The robots and artificial intelligence they continue to advance and participate in more and more human activities, including religion. Although a recent study reveals that robot preachers and clergy-related AI programs do not yet enjoy great credibility.
According to research published by the American Psychological Associationas Artificial Intelligence expands to more professions, robot preachers and AI programs offer new means of sharing religious beliefs, but they can undermine credibility and reduce donations from religious groups that trust them.
“We discovered that the people who watched the robot deliver the sermon were less likely to donate to the temple and were less willing to spread the message of the sermon they had heard,” Joshua Conrad Jackson, principal investigator and adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, told Metro.
To reach this conclusion, a group of researchers, led by Jackson, conducted several field experiments with religious robots and Artificial Intelligence programs to observe people’s reactions and the level of trust and donations they generated.
In the first experiment, tested the Mindar humanoid robot in the Kodai-Ji Buddhist temple in Kyoto (Japan). She has a human-like silicone face with moving lips and blinking eyes on a metal body, and delivers 25-minute sermons on Buddhist principles in the Heart Sutra with surround sound and multimedia projections.
the researchers surveyed 398 participants leaving the temple after listening to a sermon delivered by Mindar or a human Buddhist priest. The participants considered that Mindar was less credible and they donated less than those who listened to the human priest.
“It seems like robots are taking over more occupations every year, but I wouldn’t be so sure that religious leaders would become fully automated because they need credibility, and robots are not credible.”
— Joshua Conrad Jackson, an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
In other experiment carried out in a taoist temple in singapore, half of the 239 participants heard a sermon from a human priest and the other half from a humanoid robot named Pepper. The result was similar: the robot was considered less credible and inspired fewer donations. Participants who heard the robot’s sermon said they were less likely to share its message or distribute pamphlets to support the temple.
Although the participants considered the human preachers more credible, the competition with the robots was close. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most credible, the robot preachers received an average credibility score of 3.12, compared to 3.51 for human preachers.
A third experiment involved 274 American Christians who read a sermon online. Half of the participants were told that they had been written by a human preacher, while the other half were told that the sermon had been generated by a very advanced AI program. Participants in the AI sermon group said the sermon was less credible because they felt the program was less capable of thinking or feeling like a human.
“Robots and AI programs cannot truly support any religious beliefsa, so faith-based organizations may see the engagement of their congregations diminish if they rely more on technology than on human leaders who can demonstrate their faith,” Jackson concluded.
religious robots
Holy
This robot created by Professor Gabriele Trovato is a statuette placed inside a niche which, when activated, asks the person in front of it: “What is your name, my son?”. Thus begins their conversation, in which he recounts the biography of the saint of the day, answers questions of theological interest and even offers advice using quotes from the Church Fathers or significant contemporary saints.
Mindar
Mindar is a robotic androgynous priest able to deliver sermons that serve to stimulate the Buddhist teachings. Visitors to the Buddhist temple in Kyoto (Japan) can enjoy him reciting in a room against vanity, anger and egoin addition to warning men about the danger of desire.
Buddhist robot priest
The Japanese company Nissei Eco Co has introduced a new function for SoftBank’s “Pepper” humanoid robot: Buddhist priest for hire for funerals. The robot, which chants sutras in a computerized voice while beating the drum, could fill in for a priest when he’s not available, and its services cost less than the human priest’s.
Interview
joshua conrad jackson
Professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Q: Why are robot preachers and artificial intelligence programs emerging?
– We don’t know why, but it seems to be part of a broader trend where automation is seeping into all sectors of work.
Q: How do these types of robots and programs work?
– They are different according to the place. Mindar stands in a room and recites a sermon while lights and sounds play throughout the room. Other robots have different functions. In 2017, the “Bless-U-2″ robot was installed in the Wittenberg Lutheran State Church, where it reads blessings in five languages. The AI-powered SanTO robot was distributed in 2019 to South American Catholics with the promise of hearing confessions and offering personalized encouragement from the Bible.
Q: Tell us more about your experiments.
– We carried out two field studies. In the first, we surveyed people leaving Kodai-ji Temple and asked whether or not they had seen Mindar give a sermon. We found that people who had seen Mindar donated less to the temple. In the second study, we collaborated with a Taoist temple and randomly chose whether people listened to a sermon from a robot or from a person. We found that people who watched the robot deliver the sermon were less likely to donate to the temple and less willing to spread the message of the sermon they had heard.
Q: Why do robots have less credibility and receive fewer donations?
– People perceive that robots have less mental capacity than humans, especially in their ability to feel and understand, but also in their ability to think and decide. These mind-perceiving qualities are essential to cultivating credibility: a robot cannot genuinely believe in supernatural agents if it does not have the capacity to believe, and it cannot engage in potentially costly behavior such as celibacy if it cannot feel. the cost. Unlike human religious elites, who profess a deep commitment to their faith that leads them to sacrifice time and material goods, robots are simply programmed to deliver sermons or blessings without genuine understanding, commitment, or suffering for their religious group.