Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick (left) with Anthony Levandowski (right).Associated Press
Anthony Levandowski, the Uber engineer at the heart of a bombshell lawsuit filed by Waymo, has started a new religion.
Levandowski, the former head of Google’s self-driving-car project, is alleged to have aided Uber in stealing intellectual property and trade secrets from his old employer. Levandowski isn’t named in the suit, but his actions are at the center of the legal battle.
Levandowski was fired from Uber in May when he refused to cooperate in the investigation.
News on the multi-millionaire engineer has been relatively quiet until Backchannel’s Mark Harris broke a news report Wednesday that says Levandowksi has been attempting to get a new religion off the ground.
Levandowski started a new religion in Sept. 2015 called “Way to the Future,” according to the report. Its mission is to “develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence.”
In the context of Silicon Valley, an AI-based religion isn’t as far-fetched as it seems. Several executives like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son believe in the Singularity — the point when machine intelligence surpasses our own.
They may not consider it a religion, but Levandowski is far from the only one to think AI could eventually have god-like capabilities.
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