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PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel revealed his philosophical stance on technological development in a series of closed-door speeches. He is convinced that any attempts by society to tame artificial intelligence bring the arrival of the Antichrist closer. By his definition, this will be a global ruler who will exploit mass citizen anxiety to strip them of their freedom. Thiel is also considered one of the mentors of US Vice President JD Vance.
The theme of the Antichrist has repeatedly featured in the billionaire's rhetoric. He first touched upon this idea in 2023 during a speech at the Catholic University of America. Starting in 2025, Thiel limited himself to closed multi-part events in San Francisco. It is reported that he acknowledged that the secretive atmosphere, where the public is not allowed into the hall, only increases interest in the event. The businessman applied this tactic in Rome as well, where he delivered four more lectures in March. Recordings of these speeches came into the possession of The Verge, whose journalists listened to all four parts and studied the transcripts in detail.
The central element of Thiel's argumentation is the biblical phrase about "peace and safety". "That, by the way, is the Antichrist's slogan," he asserts. The billionaire's logic is that the fear of Armageddon forces people to agree to peace at any cost. Such a compromise, in Thiel's view, is almost certainly unjust. He classifies safety advocates as "restrainers" who, in his belief, do not hinder the Antichrist but, on the contrary, clear the way for him. Among the examples of such individuals, Thiel named Anthony Fauci.
The tech leader pays particular attention to the concept of effective altruism. This is a philosophical movement in charity that calls for maximising good for the greatest number of people. Proponents of this idea consider preventing humanity's extinction from artificial intelligence one of the priority tasks. Thiel, on the other hand, is convinced that such concern for safety only accelerates the arrival of the Antichrist era.
According to Thiel, the role of the Antichrist can be played by the system itself. He describes a process during which, over 25 years under the cover of relative peace, a mechanism of tax agreements, financial oversight, and sanctions was created. This mechanism, he says, underpins all technological wealth, and such a "machine" can be activated at any moment. Thiel adds the activities of the International Criminal Court to this picture, which, in his opinion, scared Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu. He also mentions German laws on Nazi symbolism and online defamation, as well as Australian rules for verifying user age.
In July, Thiel expressed similar views in the essay "The Pope and the Antichrist", published in the conservative religious journal First Things. In the text, he suggests that the late Pope Francis could have been the Antichrist. Instead, Thiel tries to position Benedict XVI as his ally, since, in his interpretation, the latter foresaw the approaching end times. In previously released fragments, Thiel called the current Pope Leo XIV a "useful idiot" of Beijing due to his desire to regulate AI.
The Verge authors believe that Thiel is more likely gathering other people's ideas than consistently developing his own religious doctrine. The journalists describe the worldview underlying his rhetoric as typical for American evangelicals and quite fundamentalist. They assert that Thiel misinterprets the views of Benedict XVI: the latter feared not the end of the world, but a crisis of the Catholic Church. Italian Franciscan Paolo Benanti, after the Rome lectures, called Thiel "above all a political theologian" who operates in the very heart of Silicon Valley.
The influence of these ideas is amplified by Thiel's financial resources and political connections. His record donations helped Vance get into the Senate, and he now holds the office of US Vice President. Vance has called Thiel the smartest person he has ever met. The journalists consider it dangerous that a person with significant money and political influence is promoting such a worldview.
This is not the first time Thiel has linked AI development with political fears. Meanwhile, the debate over who should restrict this technology is intensifying. Over 1,100 employees of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and other companies signed a petition calling for regulating the pace of development of advanced models.
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