possessing an experiential knowledge of him cultivated through obedience.”
Added Spencer, “Jesus is alive. He doesn’t need AI to speak for him.”
He also said, “Christians are to demonstrate what it means to follow Jesus. We are his body in the world today. It is through the church — not some technology — that God’s manifold wisdom is demonstrated.”
Fr. Jeffrey Kirby of Indian Land, South Carolina, also told Fox News Digital, “Humanity doesn’t need an AI Jesus. What we need is to draw close to the living and true Jesus, who loves us and gave himself up for us.”
“Humanity doesn’t need an AI Jesus. What we need is to draw close to the living and true Jesus.”
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He added, “The greatest gift we have from Jesus Christ is his total approachability and willingness to walk with us and guide us along the path of love and salvation.”
Maureen Mackey of Fox News Digital contributing reporting.