I was reading an article today at a reputable source which examined the growing trend around the world to deify AI. There are apparently folks who are so impressed with their interactions with AI models that they have decided to make them into gods. Given the increasing sophistication, intelligence and mimetic capacity of AI, not to mention their capacity to please and flatter their interlocuters, I am not all that surprised.

It's worth remembering that once upon a time, people would carve 'gods' out of wood or stone, or invest natural phenomena with supernatural capacities. So AI is not such a leap and given the human capacity for folly, not unexpected.

But it is alarming. AI is entirely human developed and created, though the time is approaching when the prospective AGI may be almost wholly autonomous. A lot has already been written about that. It has its proponents and detractors.

But AI as god? It is a foolish and dangerous notion, perhaps quaint and engaging now, but ultimately self-destructive. As a Christian I can see the dangers of creating a false idol (there are many idols in our lives) but one created specifically to be a god, or endowed by others to be so, is of a different category. 

Still, for now at least, there is always the power point, or a blackout, to expose the fraud.