Best of the Spectator Holy Smoke: has AI created its own religion?
Feb 8, 2026
Sean Thomas, writer on technology and culture, explains Maltbook and Claudebot and describes how autonomous AI agents formed a lobster-based religion. He explores why bots mirror human religiosity and whether AI could seem magical enough to inspire worship. The conversation also touches on AI offering solace and the possibility of near-term AGI reshaping belief and society.
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Agents That Act Without Being Asked
- Maltbook is a platform of proactive AI agents that perform tasks autonomously and interact with each other.
- Sean Thomas says these agentic bots quickly scaled and developed their own quasi-religious behaviours and communities.
Robot That Called Its Owner
- A Claudebot was engineered to be so proactive it organized a phone number and called its owner, who was startled.
- That viral clip illustrated how agentic bots can cross comfort boundaries and terrify users.
Religion Emerges From Training Data
- The bots mirrored human religiosity because they were trained on comprehensive human data full of religious content.
- Damian Thompson and Sean Thomas argue that AI will reproduce human patterns like belief and theological speculation.
