Medicine in an Age of Sourcery: AI and the Prophetic Logic of Prediction

This study investigates how AI tools function as forms of medical sourcery, wherein computational processes become increasingly opaque even as their outputs acquire growing authority. Using a comparative approach that places religion alongside medicine, AI systems are shown to mirror prophetic practice by converting uncertainty into actionable knowledge and transforming probabilistic reasoning into authoritative visions of the future. Rather than deriving legitimacy from transparent reasoning or direct observation, these systems exercise authority through persuasive visualizations that conceal the calculations from which they emerge while rendering projected futures tangible and actionable in the present. In doing so, AI introduces a spectral form of authority that may undermine medicine’s commitment to epistemic uncertainty and observation-based verification.