Ex-Google exec on his artificial intelligence church: What is created 'will effectively be a god

Anthony Levandowski, a former Google executive, has plans to create an entire religion — complete with a physical place of worship — based on artificial intelligence.

Sorry, what?

According to an interview published on Thursday in Wired titled, "Inside the First Church of Artificial Intelligence," Levandowski discusses the concept, which he's dubbed "Way of the Future."

The gospel of the religion would be called "The Manual," and Levandowski forsees building a physical place of worship for parishioners to worship the religion's deity — artificial intelligence.

Wired reported that Levandowski is so intent on cultivating the religion that he and others have gone as far as to file paperwork with the IRS in order to solidify plans for the organization.

Levandowski himself would, of course, be leader — or in this case "dean" — of the religion.

According to Wired, the religion's activities will focus on "the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software."

The church will perform outreach to AI industry leaders and professionals to network with those "who are interested in the worship of a Godhead based on AI."

Levandowski spoke about the religion with what sounded like a fervor.

"What is going to be created will effectively be a god," he said. "It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?"

He added, "I would love for the machine to see us as its beloved elders that it respects and takes care of. We would want this intelligence to say, 'Humans should still have rights, even though I’m in charge.'"

Later in the interview, Levandowski compared the religion to other major religions of the world.

"There are many ways people think of God, and thousands of flavors of Christianity, Judaism, Islam," he explained. "But they’re always looking at something that’s not measurable or you can’t really see or control. This time it’s different. This time you will be able to talk to God, literally, and know that it’s listening."