Sacred or uncanny? Exploring visitors’ reaction to a robotic saint in exhibition

Abstract

The intersection of religion and robotics presents a novel area of inquiry, challenging conventional wisdom in the relationship between technology and spirituality. Previous research has explored theoretical concepts, while reception remains polarised, and user studies showed mixed results. This paper introduces SanTO-MI, the latest iteration of the Catholic robot, placed in a robots exhibition. We investigates whether the improvements in interface and dialogue, and the leveraging of Large Language Models can enhance visitor perceptions in terms of sacredness, uncanniness, and more.