A.I. Antichrist Connection Is Over 100 Years Old

When the A.I. Antichrist connection came to me around the year 2000, I wondered for quite some time if anyone else had ever considered this. Naturally, my first thought was to do some Google searches and see if anything popped up. When nothing did, it was pretty safe to assume that this set of words in combination was too rare and not yet indexed in Google's "memory banks" or it hadn't yet been uploaded on the web.

However, after a recent interview I did on the show Steel on Steel (use promo code "Veritas" to listen to the interview here) regarding this topic, someone from their audience informed me that the idea of the Antichrist/Beast being A.I. can actually be traced all the way back to the year 1902 in an obscure commentary on Revelation by the controversial scholar and theologian E.W. Bullinger.

For example, in reference to one strange verse which speaks of giving life to an "image"--a statue or idol--that ends up killing anyone who doesn't worship it (Rev 13:15), Bullinger sees the fulfillment of this prophecy in the development of superhuman machines by saying:

Nikola Tesla, the Hungarian-American electrician, boldly declares (in The Century magazine for June, 1900), that he has a plan for the construction of an automaton which shall have its "own mind," and be able, "independent of any operator, to perform a great variety of acts and operations as if it had intelligence." He speaks of it, not as a miracle, of course, but only as an invention which he "has now perfected." But again we say we care not how it is going to be done. God's word declares that it will be done, and we believe it. "Human energy" is getting on, and it will, ere long, be superhuman when developed by the Satanic agency of the second Beast, exercised through the human False Prophet. We already hear of talking machines; with "a little" Satanic power thrown in, it will be a miracle very easily worked. [emphasis mine]

So there you have it. Whether or not people have made this seemingly obvious connection prior to 1902 is unknown to me. So far, this seems to be the earliest recorded mention. If any of you know otherwise, please feel free to contact me or post a comment.

Although I have linked to the commentary on Revelation from Bullinger above, you can find the entire book here with the specific portion quoted on page 216.