Megachurch Pastor Creates A.I. Version of Himself So Congregants Can Have ‘Personalized, 1-on-1 Interactions’
Ron Carpenter is a senior pastor of Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville, South Carolina. According to his church bio, he is “recognized as a leader of leaders” and has “advised, consulted, and mentored CEOs, pastors, and political leaders around the world for over two decades.”
Readers of Protestia will recognize him for the messy saga where he sued his former church for a $6.25M retirement package, for having a parsonage appraised at $7.2M, and for teaching weird gnosticism and law of attraction nonsense.
Carpenter is nothing if not busy, however, and he has teased “The Ron Carpenter Ministries Advanced Archive” app which is “a unique place where people from every background, race, and walk of life come together in a place of community and purpose.”
The app will let users “transcend traditional time and access barriers by enabling 1-on-1 personalized interactions not possible before now,” and where “Over 30 years of experience makes the voice of Pastor Ron Carpenter an invaluable asset to any leader.”
Notably, we are told that “the software grows along with you, referencing past conversations, and personalizing responses.”
In short, people can have their “own personal pastor.”
Using the example of someone asking him to pray for them, an AI-generated version of Carpenter will proceed to pray saying “Hey there, I’m sorry to hear you’re not feeling well. Let’s take a moment to pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank you that you know us and hear us. Right now, I lift up my friend to you. I ask for your healing touch to be upon.”
Thankfully, Carpenter’s AI pastor is behind a $49 paywall, so hopefully, that will dissuade most people from being tempted to use this thing.
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“I ask for your healing touch to be upon.”
Sounds like they were worried AI Ron would go pronoun wonky if they let it use pronouns, and now its dropping accusative pronouns and making ungrammatical sentences. The healing touch that’s upon, without being upon anyone.