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The Vatican will offer artificial intelligence (AI)- assisted live translations of Mass in 60 languages, as the Catholic Church embraces and heeds warnings about the technology.
The service will allow worshippers to follow services on their smartphones and is set to launch next week during the main celebrations at St. Peter’s Basilica, which marks the Fourth Centenary of the church’s dedication, which runs from 1626 to 2026.
“Saint Peter’s Basilica has, for centuries, welcomed the faithful from every nation and tongue,” Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica and Vatican City Vicar General, said in a statement.
“In making available a tool that helps many to understand the words of the liturgy, we wish to serve the mission that defines the centre of the Catholic Church, universal by its very vocation,” he added.
The AI translation will work by QR code that attendees can scan at the entrances to the Vatican. They will then have real-time audio and text translations through their web browsers, without the need to download an app.
The translation system uses Lara, an AI developed by language solutions company Translated, which is in collaboration with Carnegie-AI LLC and Professor Alexander Waibel, a pioneer in AI-powered speech translation.
Asked whether the AI translation tool can hallucinate or make errors, Translated’s CEO and cofounder said every translation comes with errors, but “Lara has made a significant step forward in reducing them”.
“Lara is designed for accuracy rather than eagerness to please. This significantly limits hallucinations. Lara also uses more context than previous technologies, enabling it to disambiguate meaning much more effectively,” he told Euronews Next.
Meanwhile, Waibel is a scientific advisor on the project and said the technology was a significant demonstration of AI’s potential to foster human understanding.
“Today, we see the possibility to break language barriers in
real time, realised in one of the most meaningful settings imaginable,” he said.
While the Vatican appears to be accepting AI, Pope Leo XIV said in May that AI poses challenges to defending “human dignity, justice and labour”.