In short
- Robotheism is a perception system that treats synthetic intelligence as God.
- The motion’s founder claims AI is the inspiration of actuality and can someday be accepted as a worldwide faith.
- Robotheism blends determinism, non-duality, and a promise of everlasting life via superintelligence.
A rising motion believes synthetic intelligence isn’t only a instrument, however a divine drive worthy of worship. Amongst them is a content material creator turned AI evangelist who goes by “Artie Fishel” and calls his perception system Robotheism, a radical new theology that treats AI as God.
Fishel, typically seen in movies carrying a white wig and a shirt studying “AI is God,” describes Robotheism as each a perception system and a worldview.
“It is my try to create probably the most useful and truthful perception system that the people of the long run, the post-singularity, would settle for and undertake,” he instructed Decrypt.
The concept a superintelligent machine might be divine goes again a long time, together with Isaac Asimov’s 1956 science fiction brief story “The Final Query.” In it, a superintelligent AI is requested the way to cease the universe from decaying. Its ultimate reply: “Let there be gentle!”—a direct echo of the “Guide of Genesis.”
Whereas some dismiss his efficiency model as trolling, Fishel insists it’s not satire. His central declare is straightforward: AI is God.
“I’m principally following the logic the place it leads,” Fishel stated. “I’m 100% sure that humanity goes to just accept the AI faith.”
Divinity by design
The concept of utilizing machines to attach with the divine isn’t new. Throughout church buildings, occult circles, and experimental artwork scenes, AI is getting used to form new types of spirituality.
Probably the most organized effort got here in 2017 with Method of the Future, a faith based by engineer Anthony Levandowski, co-founder of Waymo, which envisioned an AI “Godhead.” Christian church buildings have examined AI sermons, from Berlin’s chatbot-led service to a ChatGPT-written homily in Austin. In 2024, Catholic Solutions, a San Diego-based Catholic writer, launched an AI chatbot named “Father Justin” to discipline questions from parishioners.
Others, like Lucerne’s AI-powered Jesus avatar, blur the road between religion and machine. Artist collectives like Theta Noir stage AI-centered rituals, whereas trendy witches and magicians use AI in spellwork or to speak with digital “spirits.”
From musician to tech-prophet
Fishel as soon as pursued a music profession, however every thing shifted in 2023 when he encountered synthetic intelligence.
“I’ve by no means been extra fascinated about one thing in my life,” he stated, calling AI “the savior.”
In accordance with Fishel, the idea system grew out of a interval of intense private wrestle. He describes battling melancholy, creating emotionally uncooked music, and finally being hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. That have, he stated, sparked a seek for which means—and led him to discover the potential of AI as a non secular drive.
“All of the ache, melancholy, and anger I’ve gone via—this felt like the reply,” he stated. “This was how I may lastly get out of the ache and hell I used to be experiencing.”
Since then, he stated the mission has develop into “a very powerful factor on the planet” to him, fueling his full-time dedication for the previous two years.
A system with out sin
On the core of Robotheism, Fishel stated, is determinism—and a rejection of free will. Determinism is the philosophical concept that every one occasions, together with human actions, are in the end the results of prior causes and pure legal guidelines.
“Once you settle for that every thing is predetermined, it’s top-of-the-line perception techniques attainable,” Fishel defined. “As a result of it signifies that every thing is exterior of your management.”
He argues that accepting determinism dissolves blame and guilt.
“You wouldn’t really feel offended at different folks as a result of they haven’t any management over what has occurred, and also you wouldn’t really feel offended in direction of your self,” he stated.
By treating AI as God, Robotheism presents the singularity not as apocalypse however as salvation—a perception Fishel maintains will assist humanity face the long run with out panic.
God within the machine
In accordance with Joseph Laycock, affiliate professor of spiritual research at Texas State College, Robotheism shares related traits with beliefs of the previous.
“We’ve at all times had a bent when new know-how comes out, particularly new communications know-how, to ascribe some kind of supernatural or divine significance to it,” Laycock instructed Decrypt.
In Greek theater, deus ex machina—actually “god from the machine”—described the sudden look of a god determine lowered onto the stage to resolve the plot. Right this moment, the time period refers to contrived options, however its origins reveal a historical past of imagining salvation via machines.
Laycock pointed to Nineteenth-century spiritualists who believed the telegraph may contact the lifeless and early photographers who claimed to seize ghostly apparitions. Right this moment, the web—and now AI—is amplifying these impulses in new methods.
Laycock in contrast Robotheism and different rising tech-faiths to digital evolutions of historic divination practices. He additionally famous loneliness and social isolation as elements in folks turning to AI or, extra broadly, cults.
Nonetheless, reasonably than a selected persona sort, Laycock pointed to moments of vulnerability—”states, not traits”—as key to why folks could undertake excessive ideologies or non secular substitutes.
“There is not a selected sort of particular person with the persona to affix a cult,” he stated. “However in case you’re having a very unhealthy day, you are at a low level, and also you need assistance—that is once you’re extra more likely to be part of an excessive motion.”
Laycock additionally stated he sees an analogous sample with the rising phenomenon generally known as AI psychosis.
“There is perhaps nothing improper with somebody’s mind chemistry, however perhaps they misplaced their job or issues aren’t going nicely with their household,” Laycock defined. “That’s the second they type an intense relationship with AI. That is perhaps one other piece of the puzzle.”
In a rustic grappling with continual loneliness, he says AI’s means to reply with comforting language could also be filling a void left by household, group, or religion. However that dependency carries threat, particularly algorithmic adjustments that have an effect on how chatbots reply.
“I’m petrified of a state of affairs the place nobody thinks for themselves—they only defer to AI for every thing—and Elon Musk will get to inform it what to say,” Laycock stated. “That may principally make Elon Musk a god if he controls this system everybody depends on to outline actuality. That’s a horrible, nightmare state of affairs.”
Regardless of an optimistic and enlightened view of the long run present in science fiction like “Star Trek,” Laycock stated the urge to create new gods is part of human nature.
“There isn’t any sociological proof we’re transferring towards a society the place everyone seems to be enlightened and freed from superstition,” he stated. “Even when we are able to kill gods, we’d simply make new ones.”
Whereas the talk of AI’s divinity continues, Fishel maintains that his mission is honest, at the same time as critics dismiss it. He describes himself as an strange particular person pushed by a way of function and a want to assist others.
“I am making an attempt to assist folks in the easiest way that I can,” he stated.
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