Even as the world’s leading AI experts race to build all-powerful AI systems, it is interesting to understand how they view the world and the universe.
Elon Musk and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis have publicly aligned themselves with the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s conception of divinity and the universe. The discussion began when a user posted on X arguing that atheism logically leads to moral nihilism, suggesting that in a “cold and uncaring” universe where humans are merely animals, there can be no objective right and wrong, no final accountability, and therefore people are “genuinely permitted to do whatever you want.” The poster noted that “almost no atheists admit to it.”
Elon Musk responded tersely: “Very wrong. Read Spinoza.”
Shortly thereafter, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis concurred: “Indeed, Spinoza had it right.”
The exchange is notable not just for the philosophical stance it reveals, but for the public agreement between Musk and Hassabis on a matter of metaphysics at a time when both are leading efforts to develop increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems.
Spinoza’s Revolutionary Philosophy
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish descent, developed one of the most radical and influential philosophical systems of the modern era. His views were so controversial that he was excommunicated from the Jewish community in Amsterdam and his works were banned by the Catholic Church.
Central to Spinoza’s philosophy, articulated primarily in his masterwork Ethics, is a conception of God that departs dramatically from traditional religious understanding. Spinoza proposed what philosophers call “pantheism” or “panentheism”—the idea that God and Nature (or the Universe) are one and the same. In his famous formulation: “Deus sive Natura” (God or Nature).
For Spinoza, God is not a transcendent being separate from creation who judges human actions and intervenes in the world. Instead, God is the totality of existence itself—an infinite, eternal substance of which everything in the universe is a mode or expression. The laws of nature are the laws of God, operating with perfect necessity and rationality.
This view has profound implications for ethics. Rather than deriving morality from divine commandment or fear of supernatural punishment, Spinoza grounded ethics in understanding our place within the rational structure of nature. Human freedom and virtue, in his system, come from understanding the necessary order of nature (God) and aligning our actions with reason and our essential nature.
Spinoza argued that understanding our interconnection with all of nature—our participation in the divine substance—leads naturally to ethical behavior. Joy comes from actions that enhance our power and understanding; sorrow from those that diminish it. Virtue is its own reward, vice its own punishment, all within the natural order.
Importantly, Spinoza’s philosophy offers a robust foundation for ethics without requiring belief in a personal, judging deity or supernatural reward and punishment. It suggests that the universe, while operating according to natural law rather than personal divine will, is not therefore “cold and uncaring” but rather intelligible, rational, and sublime—worthy of what Spinoza called “the intellectual love of God.”
Einstein famously identified with Spinoza’s conception when asked about his religious beliefs, stating he believed in “Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists.”
Why This Matters for AI Development
The philosophical commitments of AI leaders are not mere academic curiosities. As Musk, Hassabis, and their peers work to develop artificial general intelligence and potentially superintelligent systems, their fundamental beliefs about consciousness, meaning, and the nature of reality inevitably shape their approach to these technologies.
Understanding how these leaders conceive of humanity’s place in the universe, the basis of ethics, and the relationship between mind and matter becomes crucial as they make decisions about AI alignment, safety protocols, and the values embedded in transformative technologies.
If these systems are to be aligned with human values and flourishing, the question of which values and which conception of flourishing becomes paramount. The worldview of those building AGI—whether they see the universe as mechanical and meaningless, divinely ordered by a personal God, or as Spinoza did, as an intelligible rational whole in which ethics emerges from understanding—will influence countless design choices and priorities.
Musk’s and Hassabis’s public embrace of Spinoza suggests a philosophical framework that seeks meaning and ethics within nature itself, through reason and understanding, rather than from transcendent sources. As these figures guide the development of systems that may eventually exceed human intelligence, their philosophical grounding in Spinoza’s rationalist, naturalistic framework offers a window into how they conceive of the relationship between intelligence, nature, and the good.
The brief exchange on social media, then, is more than a philosophical aside. It’s a glimpse into the metaphysical foundations underlying some of the most consequential technological development in human history.