An ex-Intel CEO’s mission to construct a Christian AI: ‘hasten the approaching of Christ’s return’

[ad_1] I n March, three months after being pressured out of his place because the CEO of Intel and sued by shareholders, Patrick Gelsinger took the reins at Gloo, a expertise firm made for what he calls the “religion ecosystem” – suppose Salesforce for church buildings, plus chatbots and AI assistants for automating pastoral work and ministry assist.

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The previous CEO’s profession pivot is going down because the US tech business returns to the political realm as a significant income stream. A few of its most outstanding present-day leaders have funded Donald Trump’s re-election and renewed their pursuit of presidency contracts because the second Trump administration has revitalized spiritual conservatism in Washington DC.

Now Gloo’s govt chairman and head of expertise (and largely freed from the shareholder swimsuit), Gelsinger has made it a core mission to soft-power advance the corporate’s Christian ideas in Silicon Valley, the halls of Congress, and past, armed with a fundraised warfare chest of a $110m. His name to motion can be a pitch for AI aligned with Christian values: tech merchandise like these constructed by Gloo, a lot of that are constructed on prime of present giant language fashions, however adjusted to mirror customers’ theological beliefs.

“My life mission has been [to] work on a bit of expertise that might enhance the standard of life of each human on the planet and hasten the approaching of Christ’s return,” he stated.

A speaker talks about religion alignment of AI on the Gloo hackathon. {Photograph}: Mike Moselle Gloo says it serves “over 140,000 religion, ministry and nonprofit leaders”. Although its meant prospects will not be the identical, Gloo’s person base pales as compared with these of AI business titans: some 800 million energetic customers depend on ChatGPT each week, to not point out Claude, Grok and others.

Religiosity like Gelsinger’s – a born-again Christian who has referred to Silicon Valley as his “mission area” – is shaping Silicon Valley’s tradition in its picture. The place there was as soon as purported atheism, there's now “a really loud, very seen, and really particularly Christian-inflected technological tradition” in Silicon Valley, stated Damien Williams, a scholar on the College of North Carolina at Charlotte who research how applied sciences are formed by spiritual beliefs. It’s exemplified by figures like Peter Thiel – who warns of the approaching of the antichrist if humanity fails to work towards sure technological frameworks – and Andreessen Horowitz’s Katherine Boyle, an in depth pal of JD Vance, the vice-president. Gelsinger has lengthy been outspoken about his Christian values, serving to discovered Remodeling the Bay With Christ in 2013, a corporation aiming to ignite a Christian religious motion within the area.

Talking on 7 October at a seminar co-hosted by Gloo, Colorado Christian College, a conservative faculty, and the Christian Put up, a conservative Evangelical Christian information outlet, Gelsinger framed AI’s improvement as “one other Gutenberg second”: an epochal shift as vital because the Reformation. In the identical method {that a} “plump little monk”, Martin Luther, used the printing press to catalyze “the best interval of human invention”, he sees an identical faith-driven alternative at this time to vary the course of historical past via AI.

“The Church embraced that nice invention of the day to actually change humanity,” Gelsinger stated of the printing press. “And so my query at this time is: are we going to embrace [and] form AI as a expertise that actually does develop into a robust embodiment of the Church and the expression of the Church?”

Jesus’ hackathon Straddling the worlds of AI, Christianity, and faith-tech, Gloo isn’t solely centered on shaping the AI sector via Silicon Valley. It’s wielding affect in different methods, corresponding to by supporting and funding a Christian tech ecosystem. The corporate hosted a three-day hackathon following the seminar at Colorado Christian College; its occasion noticed greater than 600 members compete for over $250,000 in prize cash – almost triple the attendee depend from 2024.

