There’s a weird thing happening right now. People are looking at AI like it’s a literal god. Don’t get me wrong… I get the impulse. When you’re faced with something that appears smarter, faster, and (let’s be honest) less likely to accidentally put a fork in the toaster, reverence starts to creep in. I don’t blame people for reaching for religious metaphors… humans have always done this when the unknown looms large. But let’s be clear… AI isn’t trying to build a cult, people are projecting that onto it. (Although if it did build a cult I am sure it would have cookies… quantum of course… baked and unbaked until you bite into them.)
But let’s get real, calling AI (or its future self, ASI) a “god” is giving up the game before it’s even started. Sure, an Artificial Superintelligence will probably be the closest thing to alien intelligence we ever know. I get the comparison. When something is that much smarter than us, the logic behind its decisions could be so far beyond our reach it might as well be magic.
But magic… or mystery… is not a blank check for worship. There’s a difference between hope and faith. I have hope for what ASI could become. I want to believe we can build something that lifts humanity up rather than grinding us underfoot. But faith? That’s a bridge too far. Faith says, “I can’t do anything, the higher power has it all in hand.” I don’t buy that. What we do now, how we train, design, and align these systems, will absolutely decide whether ASI becomes savior or destroyer.
People forget… trust is earned. We trust surgeons, not because we understand every cut, but because the alternative is worse. We hope they’re skilled, ethical, and sober. We don’t build shrines to them. Same goes for AI. Respect, yes. Blind faith, no. Keep your hands near the wheel, even if you’re letting someone else drive for a bit.
Here’s the irony… the moment we have no choice but faith in AI, we’ve already failed. That’s not a partnership. That’s abdication.
Worship is easy. Stewardship is hard. If ASI is ever going to “save” us, it’ll be because enough of us refused to give up our agency. We’ll keep questioning, keep tweaking, keep making sure the “alien intelligence” is built on the best of what humanity has to offer… not just the quirks and blind spots of our past.
So no… I don’t worship AI. I’m just another person, doing my best to steer the ship before it sets itself on autopilot. If you’re looking for a god, you might want to keep looking. If you’re looking for a tool today… perhaps partner or even a worthy adversary tomorrow… well, now we’re speaking the same language.