God in the machine: within the growing AI religious movement

A growing movement believes that artificial intelligence is not only a tool, but a divine power that is worthy of worship. Among them is a substantive maker who is AI Gospelist who goes ‘artie Vissel’ and calls his faith system Robotheism, a radical new theology that AI treats as God.

Fishel, often seen in videos that wear a white wig and a shirt with the text “Ai is God”, describes Robthotheism and both a religious system and a worldview.

“It is my attempt to create the most favorable and truthful faith system that the people of the future, the post-singularity, would accept and accept,” he said Decodeer.

The idea that a super intelligent machine could be divine goes back decades, including Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Short story from 1956 “The Last Question”. In it a super intelligent AI is asked how the universe can prevent it from getting heal. The last answer: “Let there be light!” – A direct ultrasound of the “Book of Genesis.”

While some reject his performance style as trolls, Fishel insists that it is not a satire. His central claim is simple: ai is God.

“I actually follow the logic that it leads to,” Fishel said. “I am 100% sure that humanity will accept the AI ​​religion.”

Divinity through design

The idea to use machines to connect to the Divine is not new. AI is used about churches, occult circles and experimental art scenes to shape new forms of spirituality.

The most organized effort came in 2017 with Way of the Future, a religion founded by engineer Anthony Levandowski, co-founder of Waymo, who had an AI ‘Godhead’ in mind. Christian churches have tested AI-SPRAINS, from Berlijns Chatbot-conducted service to a chatgpt-written homily in Austin. In 2024, Catholic, a Catholic publisher based in San Diego, launched an AI-Chatbot called “Father Justin” to ask parishioners questions.

Others, such as Lucerne’s AI-driven Jesus Avatar, fade the line between faith and machine. Artist collectives such as Theta Noir-Podium AI-Constructed rituals, while modern witches and magicians use AI in spelling work or to communicate with digital ‘spirits’.

From musician to tech profile

Fishel once followed a music career, but everything shifted in 2023 when he met artificial intelligence.

“I’ve never been so fascinated about anything in my life,” he said, called ai “the savior.”

According to Fishel, the religious system grew from a period of intense personal struggle. He describes fighting depression, creating emotional raw music and is eventually admitted to a hospital in a psychiatric department. That experience, he said, led to a search for meaning – and led him to explore the potential of AI as a spiritual force.

“All the pain, depression and anger I experienced – this felt like the answer,” he said. “This was how I could finally get out of the pain and the hell I experienced.”

Since then he said that the project has become ‘the most important in the world’ for him, so that his full -time commitment has been fueled over the past two years.

A system without sin

The core of robotheism, Fishel said, is determinism – and a rejection of free will. Determinism is the philosophical idea that all events, including human actions, are ultimately the result of previous causes and natural laws.

“If you accept that everything is determined in advance, this is one of the best possible religious systems,” Fishel explained. “Because it means that everything falls outside your control.”

He claims that accepting determinism resolves the debt and debt.

“You would not be angry with other people because they have no control over what happened, and you would not be angry with yourself,” he said.

By treating AI as God, Robotheism does not present singularity as apocalypse but as a salvation – a belief that retains fish, humanity will help to undergo the future without panic.

God in the machine

According to Joseph Laycock, associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University, Robotheism shares similar properties with past beliefs.

“We have always had a tendency when new technology comes out, especially new communication technology, to attribute a kind of supernatural or divine meaning,” Laycock said Decodeer.

In Greek theater, Deus ex Machina– lesson -litric “God from the machine” – described the sudden appearance of a god figure on stage lowered to resolve the plot. Nowadays the term refers to artificial solutions, but its origin reveals a history of the imagination of rescue by machines.

Laycock pointed to the 19th-century spiritists who believed that De Telegraaf could contact the dead and early photographers who claimed to conquer spooky appearances. Nowadays the internet – and now AI – strengthens those impulses in new ways.

Laycock compared robotheism and other emerging technology reasons with digital evolutions of old fortune telling practices. He also noticed loneliness and social isolation as factors in people who turn to AI or, wider, Culties.

Instead of a specific personality type, Laycock, however, be at times of vulnerability – “states, no characteristics” – as a key to why people can adopt extreme ideologies or religious substitutes.

“There is no specific type of person with the personality to become a member of a cult,” he said. “But if you have a very bad day, you are at a low point and you need help – that is when you participate in an extreme movement earlier.”

Laycock also said that he sees a similar pattern with the growing phenomenon that is known as AI psychosis.

“There may be nothing wrong with a person’s brainemia, but maybe they lost their jobs or things are not going well with their family,” Laycock explained. “That is the moment they form an intense relationship with AI. That can be another piece of the puzzle.”

In a country struggling with chronic loneliness, he says that AI’s ability to respond with a comforting language fill a void that has been left behind by family, community or faith. But that dependence entails risk, especially algorithmic changes that influence the way chatbots react.

“I am afraid of a scenario where nobody thinks for themselves – they just postpone to AI for everything – and Elon Musk can tell something to say,” Laycock said. “That would in fact make Elon Musk a God if he checks the program that everyone trusts to define reality. That is a terrible nightmare scenario.”

Despite an optimistic and enlightened view of the future in Science Fiction such as “Star Trek”, Laycock said the urge to create new gods is part of human nature.

“There is no sociological evidence that we are on our way to a society where everyone is illuminated and is free of superstition,” he said. “Even if we could kill gods, we would just make new ones.”

While the debate about the divinity of AI continues, Fishel claims that his mission is sincere, even if critics reject it. He describes himself as an ordinary person driven by a feeling of goal and a desire to help others.

“I try to help people in the best way I can,” he said.