Do AI Founders Think They're Building God?

Religious and Divine Aspects in AI Development00:00

Religion recurs as a theme in discussions of superintelligence development, appearing both in Demis Hassabis's personal story and more broadly across the field. An example involves an eccentric financier named David Gammon who was close to becoming an investor. Gammon explained that there is a deeply religious aspect to AGI, describing it as finding God's algorithm.

Some people in Silicon Valley take this further, suggesting that developing AGI might be how humanity finds God or elicits a second coming.

Why Religious Language Emerges Around AGI01:21

AGI represents something so powerful that it is both exciting and scary, making it difficult to fully comprehend. This leads people to naturally reach for religious terminology when discussing AI. The 2009 speech by Shane Legg, Demis Hassabis's co-founder, that led to the foundation of DeepMind predicted superintelligence arriving in 2030. In the talk, Legg explained how algorithms are getting stronger, there is more data online, and computers are becoming more powerful, leading toward an intelligence explosion.

The 2009 Shane Legg Speech and Human Reactions to Existential Risk02:00

Toward the end of the lecture, Legg pivoted to discussing how superintelligence would be threatening, do things humans cannot control, reach human level, and potentially challenge humanity. During this portion, Legg had an excited smile on his face. When an audience member asked why he had not provided an antidote or explained how to stop the threat, Legg responded by asking how to stop it while giggling. This reaction illustrates that contemplating annihilation is absurd for humans, and the absurd is closely related to humor.