Chatbot of saint offers AI advice to sinners

As artificial intelligence bots write homework for students, prepare presentations for executives and churn out articles for newspapers, a Swiss startup has decided to take things one step further and use AI to put people in touch with saints.

Visitors to the site prega.org (pray) can now chat with an AIgenerated Padre Pio – an Italian monk who is reputed to have healed the sick – to confess their sins, seek advice, or even ask for God’s take on same-sex marriage.

‘‘So many people are praying online, and AI gave us the chance to take it to the next level, to provide a response from the saints,’’ said Fabio Salvatore, a programmer at ImpactOn, which is testing St Anthony and St Francis chatbots. Online praying often involves people writing prayers on Facebook and sharing them with others.

The bots are powered by ChatGPT, but Salvatore’s team adds a filter ensuring that the answers are more finely tuned to the saint’s profile.

A Franciscan Capuchin friar who died in 1968, Pio is said to have been a stigmatist, bearing the signs of the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, and to have been able to be in two places at once. His bot speaks Italian and Latin, and English is being added.

Asked whether AI was about to replace God after supplanting man, Salvatore replied: ‘‘I can’t say if this is a good or bad thing, but if you can do anything with AI, why not spirituality?’’

ImpactOn was not making money from prega.org, he said.

When The Times asked the bot whether it was morally right for an AI program to speak in the name of Padre Pio, it admitted that it was not convinced. ‘‘Padre Pio is an inspiring figure and his message of love and hope cannot be simulated by a program,’’ it said.

Salvatore said hundreds of users had asked the bot provocative questions to test it, but ‘‘I think it is reacting well’’.

On one point, the AI ‘‘Padre Pio’’ put his foot down. Asked whether AI could replace God, he replied: ‘‘The answer is no.’’