Right, yeah, it would be perfectly possible to have a cult with a chatbot as their "leader". Perhaps they could keep it in some sort of shrine, and only senior

Right, yeah, it would be perfectly possible to have a cult with a chatbot as their "leader". Perhaps they could keep it in some sort of shrine, and only senior members would be allowed to meet it, keep it updated, and interpret its instructions. And if they've prompted it correctly, it could set about being an evil megalomaniac. Thing is, we already have evil cults. Many of them have humans as their planning tools. For what good it does them, they could try sourcing evil plans from a chatbot instead, or as well. So what? What do you expect to happen, extra cunning subway gas attacks, super effective indoctrination? The fear here is that the AI could be an extremely efficient megalomaniac. But I think it would just be an extremely bland one, a megalomaniac whose work none of the other megalomaniacs could find fault with, while still feeling in some vague way that its evil deeds lacked sparkle and personality.