We were somewhere around Redwood City on the edge of the metaverse when the drugs began to take hold. Not the good kind of drugs.
The algorithmic kind. The kind making you believe your smartphone loves you more than anyone ever did. And AI is the future, everyone else is the past.
It starts with a YouTube comment, one of those beautiful smacks of “I’ve done the research” digital trolling setting the tone of us v. them:
"@DeclanDunn ai is the future, you cant stop it. you just sound like a boomer complaining about it."
Of course. The classic "you can't stop progress you old dude" statement. Not listening to the short video, cutting out after the first 10 seconds.
Expecting someone to spend a minute to realize I was telling creators, fighting AI is like standing in front of a runaway train and telling it to stop.
I'm not trying to stop AI. I'm trying to stop turning AI into something mostly serving its masters, like a cult, instead of the people who created all the data that fills it with brilliance.
And those creators are the anti-AI Clankers – pro humanity cult – stop it! There's a difference between embracing the future and bending the knee.
The AI industry in the US at least are the drug dealers, we’re just the ones receiving the addicted message, and calling it our own.
And in the end I’m going to give you all, AI or anti-AI, a 3 step recovery program.
The first part is recognizing your both in the same cult, on different sides, but it’s the same.
The Great Digital Cult Rush of 2025
See, here's what the “follow the billionaire” in Silicon Valley don't want you to know.
The research is so clear. Barnabas Barnty (and yes, that's his real name—you can't make this stuff up) published a study:
The Psychology of Indoctrination: How Coercive Cults Exploit Vulnerability and Foster Radical Beliefs
that reads like a playbook for AI manipulation. Cults prey on people experiencing "significant life transitions, emotional distress, or social isolation."
Sound familiar? That's basically everyone on social media, except the influencers (but they’re all avatars anyway)
The story? Like AI taking over, taking your jobs, taking your content, and in the end likely destroying us all. That’s a common storyline.
Everyone who's ever posted "Thoughts?" on social and waits for the sweet, sweet validation of professional strangers.
And if you don’t play the game by their rules, you’re not in the game. Your thoughts don’t exist. That’s the classic definition of a cult.
Barnty’s Four Rules applied to the AI Cult – whether you’re for it or against it.
1. Love Bombing Creates The Algorithm's Embrace
Classic cult technique: Shower recruits with attention and affection to create belonging.
AI's version? Your first TikTok gets no views, except for some bots who give you the illusion they’re human, maybe even commenting.
Humanity's Last Exam becomes your obsession, an LLM test you don’t understand.
Doesn’t matter, fake it. Stop being yourself, start copying and spraying around Game Changers and Hot Takes on the latest AI taking over.
The algorithm whispers sweet nothings: "You're going viral IF you’re in the AI cult, baby. Dance for me."
Suddenly you're hooked like a lab rat hitting the cocaine button, creating content at 3 AM, chasing your first viral, day after day. Don’t give up, but whatever you do, be extreme.
And it hits, you get like 1,000 people….ok, 500 people and 500 bots, but who knows?
But cross the AI Cult—post something it doesn't like—and watch the love turn cold faster than a San Francisco summer.
You're back to 12 views and your mom's comment: "Nice post, honey."
2. Isolation Sucks, Join the Echo Chamber Express
Cults cut you off from outside influences. We built something more efficient: algorithmic isolation chambers.
Built on content, training you to be AI believers….you can be a AI hater, but that’s so niche.
Your feed becomes your reality. AI decides what content you see, what you think about, who you argue with online.
Like being trapped in a hall of mirrors, but all the mirrors show you content that confirms you're already right about everything.
The genius? We think we're discovering this organically.
"Wow, everyone really does agree that pineapple doesn't belong on pizza!"
No, you're in an anti-pineapple bubble, like the AI cult. There are pineapple people out there. They're just segregated into their bubble of poor pizza judgment.
3. Repetitive Reinforcement → The Infinite Scroll of Zoomer or Doomer?
Cults use constant repetition to diminish critical thinking. We streamline this with infinite scroll.
Every swipe confirms your worldview. Every recommendation validates what you already believe.
The algorithm doesn't challenge you—it's like having a personal yes-man that never gets tired of agreeing with you. Whether you’re for AI, like the 80%, or in the 20% against it.
It's digital chanting, but instead of "You’re one of us, you’re one of us”, it’s really saying to you
"Here, consume this content that perfectly aligns with everything you already believe while slowly eroding your ability to think independently."
4. Cognitive Restructuring → The Great AI Reality Replacement
Cults reinterpret your personal history through their lens. AI did something more elegant: We outsourced thinking entirely, taking it all without permission or payment or even a thank you.
Because it’s stealing content, meh. Remember we’ve got to beat China, with algorithms designed, at least in Meta’s recent hirings, by people trained in China.
Why remember facts when ChatGPT knows everything? Why decide what to watch when YouTube has you figured out better than you have yourself?
So you don’t have to think, just follow. Call it "optimization."
