Written by Pranati
Edited by Apeksha
Illustrated by Spoorti Gowda
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When we think of AI, we think of chatbots, virtual assistants, ChatGPT and its Google-based counterpart Gemini. AI incorporated into Large Language Models (LLM) has provided us with convenient tools to streamline research and data analysis and to manage day-to-day activities and assignments.
Based on how a chatbot is built, human interaction with AI can also enable it to grasp language nuances and learn what responses humans react favourably to. This is where the new-age phenomenon of theocracy in AI begins to take shape.
Language, ever since its conception, has been the primary means of persuasion and discussion. With the incredible ability of AI language models to pick up linguistic skills, some experts have theorised that AI is capable of foraying into religion very soon.
After interacting with a population from a particular demography, a large language model would be able to craft a text tailored to the population it has been interacting with. Each demography has a different emotional outlook towards topics, especially that of religion. Based on data it may have collected, a language model that has been prompted to do so would use different vocabulary to appeal to different demography-based religious systems.
Its close study could link the mindset of the USA to words like “freedom” and “defending the nation from threats to our faith” while associating the mindset of the Indian subcontinent with words like “independent thought”, “spiritual meditation”, and moving away from “a materialistic mindset”. AI has the ability to analyse the already existing religious sentiment in a selected region and then craft a carefully tailored religious manifesto that, generations from now, could be a text used to justify the rule of a self-styled religious leader.
According to a keynote address by Professor Yuval Noah Harari from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “religions throughout history claimed that their holy books were written by a non-human intelligence. This was never true before but could become true very, very quickly with far-reaching consequences.”
Conversations about any topic, such as abortion, political ideologies, or theocracy take place on a daily basis across online and offline platforms. What we witness many a time is that people who participate in such discussions online may do so without being aware that it is, in fact, a bot they may be talking to. Professor Harari again states that while it is pointless to waste our time trying to convince an AI bot to change its political views, the longer we spend interacting with this entity, the better it is able to hone its language skills to shape our political views.
AI has already been used to write compelling and flawlessly accurate political manifestos. It stands to reason that a similar model could be used to create such texts that directly pertain to religion or theocracy, where the “high-priests” claim legitimacy from AI-generated manifestos that appeal to the modern world.
Religion, in general, has relied on a compilation of texts that have been passed along generations, supposedly having been created by a non-human force. This force, hailed variously as a deity, a divine being, or even God, has come to be revered as the creator of that religion by all subsequent followers of the faith.
What if that non-human force – the creator of a centuries-old religious system – was in fact AI?
What was, in some religious instances, regarded as a non-human, alien intelligence, can very well be replaced by an AI preceptor now. The Alien Intelligence that followers of a faith attributed their scriptures to, could be replaced by the Artificial Intelligence of today.
The very AI that generations from now may hail as the creator of their religious scriptures.
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