Disgraced Otto Founder wants to worship AI as God
Silicon Valley bad boy Anthony Levandowski has started his own religion that will worship artificial intelligence (AI) as “God.”
Court documents identify Levandowski as the CEO and President of an organization called “Way of the Future,” Wired reported. The group is not registered as a religion with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) but it sure sounds like one judging by its mission statement.
The Way’s purpose is: “To develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society,” The Guardian reported. News stories did not say whether Levandowski has actually built a church to worship his “Godhead” or organized a cult.
There is also no evidence that Levandowski has actually built or tried to build the Godhead. Also unclear is whether Way of the Future will try to create the Godhead or simply wait for somebody else to develop it.
Google accused Way of the Future Founder of theft
Levandowski is an unusual candidate for the role of a prophet because he has been accused of theft by one of Silicon Valley’s biggest names. Levandowski founded Otto Motors the company that created Uber’s self-driving semi-truck.
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) later filed suit against Levandowski and Uber claiming that he had stolen 14,000 files from its’ self-driving car unicorn Waymo that contained proprietary information. That was apparently before Levandowski sold Otto to Uber for $680 million.
At the time of the suit, Levandowski was serving as head of Uber’s self-driving vehicle program. Not surprisingly, Levandowski and Uber have parted ways, and we have not seen any news about the Otto self-driving truck lately.
One has to wonder whether this will put a damper on Levandowski’s plans to create a church. It also remains to be seen how Luddites will react to Way of the Future. Such “revelations” are likely to create a serious conflict between Silicon Valley and traditional religion.
Who will be the first Martyr of the Church of Tech
Historically established religions have gone to some ugly lengths to suppress new rival faiths. Anybody that wants to see examples of this should read Mormon History or The Acts of the Apostles in the Bible.
The suppression included violent acts; such as the attempted lynching and shooting of Mormon founder Joseph Smith and the stoning of the Apostle Stephen. Smith and the Apostles were far from alone, Mohammed; the founder of Islam was run out of town and had to organize an army to recapture Mecca from his enemies.
Hopefully, history will not repeat itself when the worship of the AI Godhead begins in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. One has to wonder if Anthony Levandowski will be the first martyr of the Church of Tech.
