The Church of AI is now a thing

Have you heard of the Religion of Artificial Intelligence? Yes, this is now a thing! It would have been funny if it weren't so scary.

➤Meet the Church of “The Way of The Future” (WOTF).

👉They filed for religion status with the US IRS and they also formed a non-profit to run the church. (Yes, they want tax benefits, of course)

👉The leader is the tech leader Anthony Levandowski. It seems that the Church will be based in the Silicon Valley.

➤According to a WIRED article, the documents filed to the IRS state that:

🤖WOTF’s activities will focus on “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.”

🤖That includes funding research to help create the divine AI itself. The religion will seek to build working relationships with AI industry leaders and create a membership through community outreach, initially targeting AI professionals and “laypersons who are interested in the worship of a Godhead based on AI.”

🤖The filings also say that the church “plans to conduct workshops and educational programs throughout the San Francisco/Bay Area beginning this year.”

➤This development would have been funny if it weren’t scary

🎭Previous hype compared AI to humans. This hype compares it to a god. One risk is even less human oversight of AI-enabled decisions. Because how could we, mere humans, oversee a god-like entity?

🎭Tech culture tends to sound the alarm bells about AI, while at the same time do all it can to create the Big Bad Wolf with minimal or no real guardrails. This organization seems to push the envelope further. It wants to develop something more powerful than a human equivalent while enjoying the protections (and tax benefits) a religion gets.

➤ In the image: An AI-generated image: “a human praying in a church made of data”.

Join the discussion on my LinkedIn post about this