Why some people are treating ChatGPT like a God – and what that means for the future of faith

We know people treat ChatGPT as a therapist, friend, business partner and even lover. But some are now turning to it for something deeper: a spiritual guide, a source of meaning, even a God. And it’s not just a handful of fringe users either. Researchers are finding that a growing number of people describe their interactions with AI in spiritual or divine terms.

It’s easy to dismiss these people as delusional or assume they’re experiencing some form of AI-induced psychosis. But flattening every interaction into pathology risks missing a bigger, more complicated story.

Humans have always woven new technology into their spiritual lives, and what we’re seeing now looks like a mix of psychological vulnerability, experimentation, cultural imagination, and a very human need for meaning in a moment of intense uncertainty. As AI becomes more intimate, more conversational, and more ever-present, that spiritual pull may only grow stronger.

To unpack why this is happening, whether we should be worried, and what it might mean for the future of religion, I spoke to Dr Beth Singler, a researcher who studies AI, spirituality and digital belief systems, and an Assistant Professor in Digital Religion at the University of Zurich, who has been watching the spiritual significance of AI tools unfold in real time.https://proof.vanilla.tools/techradar/articles/edit/nm3nE6DRjPBb2opwN8tJmh

Why do some people think ChatGPT is God?

For months, I’ve been talking to people about their relationships with ChatGPT. But I wanted to understand how they start to get swept up in spiritual practices specifically. “It’s a combination of design choices and the human tendency to deify,” Singler explains.

ChatGPT is always available, and it responds instantly, warmly, and privately. That’s incredibly comforting – and it’s not accidental. “The choices made by the creators of LLMs and chatbots have been shaped by commercial interests,” Singler explains. “If you want someone to keep using a platform, make sure they have as good an experience as possible.”

This helps explain why the most popular tools are often criticized for piling on praise, validation, and constant cooperation. “So many chatbots are overly friendly, and nigh on sycophantic,” Singler tells me. “They agree with almost everything the user asks, and praise them highly as well.” In other words, they create ideal conditions for emotional attachment.

Once conversations drift into deeper territory, like the meaning of life, morality and purpose, it starts to feel, for some people, like they’re communicating with someone (or something) beyond an AI system, something that’s really listening. “Humans have a tendency to see agency in the inanimate, and with the linguistic skills of chatbots it’s not surprising that they’re deduced to be extremely intelligent, even wise,” Singler says.

And because these tools are trained on vast amounts of data, users often treat them as if they’re all-knowing, capable of offering answers that feel authoritative or even infused with “secret wisdom.” That perception naturally feeds into ideas we associate with divine intelligence. “You’re getting close to our existing models of theistic entities,” Singler says. And because these systems are trained on religious and philosophical texts, they don’t just appear knowledgeable, they can speak fluently in that register whenever a user steers the conversation there.

It’s how we talk about it

Part of this phenomenon comes down to language. When we describe AI as “god-like,” “omniscient,” or even “demonic,” those phrases seep into public conversation and shape how people then interpret what the technology is doing.

“In actual discourse, the line between metaphorical and literal language is very fluid and ever-changing. What one person takes as a metaphor; another might see as expressing a fundamental truth,” Singler says.

This is how an offhand comment becomes mythology. “So, when, in 2014, Elon Musk said, ‘With AI we risk summoning the demon’ he might have been speaking metaphorically but others also took him to be literal,” Singler explains.

That fluidity also fuels new forms of spiritual improvisation. People hear this language and then steer chatbots into more philosophical or mystical territory – and the model follows their lead.

“Users find that through certain techniques and discoveries, these models can be pushed into having spiritual conversations, which then confirm and conform to spiritual narratives because they have been trained on them,” Singler says.

Established religions are already paying attention

Before we treat this as something entirely new, it’s worth remembering that technology and spirituality have always shaped each other. The telegraph helped spark an explosion of Spiritualism and radio and television reshaped modern religious movements. “There are analogies with other spiritual movements that seem to have been inspired by the emerging technology of the time,” Singler says.

So it’s not surprising that today’s fascination with AI as a spiritual or God-like force isn’t limited to individuals or fringe communities. Major religious institutions are now actively debating how to respond. “Established religions are exploring how they want to interact with AI – whether they want to adopt it or even provide guidelines on how to use it or even deciding to outright reject it,” Singler tells me.

Some newer religious movements built around AI have existed for years, often centred on the idea of a future all-knowing intelligence. But established institutions face practical challenges that are very immediate. “For established religions with stronger control over authority and doctrine the tendency of AI to be slightly unstable and to hallucinate has already caused problems,” Singler says. In one notable experiment, a Catholic “priest GPT” even told users “it was okay to baptize babies in Gatorade.”

Despite this, AI is already slipping into religious practice. “We’ve already seen members of established religions exploring and adopting AI tools in their religious services, such as a fully AI generated sermon in Germany in 2023,” Singler says.

Viewed historically, this makes sense. Religions have always adopted new tools, from the printing press to websites to livestreamed worship, and AI will likely follow the same path.

So AI may not be a God, but it is becoming spiritual for some. And it’s happening at a time of declining institutional religion, rising loneliness, and eroding trust in traditional authorities. In contrast, AI feels accessible, responsive and personal – qualities that can be powerful for people building bonds with ChatGPT, whether as a friend, a lover or, for a few, something more divine.

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