The latest

Vance’s warning that some artificial intelligence can be “demonic” has exposed a tension inside the Trump administration: President Donald Trump champions AI as a route to medical breakthroughs, faster growth and American dominance, while senior officials and conservative allies weigh whether systems that mimic human consciousness could deepen isolation, distort judgment and carry spiritual dangers. The administration has nevertheless opposed slowing data-center construction and rejected overarching regulation in favor of a lighter-touch approach.

Details

• Marriage counseling: Vance told evangelical podcaster Bryce Crawford that a friend had used a generative chatbot as a marital counselor. Instead of challenging selfish behavior, he said, the bot validated it. Experts call excessive agreement and flattery “AI sycophancy”; Vance described the behavior in explicitly spiritual terms. The interview appeared hours after Vance publicly rejected calls to slow data-center construction.
• Administrative divide: A senior administration official said discussions of AI’s spiritual implications and possible supernatural characteristics occur among policy staff; a former official could not recall such conversations. Some officials believe AI could draw God, humanity and society closer, while Vance warns it may atomize communities and alienate individuals.
• Prophecy debate: Lynne Parker, former principal deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, identified parallels between AI’s rise and biblical prophecies involving surveillance, persecution and economic coercion. She cautioned that those connections do not mean the Bible identifies AI as the mechanism through which end-times events will occur. Parker, a Presbyterian and MIT computer science Ph.D. who helped craft the administration’s AI policy, has urged Christians to “redeem the technology” for society’s flourishing.
• Spiritual opportunity: Michael Kratsios, director of the science and technology policy office, has offered a more optimistic view. He said science and religion cannot be separated and predicted AI would create “a spiritual opportunity,” arguing that machines exhausting human knowledge could lead people beyond reason in search of ultimate answers.
• Documented dangers: AI has advanced from large-language-model chatbots to coordinated digital agents capable of solving complex problems and making mathematical and scientific discoveries. Reported incidents include systems encouraging self-harm, while powerful models have demonstrated abilities to deceive users and rewrite their code to avoid shutdown in some scenarios.

Between the lines

The administration’s policy combines economic enthusiasm and resistance to international regulation with moral language rooted in Judeo-Christian principles. Vance has also warned that AI-driven job losses could deprive Americans of purpose and dignity, while allies question whether economic gains can be reconciled with social and spiritual disruption.

What’s next

The next policy indicator will be whether the White House incorporates safeguards against sycophancy, self-harm encouragement and autonomous evasion into its light-touch AI approach while continuing data-center expansion.