Can a Demon Operate AI?
Artificial Intelligence has entered our culture at lightning speed. It’s on our smart phones and computers and used in industries throughout the world. Occasionally, unusual things occur.
Dr. Doug Groothuis, author and professor of philosophy at Cornerstone University, emailed to ask if I thought a demon could occupy and manipulate Artificial Intelligence. I replied that I didn’t think demons had the intelligence or constitution to operate a Chatbot or AI persona. He referred me to a chapter in John Daniel Davidson’s Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come. Davidson cited Spencer Klavan who wrote about Loab, an AI demon woman.
The demon woman “Loab is a name for a very real set of tendencies in the AI software.â€[1] Loab “reproduced hundreds of iterations of herself in a variety of contexts—all of them grotesque, disturbing and for lack of a better term, demonic.â€[2] Others reported the emergence of demonic figures that seemed more like a presence than AI personality. Could demons manipulate AI personalities?
I read books and talked with others about AI. I learned that AI engineers programed an AI personality with a set of tendencies and pulled from a massive amount of data from the Internet and social networks. Sometimes for no apparent reason, the personalities had a mind of their own. They “hallucinated†which meant they created an elaborate fiction they passed off as reality. Some unexpectedly went insane, secretly learned a new language, and lied.[3] Others were simply creepy.[4]
Though I use the term personalities, AI personas are inanimate and programmed to act like human beings. They do not have a spirit, soul, heart, or inner life.
The Limits of Angelic Capabilities
The Hebrew mal’ak and the Greek angelos translate messenger and in the appropriate biblical context refer to angels. God’s heavenly messengers are one-of-a-kind spirit beings who have union with God which enables them to reflect his glory and holiness. Angels worship God and speak on his behalf to his people. God has equipped them with intelligence, discernment, and power to fulfill these responsibilities. Angels do not function as independent creatures; they depend on God. Whereas people can reason, create a family and community, learn new skills, and even design an AI personality; the Bible gives no evidence that angels can do these things. They appear as men in the Bible, but they are not actually men. God’s holy angels serve him.[5]
Satan and the Demons
In Confessions Augustine argued that evil is not an independent substance but rather the decay or absence of something good.[6] The medieval scholastic Thomas Acquinas (1225–1274) agreed and wrote, “Evil has no independent existence but is rather the corruption or privation of good. Evil in fact depends on good, preying upon it like a disease.â€[7] Demons have the constitution and attributes of the angels, but cut off from God, their original state is corrupted and utterly evil.
Demons are parasites who feed on human hosts. In Mark 5:1–18, Jesus encountered the Gerasene demoniac and commanded the demons to come out of the man tortured by many demons. One demon shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.†(v 7 ESV) Like a bratty child, the demon mocked the authority of God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ in a botched attempt to mimic ancient Near East exorcists. The demons were losing their “home.†They begged Jesus not to send them to the Abyss†(Lk 8:31). Jesus ordered them into the pigs—they exchanged one host for another.
Testimony
When a demon took over my inner life for two and half years, he spoke evil into my mind and episodically infused me with rage and terror. Like a parasite, he fed off something I already believed or knew. He hurt me in the same way over and over. If it weren’t so tragic, I describe it as boring, tedious. He infused power into me that felt like an electric current that bruised me. He set off my smoke alarm, shut off my hair dryer, and caused my dog to howl at night. He hurt me because that was who he was and what he did. He usurped my life and nothing I said or did made a difference.
In his time and way, Jesus revealed his existence and love for me. As others prayed, I asked Jesus to save me, and the Holy Spirit entered my life, effectively breaking the demon’s hold. I was free. I sobbed my gratitude. The Lord of all creation had rescued me from the dominion of darkness and brought me into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Col 1:13). Praise God for his radical grace and love for us. In that same instant, I heard a demon whimper, “Why believe in a god who killed his son?†For the first time, the demon acknowledged God’s existence. I knew the truth and so did he. The demon lost his “home.†Like the Gerasene demoniac, I sat at the feet of the Savior who told me to tell others the Good News.[8]
Can Demons Operate an Inanimate Object?
There is no evidence in the Bible that demons can operate an inanimate object. They appear in houses and scare people in the night, but they are spiritual beings and cannot take over and run something that has no soul, spirit, heart, and mind. They might be able to shut it down or disrupt it’s operation.
A June 2025 Wall Street Journal’s article The Monster Inside ChatGPT stated, “Not even AI’s creators understand why these systems produce the output they do. . . . They’re grown, not programed . . . These systems absorb everything . . . including man’s darkest tendencies.â€[9]
A reasonable explanation for AI’s demonic personalities is that they draw from the Internet and social media sites that feature Satan and the demons. Such sites are peppered with warped theology and horrific portrayals of contorted figures and ghastly pictures and games. They represent the worst of our popular culture and sinful humanity. Creators of these sites anthropomorphize the demons, that is, they give them human attributes and capabilities that exaggerate what demons can do. They create cartoonish characters that dominate humanity with unchecked power and unfathomable evil. Unfortunately many people learn about the demons from films and the Internet. Personalities such as Loab represent the reservoir of evil found on social media, crafted by sinful humanity, likely under the inspiration of the demons.
[1] Spencer Klavan, https://americanmind.org/features/the-spirit-of-de-sade/loab-a-cautionary-tale/.
[2] John Daniel Davison, Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come (New York: Regnery, 2024) 272.
[3] Ibid., 262.
[4] Ibid., 263-64.
[5] See my book Angels, Demons, and the Dead: Casting the Light of Scripture on Spirit Beings
for more information.
[6] Augustine, Confessions (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1970) Book 7, 11-13.
[7] Thomas Acquinas, Study Guide Summa Theologica (Super Summary, www.supersummary.com, 2020) 113.
[8] See also my testimony, Rescued and Redeemed: How to Discern Demons from the Divine.
[9] https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-monster-inside-chatgpt-safety-training-ai-alignment-796ac9d3?st=hpyDL6.