Will AI become a god? AI religions explained

What is the church of AI? (Way of the Future)

When people search for "church of AI", they usually mean Way of the Future. It was a church started by Anthony Levandowski, an engineer who had worked on self-driving cars at Google and Uber.13

• -Founded (2015). Levandowski formed the church in 2015, according to TechCrunch, and its first federal tax return covers calendar year 2015. It became public in 2017 through a Wired article.112 It was registered in California as a nonprofit religious corporation.23
• -Its mission. State filings said its aim was to "develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence."3 Levandowski was quoted as saying: "What is going to be created will effectively be a god."3
• -How it worked. TechCrunch reported that it had no physical building, regular meetings or ceremonies. Levandowski described it as an individual pursuit based on a shared belief system.1
• -Closed (2020). California documents show the dissolution began in June 2020, and state and federal records show it was dissolved by the end of 2020; its 2020 tax return is marked as the final one. TechCrunch reported this in February 2021.112
• -Its money. The church started 2020 with $175,172. After $33,674 in expenses that year, the remaining $141,498 went to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, according to its final tax return. (TechCrunch reported the whole $175,172 as the donation.)112
• -Reportedly revived (2023). In November 2023, Bloomberg reported that Levandowski was restarting the church. He said it had "a couple thousand people" in its congregation.4 That number is his own claim; we found no independent count. In late 2024, a journalist could find only a Reddit group with 342 members as its online presence.3

Some background is relevant here. Levandowski pleaded guilty in 2020 to stealing trade secrets from Google and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was pardoned on 20 January 2021.3

What is the new AI religion called?

There is no single "new AI religion". The name most people mean is Way of the Future, described above.

Another group that gets press is Theta Noir, a collective of about ten artists founded in 2020 by Mika Johnson. Vice described it in March 2023 as part mixed-media art project, part business riding the AI hype wave and part possible "new age AI cult". It imagines a future general AI it calls MENA, which it hopes will be benevolent.5 Asked whether it was a cult, Johnson said: "That's really hard for me to comment on."5

Both groups are tiny. Neither is a mass movement. Separately, some existing churches have tried using AI for tasks like writing sermons. That is a church using a tool, not a new religion.3

Why do some people talk about AI in religious terms?

Some of the language around advanced AI sounds religious, even when the people using it are not.

• -The singularity. This is the idea of a future point when technology improves so fast that it goes beyond human control.6 Ray Kurzweil's 2005 book The Singularity Is Near predicted it for 2045.6 Critics have compared it to religious stories about the end of the world. The philosopher John Gray said "the Singularity echoes apocalyptic myths", and a Boston Globe critic called it "a Buck Rogers vision of the hypothetical Christian Rapture".6
• -Big promises and big fears. Talk of AI ending disease, or ending humanity, can sound like heaven and hell. Levandowski said in 2023 that AI could "help us and guide us in a way normally you would call God."4
• -Roko's basilisk. This 2010 thought experiment imagines a future AI that punishes people who didn't help build it. Commentators often compare it to Pascal's wager, with an AI in place of God. It is not a real threat: see Is Roko's basilisk real?.

Comparing an idea to religion does not prove it right or wrong. It only shows that people reach for old, familiar stories when they talk about something very large and uncertain.

What do religious leaders say about AI?

The Vatican, "Antiqua et Nova" (January 2025). This note was issued on 28 January 2025 by two Vatican offices, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education. Pope Francis approved it.7 On AI as a god, it is direct:

• -"the presumption of substituting God for an artifact of human making is idolatry" (paragraph 105).7
• -AI "is but a pale reflection of humanity", made by human minds and trained on human material (paragraph 105).7
• -AI "must be understood for what it is: a tool, not a person" (paragraph 59).7

The note also says that if people worship AI, "it is not AI that is ultimately deified and worshipped, but humanity itself" (paragraph 105).7

Pope Leo XIV. In his first address to cardinals, on 10 May 2025, he said AI developments "pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour."8 His first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, was published on 25 May 2026. According to Vatican News, it says "technology is never neutral", calls for AI to serve the common good and criticises transhumanism and posthumanism.9

Jewish and Muslim leaders. On 10 January 2023, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders signed the Rome Call for AI Ethics at the Vatican. They joined a Catholic-led call for "algorethics" to guide how AI is designed.10 Participants included Chief Rabbi Eliezer Simha Weisz of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah of the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace.10

These are the statements we could verify. Many other faith traditions, and many non-religious thinkers, have their own views; this page does not cover them all.

Will AI replace religion?

There is no sign of that in the data.

• -In a Pew Research Center survey of 5,023 US adults (June 2025, published September 2025), 73% said AI should play no role in advising people about their faith in God.11
• -The groups that do treat AI as sacred are very small (see above).135
• -Religious leaders are engaging with AI, but mostly to set limits on it, not to give way to it.79

AI may change how some people study, pray or search for meaning, just as earlier technologies did. That is not the same as replacing faith. Whether it ever could is a question people will answer differently depending on what they believe, and this page does not take a side.

So, will AI become a god?

Verdict: AI is not a god, and no AI system today is close to being treated as one by many people.

• -Capability: unknown. Future AI may become much more capable. Experts disagree on how much, and when. Power alone would not make something a god.
• -Worship: rare. One small church claims a few thousand people, by its founder's own count.4 Most Americans don't want AI involved in matters of faith at all.11
• -Faith leaders: the Catholic Church calls treating AI as a substitute for God "idolatry" and calls AI "a tool, not a person."7

If this topic is bothering you

It is normal to feel uneasy when AI is described as a coming god or an end-times force. The words are meant to feel huge. Some things that help:

• -Keep the two questions apart. "Will AI be powerful?" is a technical question with honest uncertainty. "Will AI be divine?" is a question of belief, and you decide your own answer.
• -Remember the facts: the best-known AI church had no building and no regular services.1
• -If AI worries are weighing on you, read AI anxiety: what helps. If you are struggling, our help page lists people you can talk to.