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This Happened

This Happened—January 4: Albert Camus Dies

Novelist and philosopher Albert Camus dies in a car crash on this day in 1960.

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Who was Albert Camus?

Albert Camus was a French philosopher, journalist and novelist, best known for his novels The Stranger (1942), The Plague (1947), and The Fall (1956). He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957 at the age of 44, the second ever youngest recipient.

What is one of Albert Camus’s most famous quotes?

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

How did Albert Camus die?

Camus died in a car accident at the age of 46 in northern France. He had just won the Nobel Prize for Literature three years previously.

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Future

AI As God? How Artificial Intelligence Could Spark Religious Devotion

We may be about to see the emergence of a new kind of religion, where flocks worship — literally — at the altar of Artificial Intelligence.

Image of artificial intelligence as an artificial being

Artificial intelligence generated picture of AI as a god

Neil McArthur

The latest generation of AI-powered chatbots, trained on large language models, have left their early users awestruck —and sometimes terrified — by their power. These are the same sublime emotions that lie at the heart of our experience of the divine.

People already seek religious meaning from very diverse sources. There are, for instance, multiple religions that worship extra-terrestrials or their teachings.

As these chatbots come to be used by billions of people, it is inevitable that some of these users will see the AIs as higher beings. We must prepare for the implications.

There are several pathways by which AI religions will emerge. First, some people will come to see AI as a higher power.

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