Organized by the Section for Dialogue in the Public Sphere of the Missionary Department of the Archdiocese of Belgrade–Karlovci, a panel discussion entitled “The Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Mission of the Church – Where Are the Red Lines?” was held on November 10, 2025, at the Youth Centre in Belgrade.
Before a large and highly engaged audience, this important topic was addressed by Presbyter Dr. Oliver Subotić (Head of the Missionary Department), Prof. Dr. Dragan Novković (Academy of Technical and Art Vocational Studies, Belgrade), and Dr. Nenad Badovinac (Coordinator of the Section for Electronic Mission of the Missionary Department and researcher in the field of AI applications in industry). The discussion was moderated by Presbyter Dr. Aleksandar Milojkov, Coordinator of the Section for Dialogue in the Public Sphere.
The participants exchanged thought-provoking ideas on the use and misuse of AI, clearly highlighting the real challenges and dangers in the potential application of artificial intelligence in the Church’s mission, without excluding standard uses such as text translation, reference search, or illustration generation. The discussion also touched upon the broader question of technology itself, addressing the conceptual range of different technological solutions and the problem of the lack of value non-neutrality of large language AI models.
In the concluding part of the discussion, the participants agreed that the ultimate “red line” lies in ensuring that AI must never replace the living human person—that this new technology should remain a tool managed and controlled by humans, rather than becoming an instrument of human substitution or even transformation.
The discussion included a critical review of projects proposing the use of Church mission-related ChatBots, with particular reference to the Tumanko project. Similar reservations were expressed concerning recent AI-generated video clips depicting supposed Orthodox priests and nuns preaching in Serbian on various topics, which was rejected from the standpoint of Orthodox ecclesiology. This topic was also contextualized within a broader discussion on AI’s capacity to mislead viewers when content is not explicitly labelled as artificially generated.
From the comments of the audience, it was evident that such panel discussions significantly contribute to raising public awareness about the paths and pitfalls of modern technology and its application in various spheres of life. The discussions were deemed especially valuable for young people and their education, as they grow up surrounded by advanced technologies without prior experience of life without them.
In addition to numerous questions and suggestions, the quality of the panel discussion was notably enriched by the address from the audience of Professor Petar Kočović, a distinguished Serbian expert in information and communication technologies who professionally researches the application of AI in multiple fields. Also present in the audience was Dragan Tanaskoski from Mikro knjiga, an author of textbooks on artificial intelligence, who suggested that a similar panel on the use of AI should be organized annually.
The entire event was recorded by Television Hram and will soon be available on the station’s YouTube channel.
