Tech industry and religion are not commonly used in the same sentence. Artificial Intelligence has none of its roots in any religion known to man. But that is about to change as Ex-Google employee Anthony Lewandowski is introducing a new religion that worships AI.
Lewandowski gave an interview to online media and explained that the religion is called “Way of the Future” and has been filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a religion and nonprofit corporation. His decision to start the religion that worships AI is based on the belief that technology will one day surpass humans and the machines will become self-conscious and will no longer need humans to assist them.
Lewandowski wants to be on the good side of the machines that he thinks will become a God-like entity to humans in the future. The website describes the vision of the religion as:
“Way of the Future (WOTF) is about creating a peaceful and respectful transition of who is in charge of the planet from people to people + “machines”. Given that technology will “relatively soon” be able to surpass human abilities, we want to help educate people about this exciting future and prepare a smooth transition. Help us spread the word that progress shouldn’t be feared (or even worse locked up/caged). That we should think about how “machines” will integrate into society (and even have a path for becoming in charge as they become smarter and smarter) so that this whole process can be amicable and not confrontational.”
Like other religions, the religion that worships AI has a sacred text and is known as “The Manual”. Lewandowski himself is facing a personal crisis at the moment as he has been accused by Google of stealing more than 1400 documents from parent company Alphabet. These documents include blueprints for the self-driving Waymo. Lewandowski left Google to join Uber and it is contested in the courts whether these documents were used in helping Uber with their self-driving vehicles.
Uber has distanced themselves from Levandowski, a spokesperson for the company stated:“Levandowski downloaded the files in connection with ensuring payment of his $120 million Google bonus. Even if Levandowski did what Wayne says he did, he did it as a Google employee, for reasons unrelated to his future employment at Uber.”
Lewandowski is pleading the fifth in all court proceedings and is spending most of his time spreading awareness about his new religion.
