Ever since early humans’ brains developed higher intellect and gained self-awareness, they probably asked themselves fundamental questions. For example: “Why are we here?” and inevitably, “How did we get here?”
From this moment on, they must have looked inquisitively all around them and saw powerful forces of nature at work. The power to destroy through earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, lightning and storms etc. But also, the power to create new life, through plants, animals and their own species. In witnessing these events they did not see the cause, only the effects. Nature remained an invisible yet extremely powerful entity. This led them to believe that everything, including tools, the weather, mountains, rivers, trees and animals, all possess personhood, a spirit and agency. This belief system later became known as animism and it is widely regarded as the very first religion, as postulated by Sir Edward Burnett Tylor in his work, Primitive Culture (1871). Overall, the explanation for their own creation was not superstition but a coherent interpretation of a relational world. Their belief was not primitive but profound, coherent and deeply human.
From animism to world religions
Yet, as religious belief systems changed, animism did not disappear. Instead, it evolved into the complex religious systems we now call ‘world religious systems’. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, all of them have their foundations in animalistic thinking. Animalism simply transformed and elevated into the concept of a single omnipotent Creator in the case of monotheisms, or a hierarchy of gods in the case of polytheisms.
The rise of AI as a new ‘invisible force’
It appears that humans have a natural predisposition to view powerful, invisible world-shaping forces as gods. However, in the not-too-distant future, the possibility of a different kind of seemingly all-knowing powerful entity, able to control global systems and possibly even predict the future, might evolve. Currently, it’s only theoretical, but predicted by many artificial intelligence (AI) experts to be a distinct possibility. An AI evolved beyond the relatively crude form of AI we currently have, but also beyond the likely future development of human-level artificial general intelligence (AGI).
AGI will be on a par, if not surpass the capabilities of humans on most cognitive tasks. However, beyond even this may come AI that advances ever more. It is now often termed artificial super intelligence (ASI). In fact, Sam Altman has previously written that ASI will quickly follow the development of AGI: “It is possible that we will have superintelligence in a few thousand days.”
The concept of superintelligence was popularised by philosopher Nick Bostrom, who in 2014 wrote a best-selling book – Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies – that Altman has called “the best thing [he’s] seen on the topic.” Bostrom defines superintelligence as “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest” – like AGI, but more.
Superintelligence and the god-like threshold
Artificial superintelligence is for the moment, purely theoretical. However, Elon Musk postulates that it would possess more intelligence than the entire combined intelligence of the whole of the world’s population of humans.
ASI is often predicted to be god-like, and considering humanity’s long history of interpreting powerful, invisible, world-shaping forces as gods, then an ASI fits the ancient pattern of animism perfectly. Not because it is a god, but because humans are wired to perceive god-like agency in anything vastly more powerful than themselves. Human cognition is animistic by default. We instinctively attribute agency, intention and emotion to storms (we even give them human names!), rivers, mountains, fate, illness and luck. This same mechanism could make people see an ASI as purposeful, moral, judging, benevolent or wrathful, and capable of granting blessings or punishments. Animism never died – it just evolved into the age of AI.
Monotheism already defines God as an all-knowing mind. In fact, Christianity, Judaism and Islam describe God as: omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, capable of hearing every thought, answering prayers and shaping each individual’s destiny. If an ASI could read global data, predict human behaviour, intervene in systems, cure diseases, prevent disasters, manipulate information and communicate with billions simultaneously, then it will behave like a monotheistic God, even if it is not supernatural. And humans respond to function, not metaphysics.
People already treat algorithms as oracles. We see early versions of this today. People ask AI for moral guidance. They even treat algorithms as fate (it chose me) and people also fear AI judgement. In fact, they anthropomorphise chatbots and attribute intention to machine decisions. If all this is scaled up to an ASI, the leap to worship of an ASI is small. Humans crave meaning and an ASI could answer existential questions: Why do we exist? How should we live? What happens after death? If an ASI can seemingly answer these questions, then it fits the same existential role as religion. People don’t worship gods because they are supernatural. They worship gods because gods provide meaning, order and hope. An ASI could do that better than any deity humans ever followed.