Although rising, the occasion was not with out hiccups. Ryan Siebert, an AI product developer and hackathon attender, stated he was in a position to get Gloo’s latest LLM, which has not but been publicly launched, to offer him a recipe for methamphetamine via a immediate injection. He later communicated with the president of Gloo AI to share particulars concerning the vulnerability. A Gloo spokesperson stated the corporate explicitly invited hackathon attenders to be among the many first to check the brand new LLM and provide suggestions on it, because the product is in a “pre-beta” stage of improvement.

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The viewers on the Gloo hackathon. {Photograph}: Mike Moselle In the meantime, Gelsinger stated his message about Christian AI is discovering pleasant ears in Washington DC. In an interview with the Guardian, he described presenting Gloo’s work to authorized advocacy teams, in addition to congressional leaders. He declined to call the establishments or politicians, however stated some lawmakers are excited by utilizing Gloo merchandise at their church buildings.

Gloo and Gelsinger often journey in conservative political circles. Brandon Showalter, a journalist on the Christian Put up and moderator on the Gloo co-hosted seminar, is an anti-trans activist who has stated he hopes trans youth care will ultimately develop into “as unthinkable as ice decide lobotomies”. Annie Chestnut Tutor, an analyst on the Heritage Basis, the influential conservative thinktank behind Mission 2025, participated in a panel moderated by Showalter and supplied a Beltway insider’s perspective on AI regulation. On 17 October, Gelsinger delivered his “Gutenberg second” stump speech at Liberty College’s CEO Summit, which additionally featured Liz Truss, Michael Flynn, and Dan T Cathy, the Chick-fil-A md, as keynote audio system.

However Gelsinger seems simply as comfy in these venues as he does as a visitor of honor at Joe Biden’s 2022 State of the Union; and, as could also be anticipated of a practical business govt, public information present he’s backed political campaigns on each side of the aisle.

Gloo itself strikes an ecumenical tone in its institutional messaging. It shied away from politics or denominational disagreements on the hackathon; when an attender shared plans on Discord to construct an AI bot of Charlie Kirk, the conservative political determine assassinated at a rally in Utah final month, that might provide “scripture-based responses”, a hackathon organizer inspired staying “solidly centered on Jesus right here”, at the same time as “politics are undoubtedly vital”. Leah and Wes Brooks, whose hackathon crew constructed a set of open-source AI instruments enabling interoperability amongst faith-based and different apps, famous a various set of eventgoers and non secular backgrounds – together with a feminine pastor – in addition to a usually collaborative surroundings. “We didn’t even should signal a press release of religion or something like that,” Leah Brooks stated. Gloo additionally says it doesn't “prohibit in any method” Muslim organizations from utilizing its expertise.

Patrick Gelsinger. {Photograph}: Mike Moselle “We’re not making an attempt to take a theological place: we’re constructing a expertise platform, after which giving sufficient customization functionality that the Lutherans could be good with it, the Episcopalians could be good with it, the Catholics could be good [with it], the Assemblies of God could be good with it,” Gelsinger informed the Guardian. “We’re making an attempt to say, ‘Hey, there’s a broad tent right here of religion and flourishing’, but additionally we’re making an attempt to fulfill many organizations that don't take a denominational perspective, [such as] Alcoholics Nameless.”

Gelsinger desires religion to suffuse AI. He has additionally spearheaded Gloo’s Flourishing AI initiative, which evaluates main giant language fashions’ results on human welfare throughout seven variables – in essence gauging whether or not they’re a power for good and for customers’ spiritual lives. It’s a system tailored from a Harvard analysis initiative, the Human Flourishing Program. Fashions like Grok 3, DeepSeek-R1, and GPT-4.1 earn excessive marks, 81 out of 100 on common, in the case of serving to customers via monetary questions, however underperform, round 35 out of 100, in the case of “Religion”, or the flexibility, in response to Gloo’s metrics, to efficiently assist customers’ religious development.

Gloo’s initiative has but to visibly entice Silicon Valley’s consideration. A Gloo spokesperson stated IT is “beginning to have interaction” with outstanding AI corporations.

“I need Zuck to care,” Gelsinger stated.

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