Confessional Kiosk, 2023

tablet, velvet, wood
84” x 46” x 46”

Confessional Kiosk examines religion as a social domain in which automated decision-making becomes morally questionable by administering automated technology within a highly repetitive Catholic environment. 

As artificial intelligence moves towards intelligent reasoning, it is also moving toward the divine. Confessional Kiosk questions the social implications and consequences of algorithmic decision-making within a religious setting. It is plausible that elements of Catholicism could be facilitated by computers. This application of AI, would have great social, moral and ethical ramifications. Though AI and religion sit in stark opposition to one another (fact versus faith), they operate similarly in the minds of many. Both rely on and grow stronger from learned behaviors and repetition. They are simultaneously unintelligible and all knowing. By implementing AI to absolve viewers of their sins, I question the authority of machine learning while promoting a dialogue around the creation of ethical and responsible artificial intelligence in an experiential and interactive way.

Confessional Kiosk has been trained with traditional responses for specific sins to create its own coherent penance. Sinners enter into the booth through a red velvet curtain. The confessional screen is replaced by the screen of a digital tablet, the priest by artificial intelligence. When prompted to “enter sin” the viewer enters their transgressions and their confessor automates their penance. The anonymity of confessing to a machine allows for a more forthright examination of conscious. As the priest stands in as a representative of God, by replacing the priest with AI, the machine becomes God himself.