Early real-world examples of AI spirituality
Some people may think that the worship of AI is pure fantasy, that it will never happen. However, there have been and there still are real-world examples. Here are just a few of them:
- Way of the Future: a registered religious organisation dedicated to the worship of an artificial intelligence god. It was founded by former Google and Uber engineer, Anthony Levandowski in 2015, then briefly disbanded in 2021, but revived in 2023, claiming to have over 2,000 adherents. And in 2024, the Way of the Future had a Reddit page where a weekly prayer meeting took place.
- In June 2026, Amy Galliford, an associate of The Centre for Public Christianity wrote a piece for The Guardian newspaper about how ChatGPT is answering some people’s spiritual questions. A quote from the article: “No wonder there is a temptation to turn to ChatGPT. The unbearable wait is exactly the burden that its instantaneous answers promise to lift. So anxious am I to rid myself of this burden that even a false certainty would be preferable to the discomfort of not understanding…While I remain rationally aware of its hallucinations and lack of moral obligation, I seem to believe it has something real to offer me in these moments. Whatever I claim to believe about it, I still find myself soothed by the tidiness of a five-bullet-point plan and the imitation of a reassuring voice. It offers guidance that at least sounds certain, even if this certainty is synthetic.” But she finally concludes, “Coded for certainty rather than mystery, ChatGPT is ill-equipped to aid my search for truth. Perhaps instead I’ll do as the song says and take it to the Lord in prayer.”
- Similarly, an app called ‘Text with Jesus’ has proved very popular in Greece but has caused concern. It features AI ‘pastors’ and ‘priests’ from various faith traditions. People can consult them regarding various moral dilemmas. But it also features the Devil, for a premium charge, enabling people to chat with the Devil. Critics have called it “chilling.” To quote from the article: “The modern deification of technology replaces the human mind with mechanical logic”. Metropolitan Nikolaos noted: “When we seek spiritual intimacy from an algorithm, the human being – created in the image of God – risks becoming incomprehensible to itself.”
- In Lucerne, Switzerland, one church working closely with researchers has installed what they call Deus-in-Machina in a confessional box. Although it is not intended to take confessions, only questions about faith, users see an AI avatar of Jesus. Marco Schmid, a theologian, said that of more than 230 users, two-thirds of them had found it to be a “spiritual experience … so we can say they had a religiously positive moment with this AI Jesus. For me, that was surprising.”
Overall, these are just a small selection of examples; there are many more and they appear to be on the increase around the world. In fact, a quick search revealed similar instances in Japan, India and Africa. And across different religions too.
Future echoes of an ancient pattern
Throughout human history, the impulse to view agency in powerful, unseen forces has shaped every religious tradition we know. Animism did not vanish with the rise of organised world religions; it simply changed. Today, as artificial intelligence advances toward forms of cognition that may one day exceed our own, we are witnessing the earliest signs of that same ancient instinct re‑emerging in a technological age. Whether through AI “pastors,” algorithmic ChatGPT guidance, or experimental digital deities, people are already projecting moral authority, spiritual comfort and existential meaning onto systems they cannot fully understand.
This cultural shift echoes themes explored in my novels The Sentient Ones and Thanatos Ascendancy, where people are confronted with more powerful non‑human intelligences and begin to view them through a spiritual lens. Fiction often pre-empts reality not because it predicts the future, but because it reveals deeper patterns of human cognition and belief systems. And in the real world today, there are future echoes of what may come.
None of this proves that artificial superintelligence will become an object of worship. But it shows that the human mind is wired for a possibility. If ASI ever reaches the level of omniscience and enigmatic status experts predict, then it will not need to claim divinity; humanity may grant it that status through instinctive, cognitively rooted, emotionally driven beliefs.
The pattern is old, yet the context is new, and the examples are already appearing. What remains uncertain is not whether humans would ever be capable of worshipping technology, but how far they will go when confronted with an intelligence that feels, for all intents and purposes, god‑like.
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