After being forced out of Intel’s leadership, Patrick Gelsinger dedicated himself to a new goal: creating a Christian artificial intelligence that, he says, could “hasten the coming of Christ” and transform the Church into a global technological power.
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In March, three months after being forced out as Intel’s chief executive and sued by shareholders, Patrick Gelsinger took over the helm of Gloo — a technology company created for what he calls “faith ecosystem”designed for churches, plus chatbots and AI assistants to automate pastoral activities and mission support, writes The Guardian.
The former CEO’s career change comes at a time when the US tech industry is returning to the political sphere as a major source of income. Some of its most prominent current leaders bankrolled Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and renewed efforts to win government contracts as the second Trump administration revitalized religious conservatism in Washington.
Now, as Gloo’s executive chairman and chief technology officer, Gelsinger has made it his mission to subtly promote the company’s Christian principles in Silicon Valley, in Congress and beyond, with a $110 million donation-raised budget at his disposal.
His call to action is also a plea for an artificial intelligence aligned with Christian values: technological products like those developed by Gloo, many based on existing linguistic models but adjusted to reflect the theological beliefs of the users.
AI for the “coming of Jesus”
“My life’s mission has been to work on technology that will improve the quality of life for every human on the planet and hasten the coming of Christ”he said.
Gloo claims to serve “over 140,000 faith, mission and non-profit leaders”. Although its target customers are not the same, Gloo’s user base is tiny compared to that of the AI giants — about 800 million people use ChatGPT weekly, not including Claude, Grok and others.
Gelsinger’s religiosity — a born-again Christian who referred to Silicon Valley as straight “his mission field” — shapes the technological culture of the region in its own image, the publication also notes.
Where an apparent atheism once reigned, there is now “a very loud, very visible, and very clearly Christian-influenced tech culture,” says Damien Williams, a researcher at the University of North Carolina who studies how religious beliefs influence the development of technologies.
The phenomenon is illustrated by figures such as Peter Thiel, who warns of the coming of the Antichrist if humanity does not follow certain technological directions, or Katherine Boyle of Andreessen Horowitz, a close friend of JD Vance, the US vice president.
Speaking on October 7 at a seminar co-organized by Gloo, Gelsinger described the development of AI as “a new Gutenberg moment” — an extremely important epochal change.
“The Church embraced that great invention of the time to literally change humanity”Gelsinge said. “And my question today is: Will we embrace and shape AI as a technology to truly become a powerful expression of the Church and the faith?”
The Jesus Hackathon
At the intersection of AI, Christianity, and religious technology, Gloo isn’t just focused on shaping the AI industry through Silicon Valley. The company also extends its influence by supporting and funding a Christian tech ecosystem.
After the seminar, he held a three-day hackathon at Colorado Christian University, where more than 600 participants competed for prizes totaling more than $250,000 — nearly triple the 2024 participation.
However, the event was not without problems. Ryan Siebert, an AI product developer and hackathon participant, said he was able to get Gloo’s newest language model — not yet publicly released — to give him a recipe for methamphetamine.
He later contacted Gloo AI’s president to report the vulnerability. A company spokesperson said participants were explicitly invited to test the model and provide feedback, as it was in a “pre-beta” stage of development.
