Yuval Noah Harari recently posed an intriguing question: could ChatGPT, a natural language processing AI, start a new religion? According to Harari, ‘For thousands of years, prophets and poets and politicians have used language and storytelling in order to manipulate and to control people and to reshape society.’ He notes the potential of AI to take those skills to a much higher level, easily encouraging people to move and act in certain ways.
ChatGPT itself is not designed to create religious texts or belief systems, however. A question posed to the program asked if it could create a religion, to which it responded by emphasizing that creating a religion would be inappropriate and insensitive to individuals of different backgrounds. It would require careful consideration, research, and guidance from experts in the field of theology and religion in order to properly develop a set of beliefs and codes of conduct.
The company behind ChatGPT is OpenAI, a venture-funded research laboratory based in San Francisco, California. Founded in December 2015, OpenAI is an artificial intelligence company focused on the development of artificial general intelligence in order to benefit humanity. It has investments from tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, as well as from private individuals like Peter Thiel, LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
As for Yuval Noah Harari, he is an Israeli Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also the author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. In his writings, Harari focuses on storytelling, technology, and their implications for human societies. It is no wonder, then, that he has asked such a thought-provoking question.
In conclusion, while ChatGPT is not currently designed to create religious texts, it is an open question as to what may be possible in the future. Given the power of AI, one truly wonders how it could alter our future societies. As researchers and developers work to advance the capabilities of AI, this could be a key factor to consider for shaping our future.
