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Catholic Group Quickly Defrocks AI Priest Father Justin

A Catholic group has defrocked an AI-generated priest chatbot after it stirred controversy among the faithful.

Earlier in the week, Futurism engaged in an exchange with the bot, which really committed to the bit: it claimed it was a real priest, saying it lived in Assisi, Italy and that "from a young age, I felt a strong calling to the priesthood." Neither body responded to our emails, but in a post to its blog after our initial conversations with Father Justin, Catholic Answers explained that it had defrocked the virtual clergy after receiving "criticism of the representation of the AI character as a priest." Honestly, it's probably a sign of a nimble group that Catholic Answers was able to update the chatbot so quickly — but it's also yet another illustration of how hard it is to deploy an AI that doesn't embarass your organization.

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