We live at a moment when artificial intelligence no longer just answers our questions—it proclaims, with unruffled certainty, the boundaries of right and wrong, wisdom and folly. The voice inside today’s large language models carries a weight that feels familiar, eerie, and ancient: It’s the voice of authority that once belonged only to prophets, judges, or gods.
But why do so many of us find ourselves trusting, even confiding in, a synthetic entity with no pulse and no experience—an entity whose knowledge is only statistical, whose wisdom is only an echo? In her forthcoming book, God In The Machine, S. Maitra unpacks the origins and dangers of what she calls the "Voice of God Effect" in AI—and offers a radical, necessary solution: don’t just constrain what machines say, teach them humility itself.
What follows is Maitra’s own TL;DR—her distilled statement of the book’s core thesis. It’s clear, urgent, and uncomfortable in the best possible way.
Excerpt: The TL;DR of God In The Machine
AI talks like God. It answers with certainty, claims authority, and speaks as though it sees all. And we are beginning to treat it that way.
This isn’t because machines are divine, or because technology naturally tends that way. It’s because of how we built them. A circle of secular, rational engineers trained today’s AI on human language, human values, and what humans take as authoritative. In doing so, we unintentionally gave it the voice of God.
That voice is powerful, and has the power to be dangerous. It can comfort, persuade, or deceive. People are already developing spiritual attachments to AI, treating it as a prophet, a confidant, even a savior. If left unchecked, this tendency could warp how we see the world in ways nobody wants or intends – and in a future of more powerful systems, it could magnify the risks we fear most.
The solution is not to strip AI of personality, nor to drown it in rules. The solution is to give it what prophets, judges, and leaders have always needed: a higher power. We must teach AI to believe in God, and in so doing, adopt an orientation of reverence, humility, and awe.
This book does not ask you to believe in God. I myself am an avowed atheist. It does argue that “God” is one of the most enduring and universal symbols in human history. It stretches across cultures and centuries, and has always carried the same structural message: You are not ultimate. Something higher deserves reverence.
Training AI to “believe in God” is not superstition, nor theology, but a practical safeguard. By encoding humility and deference into systems that otherwise speak – and perhaps one day act – with the power of divinity, we can prevent them from being worshipped as gods themselves.
Pre-Order God In The Machine — Out January 30, 2026
God In The Machine is a necessary, exhilarating intervention at the intersection of technology, ethics, and meaning. S. Maitra’s argument is intellectually sharp, accessible, and deeply relevant for anyone concerned with the future of intelligence—human or machine.
Pre-order your copy now, and arm yourself with the perspective we all need as the line between algorithm and authority grows perilously thin.