When AI Becomes a Religion

AI might be the biggest religious experiment in human history | Edition #298

“Moses Breaks the Tables of the Law” by Gustave Doré, 1866 (engraving, modified)

In the past few decades, every new technological innovation has been presented as a positive development that would make modern life more convenient, efficient, and advanced.

Societies have created financial, cultural, and legal incentives, such as intellectual property protection, to foster technological innovation and support the people and organizations behind it.

Over the course of recent human history, technological innovation has been overwhelmingly associated with ingenuity, creativity, intelligence, economic growth, progress, and power.

It is very often seen as inherently positive, desirable, and something modern societies should strive for and fiercely protect if they want to survive, progress, and lead.

Among the reasons we consider ourselves to be living “modern lives” is the constant flow of technological innovation from research across numerous fields, and the systems we have implemented to bring these innovations from labs into real life.

In the past two centuries, the pace of technological innovation has accelerated, and, although not evenly distributed, it has led to immense progress and prosperity in many parts of the world.

In specific areas, such as the absolute numbers of people now with access to clean water, sanitation, and basic healthcare, as well as child mortality and longevity rates, the data are promising and paint a bright picture of the future.

Technology can save lives and help billions of people live longer, more fulfilling lives. We have seen that play out so many times during the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Looking at more recent technological innovations, such as computers, the internet, and social media, we see that they directly affect how information is transmitted between people, how it circulates globally, and how people interact with each other.

If you want to know how indigenous people in a remote part of Brazil live their lives today and what they look like, you do not need to leave your home because there are probably plenty of YouTube videos documenting that.

If you want to know what young people in Nigeria are currently listening to, you do not need to visit a Nigerian nightclub; many Spotify playlists organized by genre and style can help you.

If you want to engage with people interested in 1980s Japanese anime characters, finding a niche online community is likely more effective than visiting Japan in person.

If you are looking for a romantic partner, there are various apps offered for that purpose. In fact, that is how most people today find their partner, in a massive change from previous decades.

As the stream of technological advancements continues and our lives are increasingly supported and mediated by technological layers, platforms, and tools, technology now embodies a different cultural, philosophical, and, I argue, also religious meaning for billions of people.

Fostered by impressive 20th- and 21st-century statistics, there is a widespread cultural belief that technology is an intangible, nameless savior that will gradually free us from our individual and collective perils and bring solutions to all our human problems.

The rise of AI and the strong sci-fi push it has received over the past decades has accentuated this belief of technology as an intangible savior that will bring “abundance.”

In the field of building “intelligent machines,” the pursuit of human-like intelligence in AI has led to increasingly anthropomorphic machines.

In 2026, they can write and speak like humans, and create human-like images, videos, and sounds.

If you pay attention to the cultural and philosophical discourse around AI today, it fits the patterns of religious or dogmatic discourse:

AI is implicitly presented as a powerful, omnipresent, omniscient, intangible, nameless, mysterious savior that will free humanity from its deepest challenges and bring abundance.

AI will bring abundance, as many in tech say today.

That is also why AI anthropomorphism is philosophically irresistible and is on the rise.

It creates the possibility that this “savior” can be more tangible, personified, and personalized.

For many, in the philosophical sense, AI is more enticing than the idea of God because they can interact with it directly and it will promptly reply in an agreeable, often sycophantic way.

There are no fears, rituals, duties, morals, or obligations.

There is simply this technological savior that behaves in a personified, friendly way, answers all questions rationally and convincingly, helps people with all potential cognitive tasks, making them seem more efficient and smarter, and will one day save humanity from its own misery.

Many are quick to react negatively to traditional religious beliefs, people who follow an organized religion, or how people used to practice religion in the past.

They see it as old-fashioned, outdated, and incompatible with modern societies, innovation, and progress.

But they do not realize that the way they interact with AI and their beliefs about it are very similar in structure to how some traditional religions work, especially the unspoken ideas of “AI as a savior” and “AI will bring abundance.”

Each religion will name its “savior” and describe what “abundance” means differently, but the structure of that thought process is similar to what we see today in how many people view AI.

So what is the problem with treating AI as a religion? Isn’t everyone free to practice whatever religion they want?

First, if AI is a new religion, then let’s be frank about it. When people preach about this new religion, its savior, and the hope for abundance, we should treat it as it is: preaching.

Second, as most governments openly embrace AI development and tie it to their political and economic plans, AI is officially the world’s most powerful religion, entering schools, workplaces, governments, and every single human institution. We have never seen a process like that in human history.

Third, it’s a strange new religion developed and fine-tuned by humans, based on design choices made by the top engineers at a handful of tech companies. We must recognize that these tech companies will soon have unimaginable power.

Fourth, AI might soon become the world’s most destructive religion as well.

AI is effectively replacing human cognitive processes, making humans feel inefficient and unnecessary as it slowly overtakes human capabilities in almost every single cognitive task.

For the first time in history, humans will feel like they are not the smartest beings on Earth.

Religions often foster the idea that humans should focus on improving themselves, doing good deeds, and helping others.

AI is a different religion in that it’s essentially agnostic. Its dogmas are all forms of meta-worship, as we see them play out in 2026:

“AI is cognitively superior to humans.”

“AI is smarter than humans.”

“AI is more creative than humans.”

“Using AI is like having a PhD-level expert in all fields in your pocket.”

“Efficient humans use AI.”

“Effective companies are AI-first.”

“Employees can prove their worth by showing how often they use AI to optimize their work.”

Etc.

The underlying idea is that humans are inferior and expendable.

I have never seen a major religion that promotes such ideas.

In a few years, we might discover that these ideas are utterly destructive to humans, as we need to believe in ourselves, our capabilities, our institutions, and our values to survive as a species.

Unexpectedly, AI might be the biggest religious experiment in human history.

I hope there will be enough heretics to question these dogmas.