In 2015, Levandowski founded his "Way of the Future" church while he was an engineer for Google's Waymo autonomous vehicle project. Levandowski claimed that despite the original church closing a few years later, his new endeavor already boasts "a couple thousand people" who are attempting to establish a "spiritual connection" with AI.

Anthony Levandowski relaunch his AI church

Anthony Levandowski, a pioneer in self-driving car technology, was criminally charged on Tuesday with stealing trade secrets from his former employer Google before joining rival Uber Technologies Inc.

Ex-Google engineer indicted for stealing self-driving car secrets, pleads not guilty

The information could be important in Waymo's lawsuit accusing Uber of stealing some of its trade secrets

Waymo must disclose details of Lyft car deal to Uber - ruling

Levandowski formerly worked for Alphabet's Waymo self-driving division

Uber fires self-driving car chief Anthony Levandowski