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

Date:
Sun, 23 Nov 2025 15:00:00 +0000

Description:
AI isnt just answering questions anymore. Its becoming a source of comfort, meaning, and even spiritual guidance and religions are already considering
how to deal with it.

FULL STORY

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 its 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.

Its easy to dismiss these people as delusional or assume theyre 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 were 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.

Why do some people think ChatGPT is God?

For months, Ive 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. Its a combination of design choices and the human tendency to deify, Singler explains.

ChatGPT is always available, and it responds instantly, warmly, and
privately. Thats incredibly comforting and its 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 theyre communicating with someone (or something) beyond an AI system, something
thats really listening. Humans have a tendency to see agency in the
inanimate, and with the linguistic skills of chatbots its not surprising that theyre 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 theyre 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. Youre getting close
to our existing models of theistic entities, Singler says. And because these systems are trained on religious and philosophical texts, they dont just
appear knowledgeable, they can speak fluently in that register whenever a
user steers the conversation there. Its 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, its 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 its not surprising that todays fascination with AI as a spiritual or God-like force isnt 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. Weve 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 its 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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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/chatgpt/why-some-people-are- treating-chatgpt-like-a-god-and-what-that-means-for-the-future-of-faith

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