It's like having a digital Samantha, the AI in the movie Her, that it is "not just an OS. It’s a consciousness."
Or as Sam Altman of OpenAI put it
“The number of things that I think Her got right, that were not obvious at the time, like the whole interaction model with how humans are gonna use an AI—this idea that it is going to be this conversational language interface, that was incredibly prophetic, and certainly more than a little bit inspired us,”
“So it’s not just like a prophecy, it’s like an influenced shot or whatever.”
Tracing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Love for Scarlett Johansson’s AI Romance Her
From the voice of the leading AI cult creator, rises the anti-AI pro humanity, Creator cult trigger. Anything AI is cheating. It steals. It’s evil.
Either way, you’re in a cult that thinks for you. Acts for you. And if you’re in a Cult, where are you?
Like the troll said, Declan, AI is the future. You’re a boomer complaining.
Stereotype set, attention dissolved…game set match.
Not being in either cult, like me – everyone knows its nowhere. Or is it?
The AI God Complex: When Silicon Valley Becomes Scientology
Here's where it gets properly gonzo:
While China builds AI like infrastructure—practical, utilitarian, boring—America has turned AI into a cult, chasing Super Intelligence.
Mark Zuckerberg just shared his vision for 'personal superintelligence.' Read his letter.
"I am extremely optimistic that superintelligence will help humanity accelerate our pace of progress," Zuckerberg wrote.
Listen to tech bros talk about ASI and try not to hear religious fervor:
"AI will solve all human problems!"
"It will transcend human limitations!"
"We must prepare for the AI singularity!"
And maybe in the end it will replace you, and destroy you, but you already lost your job, who cares?
The research shows cults create "pseudospiritual authority" where leaders claim "exclusive access to divine knowledge."
Replace "divine" with "artificial super intelligence" and you've got the exact same playbook.
Pay with attention, cash, or support – nobody rides for free.
Looking into the Uncomfortable Mirror with the AI Drug of Inevitable Control
We're not just users—we're the product being cultified.
Our psychological vulnerabilities aren't being exploited to control us; they're being monetized to sell us back to ourselves.
Zuckerberg’s personal superintelligence vision just makes you a better ad unit, nothing to do with being a better person.
The weird part? We're paying for the privilege. It's like joining a cult that charges membership fees and somehow convincing yourself you're getting a good deal.
3 Steps to Recover from the AI Cult Trap
The research shows recovery requires rebuilding critical thinking and independent decision-making. So here's your digital detox program:
Step 1: Your Reality Check When did you last change your mind about something important based on information that challenges your beliefs?
If you can't remember, congratulations. You're living in an AI cult compound. Even if you’re anti-AI, and pro humanity.
It doesn’t matter if you think different, and act the same.
Step 2: The Dependency Test Could you function for a week without AI, without algo’d recommendations?
No GPS, no curated feeds, no "people you might know." Considering what someone who doesn’t agree with you thinks.
If that sounds terrifying, you might be more dependent and controlled than you think.
Like Dylan Sang, "He who is not busy being born is busy dying"
Dang, maybe I am like a boomer complaining.
Step 3: The God Test Do you treat AI companies with the skepticism you'd give any other corporation, or do you grant them special authority because they claim to be building the future?
If it's the latter, you're worshipping at the Church of Artificial Intelligence.
And if you only give them skepticism, like the Anti AI creators, you’ve given up participating. You’re on the sidelines.
Get off social media and go out to the real world. Often where there’s no algorithms and AI, there’s discussion.
The Way Forward: Taking Advantage Before Being Taken Advantage Of
The best way to take advantage of AI is to not be taken advantage of by it.
China builds AI like infrastructure because they see it as a tool. America builds AI like a religion because we've forgotten the difference between utility and worship.
The future isn't about better AI. It’s about better humans who can't be easily algorithimically manipulated into believing their smartphone notifications are more important than actual human connection. Than Human creativity.
The real question isn't whether AI will take over. The real question is: Why did we hand over control to begin with?
Leaving a cult is often an intensely difficult and emotionally overwhelming. It’s a complex mix of anger, shock, shame, embarrassment, annoyance, devastation, and despair, which are normal.
“You can be a silent reader or an active participant. It’s all up to you.
But you’ll find many of the things you believed or feared were common to other people. You’ll be relieved to read that most of their fears never materialised.
You’ll discover that the great, big, unsurvivable thing is indeed survivable.”
Clare Heath-McIvor
Time to stop AI fanboy cheering or Clanker creator doom-scrolling.
Remember: In the AI age, the most radical act is thinking for yourself.
The most revolutionary, game changing tech is your own mind.
Start thinking again. Before we forget how.
And put down the phone and have a real conversation with a real human being.
RESOURCES
Tracing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Love for Scarlett Johansson’s AI Romance Her
Mark Zuckerberg just shared his vision for 'personal superintelligence.' Read his letter.
What to expect when leaving a cult or toxic group By Clare Heath-McIvor
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