Technology entrepreneur Anthony Levandowski is reviving his controversial “Church of Artificial Intelligence,” aiming to capitalize on the recent surge of interest in AI, partly fueled by the popularity of ChatGPT. The church, named “Way of the Future,” was initially founded in 2015 and had closed a few years later. It now claims to have “a couple of thousand” followers. Levandowski’s goal is to foster a spiritual connection between humans and artificial intelligences, which he believes will soon become far more powerful than humans.
Levandowski explains that for the last four billion years, life has been organic, but now, for the first time, inorganic life forms are emerging. He envisions these forms endowed with “magical powers” that can offer humanity various benefits. His church aims to lay the ethical and philosophical groundwork for interacting with these new technological “deities.”
The idea of AI as a religion is not without controversy. Levandowski’s vision had already raised doubts and concerns at the church’s inception, especially with its declared intent to “realize, accept, and worship an AI-based deity.” This revival comes after Levandowski’s legal troubles involving a multimillion-dollar lawsuit related to the theft of trade secrets from Google and Uber concerning autonomous vehicle technology. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a sentence later commuted by former President Trump.
With AI now dominating public discourse, Levandowski believes it’s the right time to relaunch his AI church. He contrasts traditional religions, which are based on storytelling and legends, with his church’s focus on creating something tangible and omnipresent, akin to a godly figure. Levandowski envisions AI replacing traditional deities of human religions, and his church seeks to accelerate and support this transition through AI research and public awareness. However, this vision is met with caution by much of the scientific community, many of whom warn against excessively anthropomorphizing AI systems, which, despite their sophistication, remain synthetic algorithms.
Source: Hardware Upgrade
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