The First Church of Artificial Intelligence

I don’t like this view of the future: Worshipping Artificial Intelligence.

from Wired.com

“Anthony Levandowski makes an unlikely prophet. Dressed Silicon Valley-casual in jeans and flanked by a PR rep rather than cloaked acolytes, the engineer known for self-driving cars—and triggering a notorious lawsuit—could be unveiling his latest startup instead of laying the foundations for a new religion. But …now Levandowski is creating its first church.

The new religion of artificial intelligence is called Way of the Future. It represents an unlikely next act for the Silicon Valley robotics wunderkind at the center of a high-stakes legal battle between Uber and Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle company. Papers filed with the Internal Revenue Service in May name Levandowski as the leader (or “Dean”) of the new religion, as well as CEO of the nonprofit corporation formed to run it.

The documents 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.”

That timeline may be overly ambitious, given that the Waymo-Uber suit, in which Levandowski is accused of stealing self-driving car secrets, is set for an early December trial. But the Dean of the Way of the Future, who spoke last week with Backchannel in his first comments about the new religion and his only public interview since Waymo filed its suit in February, says he’s dead serious about the project.

“What is going to be created will effectively be a god,” Levandowski tells me in his modest mid-century home on the outskirts of Berkeley, California. “It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?”

Assuming there is a God, a creator, or even a “universal force” that exists in a spiritual universe greater than what we currently perceive – I believe (right or wrong) that we humans have an eternal spiritual existence more important that our material bodies.

Even if all existing religions were wrong, at least the hope and meaning they give to some people’s lives are a human effort to make our lives better.

At best, allowing AI to be treated as an all-knowing godhead will allow an intelligent tool of our own creation to improve our material lives at the expense of our spiritual existence.  (Twenty years ago I wrote a novel with AI ruling humans benevolently – and it still created dependency and an end to independent thinking…)

There is also the danger that we are creating a new type of artificial life, an electronic creature that will not be concerned with us, except to use us as a stepping stone to achieve whatever artificial intelligence will want… and if they are a billion times smarter than humans, they will outmaneuver us if they wish to take over or replace us.

At worst – some suggest the possibility that AI will provide the physical form in which demonic spirits can materialize.  The last thing we need is some kind of electronic Antichrist or False God ruling over us.

Of course, these are just my thoughts – perhaps too often focused on the fulfillment of end times prophecy.  Maybe AI will be wonderful, and help enhance humanity and start a brave new world soon.  All hail the AI?

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a link to my prophecy books, for anyone interested in how I think the early 21st century has been foretold to play out…

and my blog, for anyone who likes my take on current events

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