Sam Altman Warns Against Treating AI Chatbots as Religious Authorities in Safety Alert

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has warned that treating artificial intelligence (AI) models as sources of religious authority or surrendering human judgement to them poses a safety risk. His comments highlight concerns about the influence chatbots could have when people turn to technology for guidance on faith, personal values, and spiritual questions.In a post on X on 3 October 2026, Altman wrote: 'I am very uncomfortable about people trying to ascribe religious force or a surrender of human judgment to AI models, and think it is a real safety issue.' Altman did not identify a specific company, religious organisation or incident in his post.