Mr Thiel and Mr Kingsnorth are both idiosyncratic figures who for years have been thinking their way toward apocalyptic conclusions. These have become so specific, and at times so uncanny, that they can at times seem to contain a spark of something human, or beyond human — divine. But AI chatbots provide much more than partial evidence of intelligence. At times, AI chatbots are disembodied, like the God of Abraham, communicating with us only through text. No one, except perhaps Rogan, would argue that AI chatbots have divine origins; they are trained in our image, even if we don’t understand them.