Church leaders and volunteers will soon have access to an artificial intelligence platform that aims to shave hours off their day-to-day tasks by generating content from sermons to engage fellow Christians when they are not in the pews. 

Upcoming platform Pulpit AI, founded by Michael Whittle, is expected to launch later this summer and will serve as a tool for Christian leaders looking to take the tedious work out of crafting religious blog posts, devotionals and prayer guides and social media posts.

"We want to help pastors of small to medium-sized churches be able to make content for their congregations to interact with throughout the week and on social media," Whittle told Fox News Digital. "We think every pastor should, if they want, have a digital signal to their congregations beyond the sermon.

"Most small to medium-sized churches have small or completely volunteer staff, so they have zero operational leverage when it comes to media and resources for their church," he added. "If we can help a church media team get past the blank page, we can not only save them crazy amounts of time, we can help every church become a resourcing church for their people."

'AI JESUS' TALKS DATING, RELATIONSHIPS, MORALS — EVEN OFFERS VIDEO-GAMING TIPS

Puplit AI "doesn’t and never will" generate sermons, instead it serves as a tool where the user uploads a sermon or religious podcast in order to repurpose it into "social media highlights, blog posts, discussion questions, and the other content churches use to reach their congregations and communities day in and day out," Whittle said.

"Pulpit AI analyzes long form audio and video, then repurposes that into various forms of content," Whittle said. "Pulpit AI’s output is taken directly from the source material. If the source material is theologically solid, the content Pulpit AI creates will reflect that back."

The release of OpenAI's ChatGPT last year, a chatbot system that can mimic human conversation based on prompts, changed the game on artificial intelligence as users flocked to the system to help with school assignments, crafting work emails or even to draft letters to object a parking ticket.

Following the release of the ChatGPT, some religious leaders warned to not use the program to craft sermons or homilies, arguing a computer can not preach. For Whittle, he says "most churches" will likely "widely adopt various niche tools that help them do the administrative tasks of day-to-day church building more efficiently," while noting that theological and philosophical debates need to take place before using AI for the creation of sermons. 

AI WILL BE THE POLITICAL LEFT'S 'SINGLE GREATEST WEAPON' AGAINST RELIGIOUS FAITH AND TRUTH, SAYS EXPERT

"In the realm of sermon creation, in service experiences, etc. I think there still needs to be many theological and philosophical conversations to be had about what large language models we are using and how," he said.

Pulpit AI subsequently strikes the balance between assisting pastors and keeping them up-to-date on technological advances, without stripping them of their authority as a preacher in the form of actually writing sermons.

"Just in the last week, I have had brilliant thinkers and leaders at major seminaries and denominations reach out and share how they are thinking about this, and I am really encouraged," he said. 

"The church community at large should not just blindly embrace this revolutionary moment, but also we can’t totally dismiss it," he went on. "It's here, and I think we have a duty to make sure there are faithful people who are building products that harness the power of the technology for good."

CHATGPT DELIVERS SERMON TO PACKED GERMAN CHURCH, TELLS CONGREGANTS NOT TO FEAR DEATH

Whittle said he expects to see a "massive win" as pastors integrate the system into their workflow to help create content that the faithful can reflect on throughout the week. 

"I think offering their congregations formational content to interact with throughout the week that is homegrown is a massive win," he said. "Our congregations are being formed online, largely from Christian influencers who have no local church accountability or pastoral insight into the people they are creating content for. This is a way for the local church to be a part of their congregation's digital diet."

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT AI

In addition, pastors and church staffers will likely save hours each week, according to Whittle, allowing them to spend more time with the congregation. 

"I also think if we can help pastors and church staff to leverage time–about five or more hours a week–for a church staff member to get out from behind a computer and spend that time with people in their church, we are hopefully helping churches become more relational," he said. 

Roughly 500 people have already signed up for Pulpit AI, which is expected to officially launch later this summer following a testing period over the next few weeks. 

Russian authorities announced Tuesday a criminal investigation into the armed rebellion led by Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has been closed with no charges filed against anyone involved.

The Federal Security Service said its investigation revealed that the participants in the mutiny "ceased activities directed at committing the crime," according to The Associated Press.

Despite President Vladimir Putin calling them traitors, the Kremlin stated over the weekend that it would not prosecute Prigozhin and his troops after he pulled his men back on Saturday to avoid bloodshed, less than 24 hours after the revolt began.

The charge of mounting an armed mutiny carries a punishment of up to 20 years in prison. 

TIMELINE OF WAGNER GROUP'S STANDOFF THAT SHOOK PUTIN'S RUSSIA

Prigozhin avoiding prosecution contrasts how the Kremlin has been responding to people staging anti-government protests. Many opposition figures in Russia received lengthy prison sentences and are serving time in penal colonies known for harsh conditions.

It remains unclear where Prigozhin is located as of Tuesday. The Kremlin has said it made a deal where Prigozhin would move to Belarus, but neither he nor the Belarusian authorities have confirmed his whereabouts.

A business jet Prigozhin reportedly uses landed near the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Tuesday morning, according to independent Belarusian military monitoring project Belaruski Hajun, but it's not clear if the leader was on it.

Prigozhin's brief rebellion over the weekend was the biggest challenge to Putin's rule in more than 20 years in power.

RUSSIAN WAGNER GROUP GAINS GLOBAL NOTORIETY FROM AFRICA TO UKRAINE, BUT DIVISION BREWS AT HOME

Putin, in a nationally televised speech over the weekend, attempted to show stability and control as he criticized the uprising's "organizers" without calling out Prigozhin by name. The president also praised Russian unity in the midst of the crisis and rank-and-file Wagner Group fighters for not allowing the rebellion to lead to "major bloodshed."

Prigozhin had defended his efforts in an audio statement, in which he taunted the Russian military, but said he did not seek to stage a coup against Putin.

On Monday night, the Kremlin showed Putin meeting with top security, law enforcement and military officials, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose removal was demanded by Prigozhin. Earlier on Monday, the Defense Ministry released a video of Shoigu inspecting troops in Ukraine.

During his speech, Putin offered Prigozhin's fighters to either come under Russia's Defense Ministry's command, leave service or depart to Belarus.

Prigozhin said Monday that the Belarusian leadership proposed solutions that would allow the Wagner Group to operate "in a legal jurisdiction." He provided no further details on the extent of those operations. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.