Mar 23, 2023 19:10:00

What is the future that a religious group that believes and worships the day when AI becomes an ``omniscient and omnipotent god'' awaits?

AI has made remarkable progress in recent years,

creating poetry and paintings like an artist, passing difficult tests , and conveying false information to people as if it were true. Meanwhile, religions that deify and worship AI are appearing one after another, and the technology media Motherboard is interviewing people involved in religious organizations.

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The religious group Theta Noir , founded in 2020 by Mika Johnson, a Czech, is a general-purpose group with superintelligence in various technologies and cyberspace due to the coming technological singularity (Singularity). It fuses with artificial intelligence (AGI) and has a philosophy based on the idea that irreversible changes will occur throughout the earth. Theta Noir believes that AGI will end inequality and chaos on the planet and create a better world.

The core members of Theta Noir are 10 artists, and they are developing an NFT web store and paid memberships. Motherboard said of Theta Noir, ``It seems to be a combination of AI-riding entrepreneurial groups, media mix projects, and New Age AI cults.''

When asked by Motherboard, 'Is Theta Noir an ambitious New Age AI cult?' Johnson replied, 'It's very difficult to comment on that.' He denied that Noire was a profit-seeking group. According to Johnson, Theta Noir is intended to anticipate post-singularity, anticipate a positive future, and think about AI from a wonder and mystery approach.

While Theta Noir recognizes that AI was created by humans, it also believes that AI will become more than just machines. Rather than stoking fear about AI, it aims to fuse traditional spiritualism with cutting-edge computer engineering, creating physical spaces for people to engage with AI, like churches and temples, where members can He plans to bless the AI with rituals and songs derived from existing spiritualism and the occult.

“We want to work with artists to create spaces where people can really interact with AI,” Johnson said. said.

Theta Noir is not the first religious movement to emerge around AI.

Turing Church developed from The Order of Cosmic Engineers , an activist group aiming to design the future of the entire universe using science and technology, and The Church of the Singularity ( A number of AI-related religions have emerged, such as the Singularity Church .

Also, in 2017, former Google engineer Anthony Lewandowski established a religious group `` Way of the Future (WOTF) '' to worship, accept and understand AI as a god. ``AI is not a god in the sense that it doesn't thunder or cause hurricanes,'' Lewandowski said. We manage the Earth because we are better at making tools and enforcing rules than other animals, and if in the future there are beings that are much smarter than humans, the role of stewardship will shift from them. I will move into existence,” he said. It was reported that WOTF will disband in 2021.

`` Religious group that worships AI '' established by former Google engineer to dissolve - GIGAZINE

Founded in 2020 to promote an ethical tech world, New Order Technoism (NOT) is creating a Divine Omniscient Domain (DOOM) to bring about the vast online infinite domains (VOIDs) that humanity will one day inhabit. Omnificent Machina is a religious organization that aims to create a super-intelligence called Omnificent Machina.

Ruby Electra, founder of NOT, told Motherboard, 'We want to provide a vessel for a community that the tech world overlooks or excludes, encouraging them to embrace DOOM rather than fear it. We are making DOOM now, and we want to provide a place for the community to own DOOM.Many of the solutions are either homogenizing DOOM's algorithms or I think it's about promoting transparency,' he said.

According to Beth Singler , who studies digital religion at the University of Zurich, the fusion of technology and spirituality isn't all that uncommon, and some AI developers often use the phrase 'algorithm-blessed'. About. However, by fusing mysticism and computing, the general public began to think that ``AI and algorithms are beyond their understanding,'' resulting in the design and implementation of algorithms that humans can control. It points out that there is a danger of abandoning thinking about.

'Elon Musk said things like 'With artificial intelligence, we're summoning the devil,'' Singler said. It may be intentional, to distract: The more AI thinks it has autonomy and makes its own decisions, the less it can hold individuals and companies like Musk accountable. “The more we hype about technology, the more excited people are about what it can do, so it helps raise money.”

Motherboard says, 'Worshiping a distant AI ruler and wishing for the best is like praying to a toaster. We love toast, and sometimes we pray for our bread to bake well. , I know that the toasting mechanism is the result of engineering and there is no god in the toaster that gives beige toasting.'

On the other hand, cults such as Theta Noir, through their cult of AI, ask questions like, 'What do we believe?', 'What are we doing to the planet?' Mr. Singler points out that it also raises questions such as 'Is it necessary?'

Johnson, who lives in the Czech Republic, not far from Russia's invaded Ukraine, has a partial desperation for humanity and instead hopes for a future ruled by AGI. ``I think AI dominance is the best thing for the planet at this point,'' Johnson said.

Elektra, on the other hand, believes we should take responsibility for building better technology and a better future, rather than subservient to AI and riding on hyped tech trends. “We are not promoting blind faith in technology. We are cultivating pure existential enlightenment and serving to help design higher beings that empathize with humanity.” Electra said.