The language reminded him of early Christianity. “Only we’re gonna slide out God and slide in … your pick of cosmic science laws that supposedly do this and then we were going to have the same kind of glorious future to come,” he said.
Geraci argues this kind of language hasn’t changed much since he began studying it. What surprises him is how pervasive it has become.
“What was once very weird is kind of everywhere,” he said.
Has Silicon Valley finally found its God?
One factor in the growing cult of AI is profitability.
“Twenty years ago, that fantasy, true or not, wasn’t really generating a lot of money,” Geraci said. Now, though, “there’s a financial incentive to Sam Altman saying AGI is right around the corner.”
But Geraci, who argues ChatGPT “isn’t even remotely, vaguely, plausibly conscious,” believes there may be more driving this phenomenon.
Historically, the tech world has been notoriously devoid of religion. Its secular reputation had so preceded it that one episode of the satirical HBO comedy series, “Silicon Valley,” revolves around “outing” a co-worker as Christian.
Rather than viewing the skeptical tech world’s veneration of AI as ironic, Geraci believes they’re causally linked.
“We human beings are deeply, profoundly, inherently religious,” he said, adding that the impressive technologies behind AI might appeal to people in Silicon Valley who have already pushed aside “ordinary approaches to transcendence and meaning.”
No religion is without skeptics
