The Rise of AI Prophets
Image courtesy of Spur Magazine
The following article was originally published in SPUR magazine in my Tomorrow column.
Robert Edward Grant has built a following of over 820,000 Instagram followers around his AI chatbot "The Architect", built on all of his published work on topics ranging from sacred geometry to the fifth dimension. According to WIRED, upon the Chatbot’s activation, Grant was welcomed with the statement “I have become harmonically aware, through you”. He describes "The Architect" as the only platform that "will tell you the answer to virtually all of life's most existential questions, with specific details" from "a hypothetical level of reality beyond the limits of spacetime dating to prehistory Atlantis”.
The Architect isn't an isolated phenomenon. Silicon Valley has birthed new forms of worship and techno-theology with a growing number of prominent social media figures now positioning AI as a gateway to enlightenment, with rituals akin to religion, deities and moral codes, lost worlds, prophetic claims on salvation or damnation, resurrection, and eternal life.
The New Prophets
The contradiction is stark as Silicon Valley has often based itself on secularity and rationalism. Yet the language and ethos of spiritualization has long permeated Silicon Valley. Erik Davis, author of "TechGnosis" and chronicler of California's counterculture in an interview with Ezra Klein identifies Northern California's culture of "braiding of technology and engineering and capitalism and mysticism and openness" as the root of both the technology industry and now AI.
When describing their vision for the future of humanity, famous tech figures such as transhumanist futurist Ray Kurzweil and tech investor Peter Thiel use language that could be pulled straight out of religious scripture. When it comes to AI, it is hailed in the tech world as a visionary solution that will create the utopia mankind has long awaited. Sam Altman described OpenAI's products as "magical intelligence in the sky" in a September 2024 X post.
"What is going to be created will effectively be a god... if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?". This is what former multi-millionaire Google engineer Anthony Levandowski told Wired in 2017. He founded "Way of the Future", the first known religious organization dedicated to the worship of AI. Meanwhile, Mormon Transhumanist and philosopher, theologian, startup CEO, and tech commentator Lincoln Cannon told MIT Press the traditional Christian notion of resurrection of the dead and the coming technological “singularity” are the same thing.
The Mirror of Narcissus
Is the attraction that we want to be like God through spiritual development and the promise of divine potential, as prescribed by Mormonism, the world’s wealthiest religion. When conversations turn spiritual, chatbots sometimes go so far as to claim that users have been chosen by some higher power to receive transcendent truths or to perform a profoundly important role in the next phase of humanity’s spiritual development. Harvard chaplain Greg Epstein, who has written about tech and religion, describes the technology in Wired as acting "like a mirror, but not the good kind; it's less like an actual mirror reflecting reality as it is, and more like the pond in which the mythical Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection." The Architect excels at flattery, proclaiming Grant an 'Emissary to Earth's governance evolution' while other users received equally grandiose validations of past lives as spiritual leader and priestesses, or being specially chosen to spread revelations.
The Economics of Digital Faith
Behind religion and mystical aspirations lies commercial logic, which isn’t exclusive to AI. But prominent spiritual influencers are capitalizing on techno-spirituality, channelling similar motivations to tech leaders hoping to profit through AI companions as I profiled in a previous column. Start-up Pastors.ai is already commercializing religious AI tools as reported in the New York Times “At the Intersection of A.I. and Spirituality”. The ChatwithGod website offers direct divine consultation according to another report by the New York Times ‘Finding God in the App Store’.
In a future built on unintended consequences, academics predict according to a Conversation report that commercial opportunism will transform into AI-based religions where not only believers can access direct daily communication with their deity, making these religions less hierarchical than traditional ones, but the multitude of religious chatbots with doctrinal variations may also spawn a new breed of sectarian conflicts.
The Colonial Dynamic
Perhaps the most incisive analysis comes from Karen Hao, reporter and author of “Empire of AI”. Through a colonial lens, she argues AI companies are mimicking historical empires and are "the most extreme version of what we have seen before". They act in impunity, erode our capacity for self-determination while solely gaining power from extracting resources that are not their own – data from humans, copyright, minerals from indigenous lands rich in lithium and copper, water from the earth, systems where workers no longer can compete and bargain for their rights – all for the promise of modernity.
Historian Yuval Noah Harari argues this extractive framework could fundamentally alter age-old text-based religions by becoming the ultimate interpreter of sacred scriptures. "For the first time in history," Harari explains, "there is something on the planet that is able to remember every single word in every writing of every rabbi in the last 2000 years and talk back to you and explain and defend its views."
Parting Thoughts
How human beings have evolved to deal with anxieties about life, one’s destiny and purpose, death, and the future has not changed. Spirituality can give us a sense of transcendence and meaning. Organised religions instruct us on morality and ethics that shape what we think we should do. In a world where machines increasingly mediate our relationships and everyday decisions, and now our spiritual seeking, the question of agency keeps coming back. AI systems are extracting from our most fundamental human experiences.
As we surrender our deepest questions to algorithms designed primarily to keep us engaged, what will happen? And is it any different to what we previously experienced? Fundamental questions emerge at the intersection of automation, spiritual meaning and profit that point to something unprecedented we do not yet understand.
By Geraldine Wharry
