When God Meets Artificial Intelligence: From AI Sermons to Synthetic Religions
What happens when artificial intelligence enters the realm of faith? From AI-generated sermons and robotic preachers to authoritarian interpretations of Sharia and the lucrative business of prosperity-gospel churches, this article examines the uneasy relationship between religion, technology, political power, and money. Revisiting my 2023 experiment in creating a synthetic religion, I raise an unsettling question: will AI merely reproduce humanity’s beliefs, or will humanity eventually believe what machines invent?