How An Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Could Be Perceived as God: A Futurist Analysis

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, artificial intelligence (AI) experts have taken the idea that humanity may see the rise of an artificial superintelligence (ASI) vastly exceeding human intelligence within the next few decades increasingly seriously. However, given the intuitive parallels between such a “God-like” being and popular ideas of religion, surprisingly little work has been done to analyze how the two might interact by scholars of AI and of religion. This paper aims to kickstart this effort, analyzing in particular how a future ASI could fit neatly into the Biblical prophecy of the Second Coming of Christ. It describes how an ASI could be conceived as Christ and/or Antichrist, and briefly posits some potential effects of such beliefs in religious communities.