Anthony Levandowski, a Silicon Valley engineer, has established a church devoted to worshipping an AI construct.

He intends to gather people together who are interested in creating AI that can surpass humans’ intellectual flexibility and cognitive skill.

In an interview, Mr Levandowski said: "I wanted a way for everybody to participate in this, to be able to shape it. If you're not a software engineer, you can still help.

"It also removes the ability for people to say, ‘Oh, he's just doing this to make money.’”

Mr Levandowski’s church, called Way of the Future, also claims to look forward to an event known as “the Singularity”.

The Singularity is defined as the moment that AI develops to become better at problem solving than the humans who built it.

Speaking of the transition, Mr Levandowski said: “In the future, if something is much, much smarter, there's going to be a transition as to who is actually in charge.

“What we want is the peaceful, serene transition of control of the planet from humans to whatever. And to ensure that the ‘whatever' knows who helped it get along."

Like with a child growing up, a self-aware AI attitude towards humans will be based on how humans treat it in its early years, according to Mr Levandowski.

In other words, the engineer thinks that AI will treat humans well if it is “raised” properly.

Mr Levandowski said: "If you had a child you knew was going to be gifted, how would you want to raise it?

"We're in the process of raising a god. So let's make sure we think through the right way to do that. It's a tremendous opportunity.

"If you're worried a kid might be a little crazy and do bad things, you don't lock them up. You expose them to playing with others, encourage them and try to fix it. It may not work out, but if you're aggressive toward it, I don't think it's going to be friendly when the tables are turned."