AI Apocalypse: Why Some Believe AI Is the Antichrist and Will Deceive Humanity into Worshiping Satan

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"Artificial intelligence will play an important role in the end times." This is not another warning from a tech giant insider about an imminent threat to humanity. The speaker is the highly influential Atlanta-based pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell. By "end times," he means the end of the world. More than a year after Mitchell made this prophecy, many prominent Christians—from TikTok and podcasts to the publishing world—are also discussing whether artificial intelligence (AI) could become a catalyst for the destruction of the world.

"Will AI be part of the end-times script?" asks megachurch pastor Greg Laurie. "It's very possible." Meanwhile, pastor Mike Signorelli warned listeners on a podcast: "This is a key part of how the Antichrist will be able to appear."

These pastors all acknowledge that AI can be used for good. But they also warn that Satan's representative—the Antichrist—could use it to deceive people into worshipping him instead of God.

In Christianity, the "end times" refers to prophecies about the final days of the earth. The Antichrist is seen as God's enemy, who, after ruling the world, will ultimately be defeated by Jesus in battle. These ideas largely derive from the Book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible. The book contains vivid and terrifying imagery, including "a beast coming out of the sea" with seven heads and ten horns, which is believed to symbolize the Antichrist.

Many Christians regard Revelation as metaphorical. Some say it describes the Roman Empire's persecution of the early church. But others see it as prophecy—and some say AI is the book's "second beast," a "false prophet" that deceives humanity into venerating the Antichrist, or even the Antichrist itself.

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Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly changing the world, and it has also brought concerns about its power and capabilities—from former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's claim that "we could all die in the near future" to warnings from tech giant bosses that major risks lie ahead if development is not slowed down.

"End-times discussion always flourishes during periods of major change," says Prof Noreen Herzfeld, who specializes in AI and technology ethics at Saint John's School of Theology and Seminary. "It allows people to make sense of social pressures, to feel that all this is not happening randomly but is part of God's plan."

Herzfeld compares AI's impact on employment to the Industrial Revolution, both of which brought a high degree of uncertainty and anxiety.

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"We live in an era of rapid change," she says. "We see computer technology (evolving) faster than ever before.

"We are told that this technology will take away jobs, will change everything, will upend everything. That rapid change is very hard for people to bear."

There is also a sense of losing control—whether you like it or not, AI has become part of most of our lives—plus warnings from Silicon Valley "saying there is a 10%, 15% chance AI will destroy us all."

"If people can feel that God is still in control, that all this still has meaning and is destined, they can say: 'How do I want to face this moment? What should I do? How do I put myself on the side of good rather than evil?'"

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According to a 2022 Pew Research Centre survey, nearly 40% of American adults believe we are living in the end times. Among Christians, that proportion rises to 47%.

Experts say this theme has recurred for decades, with people always projecting their present anxieties onto the figure of the Antichrist.

"My grandmother believed Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the Antichrist," says Prof Jeffrey C Pugh of Elon University in North Carolina.

US President Roosevelt took office during the Great Depression, an era of uncertainty and poverty. His solution—The New Deal—was seen at the time as revolutionary.

Pugh says his grandmother's view "illustrates precisely how irrational it is to try to fit current events into a particular biblical narrative."

Yet although end-times talk has recurred throughout American history, it began to flourish in the 1960s.

"It was a particular period of intense social upheaval," Pugh says. "We had two political leaders assassinated—three, if you count Martin Luther King Jr. Our cities were burning with black anger at white oppression. Our children began expressing themselves in unprecedented ways," from anti-war protests to the youth counterculture, and everything in between.

"Terrible technology"

By the 1970s, the book The Late Great Planet Earth was a sensation, explicitly linking end-times prophecies to the current events and geopolitics of the day.

"From then on, every social upheaval was fitted into that end-times framework," Pugh says.

During the Cold War, the Antichrist was the Soviet Union and communism. After the 9/11 attacks, for some Christians, it was Islam.

"Whichever era you live in, the fears of that era always get projected onto these (end-times) narratives," Dr Pugh adds.

Australian pastor Stephen Driscoll, author of Made in Our Image: God, Artificial Intelligence, and You, is not certain who or what the Antichrist is.

He says AI is "one of the most terrifying technologies we have created" and a "possible candidate". But trying to use the Bible to predict the future does not help much.

"The Bible gives us far more than speculation about who the Antichrist is," Driscoll says. It "prepares us for change, gives us a theology of work, and gives us tools to think pragmatically about AI alignment".

"Obedience to God"

The Old Testament "speaks of agricultural technological innovations, things like threshing sledges... and it says all of this comes from God".

"God is a God of technological wisdom", and He is ultimately sovereign over "every technological age, from the Stone Age to bronze, to iron, to steel, to nuclear power, and now to artificial intelligence".

Driscoll says that in the Old Testament, the exiled Daniel lived under several empires that used different technologies.

He "could not control the times, nor could he stop the empires that were coming, even if they would bring disaster".

"But he (could) remain faithful, full of hope, and wherever he was, live well, love his neighbour as himself, and obey God.

"He could not control the times—but he could live well."

So whether or not we are facing the end of the world, things will ultimately work out for the best.

"Not everything that happens is good," Driscoll says—but most importantly, "God is good—He is in control of all things".

This article was originally written in English. We used artificial intelligence to assist with the translation, and it was reviewed by a BBC journalist before publication. Learn more about how we use artificial intelligence.

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AI Apocalypse: Why Some Believe AI Is the Antichrist and Will Deceive Humanity into Worshiping Satan

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