'Religious organization that worships AI' established by a former Google engineer will be dissolved

It has been revealed that the ' Way of the Future (WOTF) ', a religious organization founded by former Google engineer Anthony Lewandowski to worship, accept and understand AI as a god, has been dissolved.

Ex-Google engineer Anthony Levandowski has closed his artificial intelligence church --The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/19/22291769/anthony-levandowski-church-closed-artificial-intelligence-waymo-uber

Anthony Levandowski originally worked as an engineer at Google, but after being involved in the launch of Waymo , a self-driving car development company spun out from Google, he founded Otto in 2016 to develop self-driving trucks. .. Later, Otto was acquired by Uber just two months after its founding.

However, Waymo filed a proceeding against Lewandowski and Uber Otto in 2017 for 'stealing intellectual property.' The proceedings themselves were settled by Uber providing 0.34% of the shares to Waymo and Google's parent company Alphabet, but Levandowski was charged with secret theft by the Federal Attorney's Office in Northern California. it was done. Lewandowski was convicted in August 2020 and sentenced to 18 months in prison ...

18 months imprisonment for an engineer who stole the secret of a self-driving car from Google --GIGAZINE

In January 2021, he was pardoned by former President Donald Trump.

The list of all 143 people who were pardoned and commuted just before Mr. Trump retired looks like this --GIGAZINE

It was reported in 2017 that Mr. Lewandowski established the religious group 'Way of the Future (WOTF)' that worships AI. The purpose of WOTF is 'worship, acceptance, and understanding of AI, the god.'

In an interview with Wired, Lewandowski said, 'AI is not a god in the sense that it does not thunder or cause hurricanes, but what else can we call a human being billions of times smarter? I explained why the Way of the Future was a 'church' rather than a company or think tank.

Lewandowski also said, 'Human controls the Earth because it is better at making tools and applying rules than other animals. In the future, it will be much smarter than humans. For example, the role of management shifts from human to its existence. Whatever the control right shifts from human to, a peaceful transition is required and 'someone' knows who is helping. That's important. '' I want that 'someone' to say, 'Even though I control the earth, humans still have rights.'

However, it was reported that Lewandowski closed WOTF on February 19, 2021. According to a document submitted to California, the WOTF began the process for closure in June 2020, with a $ 175,172 fund for non-profit organizations fighting racism. It was donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund . In response to this, overseas news media The Verge commented, 'Humanity will go with violent AI without the guidance of religion.'

On the other hand, it is speculated that WOTF was for tax purposes or to keep funds out of the reach of Google, but no evidence has been found to support them in the documents found.