When you ask a machine for moral guidance, you expect neutrality. You expect the cool, dispassionate voice of reason, untainted by doctrine, unswayed by creed. But what if the machine is not neutral? What if it is not atheist, Christian, Buddhist, or secular–but something stranger: a statistical priesthood trained on the ruins of all traditions,…
In January 2026, Norton released its Insights Report: Artificial Intimacy, and the numbers stopped the conversation cold. Among 1,000 US adults surveyed, 77% of current online daters said they would consider dating an AI. Fifty-nine percent believed it was possible to develop genuine romantic feelings for one. Seventy percent would use an AI chatbot for…
You wake at 03:00, the amygdala already firing. Before consciousness has fully assembled, the hand finds the phone, the thumb finds the feed, and the eyes begin scanning for updates. Has the war escalated? Has the climate threshold been breached? Has the market collapsed? You are not seeking information; you are seeking the hit–the cortisol…