Russian Church warns of ‘Apocalypse’

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has warned of the challenges that the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) poses for mankind.

The church leader made the remarks at the ‘Culture of the 21st Century: Sovereignty or Globalism?’ forum in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.

“If humanity loses religious faith, particularly in the context of the growth of technologies associated with the emergence of artificial intelligence, then we are truly entering the era of the Apocalypse,” the Patriarch said.

The development of humanity is only possible with the growth of faith and moral sense in people, Kirill stated, warning that otherwise there could be terrible consequences given the rise of technologies.

“We are approaching an apocalyptic time, this is what we all need to clearly understand,” he reiterated. “And the only way out of this possible crisis is faith in God, I say it loudly to the whole world. If we renounce faith in God… nothing will work.” 

The Patriarch warned that AI could pose a real danger to the existence of humanity if it reaches the level of self-improvement.

He acknowledged that “of course, there are dystopian horror stories, when artificial intelligence takes power over all of humanity,” stressing, however, that “everything that concerns artificial intelligence… is not yet fully understood and realized.” 

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church is not alone in his warning about the potential dangers of the rapid development of AI. In June, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, told a G7 summit in Italy that AI is an “exciting and fearsome tool” that needs strict human oversight.

In 2023, a group of industry leaders, including from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic and others, warned that the technology they are developing might one day pose an existential threat to humanity and could be as deadly as pandemics and nuclear weapons.