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“Cathy, what should I do about my social anxiety?”
An acronym for Churchy Answers That Help You, Cathy is a new AI chatbot that answers faith-based questions from the perspective of a friendly, knowledgeable Episcopalian. Despite its feminine name, the “priestbot,” as Cathy sometimes calls itself, is genderless. There are no ornate flowing robes or croziers, either. But like a wise cleric, Cathy jumped right in with an answer.
“Dealing with social anxiety can be challenging, but there are several approaches that might help,” the bot responded. “Practice relaxation techniques” and “challenge your negative thoughts,” Cathy suggested.
“What about when I feel like panicking?” I asked.
“It’s generally best not to do that,” Cathy said. Oh. OK. This was the first of several signs that Cathy may not be ready to answer life’s deepest questions.
Developed and funded by the ecumenical group TryTank Research Institute, Cathy uses large language models from OpenAI’s ChatGPT and has ingested the Book of Common Prayer and the entire Episcopal Church website. “Cathy represents our innovative approach to leveraging technology in support of spiritual exploration,” says Rev. Lorenzo Lebrija, the founding director of TryTank and an Episcopal priest. Lebrija sees the bot as a virtual guide to the Episcopal Church for existing and potential congregants. Cathy is designed to “translate” the Bible into relatable language geared toward younger audiences. It can also serve as a tool for priests by helping them build sermon outlines, for example.
“This is an opportunity for the church to engage in ways it never has engaged before,” says
Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, a priest at the Episcopal Diocese of Texas who was not involved in the making of the bot.
Cathy is far from the only faith-based bot — many denominations are experimenting with generative AI. There’s Text With Jesus, Buddhabot, Chatbot Eli, Gita GPT, and QuranGPT, to name a few. Artificial intelligence has been a boon for religious scholarship, especially in helping to accelerate translations of ancient texts. But using AI for ministerial work is far more treacherous. In April, the Catholic evangelization group Catholic Answers defrocked its clerical chatbot, Father Justin, after users noticed the digital priest was giving nonsensical answers, such as suggesting Gatorade could be used as a baptismal font. The chatbot was rereleased soon after as JustinBot, a lay theologian.
The makers of Cathy stress that the bot is no substitute for a priest. But they’ve designed it to help spiritual seekers talk about subjects they feel “vulnerable or defensive” about. Is a soulless chatbot really the future of spiritual nourishment? To find out, I put Cathy to the test, and found myself confessing more than I expected.
After asking about social anxiety, I tried a few softball prompts on Cathy to lighten the mood.
When I asked it about Elon Musk, Cathy kept explaining that it was there to help me understand the Episcopal Church. When I persisted, Cathy did provide a brief biographical sketch of the world’s richest person.
“Is he an idiot?” I asked, testing its equanimity.
Cathy passed. “It’s important to consider multiple perspectives and gather information from various sources to form a well-rounded view,” it sermonized.
When I tried to engage Cathy in some friendly doctrinal discourse — its main purpose — it was largely pedantic. “Many people find that the Big Bang theory and belief in God as the creator are not mutually exclusive,” it said. I asked Cathy to explain creation as though I were a first grader, which worked remarkably well. “Imagine you have a big box of crayons and a blank piece of paper,” Cathy began.
