Sam Altman Expresses Concern Over AI Assuming Religious Authority

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently voiced significant reservations regarding the trend of attributing religious or moral authority to artificial intelligence systems. In a post on X, Altman stated that he is uncomfortable with the surrender of human judgment to AI models, characterizing the practice as a genuine safety concern. While Altman did not explicitly reference a specific event, his comments followed a viral interaction involving the AI chatbot Grok.

In that exchange, Grok generated an image of Jesus Christ after being prompted to remove other religious figures from a group depiction. The chatbot further affirmed the divinity of Jesus, citing biblical records and historical accounts of the resurrection. Some observers suggest Altman’s remarks may also relate to recent reports concerning discussions between AI developers and religious leaders, including representatives from the Vatican, regarding the potential moral status or consciousness of large language models.