Pastors.ai takes Grand Prize at the 2024 AI & the Church Hackathon

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Anchor lead-in: Pastors.ai, a tech startup led by founder Joe Suh, won the 2024 AI and the Church Hackathon in Boulder, Colorado. The AI-powered translation tool is designed to help churches reach new audiences by translating video programming into multiple languages, highlighting the potential of AI in global evangelism.

[00:00:00] All right, the hackathon, big award, $100,000 goes to Pastors.ai.
As winners of the 2024 AI and the Church Hackathon, Pastors.ai and their founder, Joe Suh, are exploiting the power of artificial intelligence to reach people from other language groups.
Pastors.ai, why don’t you say a word? We’re just thrilled to be here. We came here last year.
Pastors.ai won this year’s hackathon by developing a translation tool designed to open up new audiences for churches that create video programming.
And I consider everyone here a peer because we’re all building for a kingdom. So thank you.
We found Joe demonstrating his AI powered app for a fellow software developer who shares his interest in language translation.
My name is Eric Celerier. Okay. I’ll never get it. Like [00:01:00] celery, celerier.
I may not be able to pronounce his last name, but I can tell you that Eric is a tech entrepreneur from France. 
He’s CEO of the Hello Bible app, founder and president of Jesus.net, as well as a global ambassador for The Chosen television series. As a leader in artificial intelligence and global evangelism, Eric is learning to appreciate the power of AI to provide language translation.
I called my son, I said, can you dub that? 
He said, why don’t you use AI? And I said, oh, I’m stupid. Yes, sure, of course I should use it. So I took his speech.
While AI tools for language translation have existed for some time, increased quality, faster turnaround, and lower cost are making it a practical solution, giving pastors the ability to literally speak in other languages.
Much better than the accent I have now. And so, everybody was blown away by what he was saying. And what, in this meeting with Joe, [00:02:00] we were just talking together about what he’s doing could really serve the church in an amazing way, because basically he’s doing that. But with a lower cost. And with a much greater purpose, kingdom purpose.
Of all the different kinds that we may…
Whether you want to reach Korean speakers, or French speakers, or Hindi, Spanish, or German speakers, AI can now provide sermon translations that adapt the speaker’s lips, making it look and sound as if they’re speaking the translated language.
Reporting from the 2024 AI in the Church hackathon in Boulder, Colorado. I’m Sam Ebersol for Global News Alliance [00:03:00].

Story Provided By:
Sam Ebersole

Recording Location
Boulder, CO, USA

Reporter / Producer
Sam Ebersole

Organization featured in this Story
Gloo.us, www.gloo.us

People Interviewed and their Titles
Éric Célériér, CEO of Hello Bible