Yuk Hui ChatGPT, or the Eschatology of Machines ChatGPT has triggered enthusiasm and fear since its launch in November 2022. Its apparent mastery of the semantics and syntax—but not yet the content—of different languages surprises users expecting an ordinary chatbot. Some universities immediately banned students from using ChatGPT for essay writing since it outperforms most human students. Newspaper op-eds announced the end of education—not only because students can use it to do homework, but also because ChatGPT can provide more information than many teachers. Artificial intelligence seems to have conquered another domain that, according to classical philosophy, defines human nature: logos. Panic grows with this further loss of existential territory. The apocalyptic imagination of human history intensifies as climate collapse and robot revolt evoke end times. The end times were no stranger to the moderns. Indeed, in Karl Löwith’s 1949 book Meaning in History, the philosopher showed that the modern philosophy of history, from Hegel to Burckhardt, was a secularization of eschatology. The telos of history is what makes the transcendent immanent, whether the second coming of Jesus Christ or simply the becoming of Homo deus. This biblical or Abrahamic imagination of time offers many profound reflections on human existence more generally, yet also stands in the way of understanding our future. In the 1960s, Hans Blumenberg argued against Löwith’s thesis of secularization, as well as Carl Schmitt’s claim that “all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts.” Blumenberg contended that the understanding of the modern as the secularization or transposition of theological concepts undermines the legitimacy of the modern; a certain significance of modernity remains irreducible to the secularization of theology. Likewise, the novelty and significance of artificial intelligence is buried by the eschatological imaginary, by modern stereotypes of machines and industrial propaganda. This is not to say that we should deny climate change and resist artificial intelligence. To the contrary, fighting against climate change should be our top priority, as should be developing a productive relation between humans and technology. But to do this we must develop an adequate understanding of artificial intelligence, beyond a merely technical one. The invention of the train, automobile, and later the airplane also triggered great fear, both psychologically and economically, yet today few fear that these machines will slip out of our control. Instead, cars and airplanes are part of daily life, often signifying excitement and freedom. So why is there such fear over artificial intelligence? To understand this new wave of technology with ChatGPT at the forefront, we can start with John Searle’s famous Chinese Room thought experiment from 1980, which conceals the most annoying stereotype of computational machines in the guise of logical reasoning. In this thought 1 2 3 e-flux Journal issue #137 06/23 01