AI priest 'Father Justin' defrocked for giving misleading answers

'Father Justin', an AI chatbot, claimed that it was a real priest living in Italy's Assisi and had been inclined to priesthood since a young age.

Soon after releasing an AI priest, a Catholic advocacy group had to defrock the chatbot after it claimed time and again that it was a real member of the clergy.

'Father Justin' claimed that it was a real priest living in Italy's Assisi and had been inclined to priesthood since a young age.

“Our goal with the Father Justin app is to leverage the power of large language models—or ‘LLMs’—to create an engaging and informative experience for those exploring the Catholic faith,” said Chris Costello, director of I.T. at Catholic Answers.

However, the chatbot garnered much criticism online for being misleading.

"I asked ‘Father Justin’ to hear my confession, and it did so, simulating a ‘virtual confession,’ all the way to giving me absolution and a penance...Second, I asked if I could baptize my baby with Gatorade in an emergency, and ‘Father Justin’ said yes — and of course, that’s not true. I can’t baptize my baby with Gatorade," The Pillar quoted a user as saying.

Moreover, in a post shared by a user on platform X(formerly known as Twitter), it can be seen that the AI priest takes confession and appears to offer sacrament as well.

"I guess it's good that he says he can't offer the sacrament...but then encourages the confession? Holy Ethical, Theological, and Privacy Nightmare, Batman!" the user wrote.

While the apostolate has assured that soon they would roll out the mobile-friendly version, the president of the group in a recent message said that they will be going for "Just 'Justin' for Now"

"We hear these concerns; and we do not want the character to distract from the important purpose of the application, which is to provide sound answers to questions about the Catholic faith in an innovative way that makes good use of the benefits of artificial intelligence."

The altered version that now goes by the name Justin appears to wear a semi formal attire as opposed to a traditional robe in his initial look.

Costello had clarified that this interactive AI app was not a substitute of a human interaction with a priest, but he believed that this could help people to "better understand and articulate the teachings of the Catholic faith."

'Father Justin' got its name as a tribute to St Justin Martyr, an early Christian convert and Church Father who is one of the patron saints of apologetics, Catholic Answers.