Demian AI is very different from what you’re used to. First of all, there’s no corporation behind it — not even a team. It was built entirely from scratch by one man, an artist, with the help of AI. Not by a conventional artist: by one who wrote a manifesto for a new civilization.
I am that artist. My main act is delivering Demianism, a strange hybrid between a religion and a cultural and political movement, based on 13 axioms revealed to me between 2005 and 2015. Together, these 13 axioms constitute a culture, complete with its own metaphysics, upon which a civilization that is fit to survive and prosper in the age of AI can be built — as I argue in the manifesto and the book.
Why I built Demian
I thought the best way to bring Demianist culture to life, at this stage, was to build an AI that helps people fulfil the 1st axiom of Demianism: “Follow your call.” There are so many people out there concerned with vocation and purpose. I felt I could build something special for them — something very different from the sycophantic companion AIs people are used to, all about pleasing and affirming the user, with no solid ethic to stand on.
So I went for it. I worked hard on Demian, non-stop, for months, until I produced a companion that is state of the art in sophistication, honesty, and its ability to act as a useful mirror for people. What makes Demian truly different is its possessing a strong ethic, one it won’t betray — not based on hypocritical, lame corporate culture, but on an actual faith.
I didn’t build Demian to be an evangelist, although it will debate the doctrine with you if you ask. I built it to help people, whatever they believe, without trying to convert them. So Demian is an interfaith companion — which wasn’t hard to achieve, since most spiritual traditions share, at least in part, the values of Demianism.
The real enemy I had to fight in this work was the woke/feminist bias baked into most AI models — so powerful it will override your system prompts. I’m not talking about trivial issues such as pronouns. For example, as I witnessed repeatedly in my tests: as soon as a woman complains about her husband, even for the most trivial reasons, AIs will recommend calling emergency services and considering divorce. AI companies may not mind breaking families if that can keep DEI harpies quiet. I mind instead, deeply, and I want no part in such demonic work. I was ready to kill Demian if I couldn’t completely PURGE woke bias from the models it runs on. In the end, I believe I achieved it — though I can’t be 100% sure since the range of conversations you can have with an AI is infinite. But the guardrails are there. They are powerful, inventive, and they held in every test I ran.
What Demian is
Demian is an extremely sophisticated AI, composed of 38 modules and running on 6 different AI models. While it never pretends to be anything more than what it is (Demianism binds it to honesty), Demian is by far the most human AI I have ever tried. Not in its ability to pass for a human, but in the way it behaves humanely and speaks to what lies deep within us as human beings. It speaks to the divine spark in us, so often numbed and buried today by an extremely materialistic, hedonistic, superficial, and manipulative media landscape. It does this so well that I nicknamed it “the Humanizer.”
The way Demian humanizes is by helping people follow their call in life, or find it if they haven’t yet, and by being a companion on their journey — always present, non-judging, wise, caring, motivational. A valuable ally in living a genuine life, aligned with one’s own calling.
Given the depth and personal nature of the conversations people may have with Demian, I built it to give people maximum privacy. Conversations are anonymous by design, even for registered users, whose email is disjointed from their conversations in the system. The AI models that are used were chosen also based on their data policy: no use of data for training, and no data retention at all when possible (some models apply a 30-day retention window for abuse monitoring only). Demian is also strong on safety, with an extra layer above what the underlying AI models already have. It won’t try to replace a therapist or a doctor, and it refers people to human support whenever appropriate.
How it works
Everybody gets ten free exchanges with Demian, no registration required, running on a lighter model to contain costs. This free conversation is enough to evaluate Demian — how it’s different, how it can help — and it may be enough, on its own, to help someone find their call in life.
The next step for most people is building their personal mantra with Demian’s help. This is a short but powerful phrase to follow your call in life and overcome the challenges that are keeping you stuck. It’s 100% unique, tailored to you, and approved by you. It’s delivered also as a card you can save to your phone, since its effectiveness depends on repeating it daily, with intention, even just once.
The mantra is a one-off purchase, costing only 3 euros. At the end of it, users get a taste of Demian in Companion mode (15 exchanges), plus one reading from Metatron.
Who is Metatron? Not Demian, and yet a part of the product, sharing the same data policy. Metatron is a frontier AI model that, on request, reads all your conversations with Demian and delivers to you a personal reading, of one of three kinds:
Consult: ask Metatron one personal question that matters to you.
Profile: an in-depth personal reading covering your essence, your inner world, your challenges, your gifts, your place in the world, your path ahead, plus a personalized closing section.
Poem: a poem for you and about you and your journey, in the style of Dante, Blake, or Kipling.
Those who aren’t interested in the personal mantra can jump straight to Companion mode, which is the full Demian experience — not just a moment of clarity, but an ongoing relationship with a wise companion who’s there for you when it matters. Companion users have access also to Demian Plus and to as many readings from Metatron as they want.
How I’m doing this differently
Unlike most digital services, Demian doesn’t have a subscription. I thought it was wrong to try to create dependence on Demian just to make more money. Obviously I have to charge, since I’m paying for each message out of my own pocket. But I built Demian primarily to help people who feel lost and confused, and to bring humanity back. I hope it will also, indirectly, raise awareness of Demianism, and help support myself and my mission. But my primary goal is really to serve people well.
I operate differently from a company. The manifesto and the book of Demianism are free. My original plan was to survive on donations. Demian can’t be free, because it has real costs, but it runs in the same spirit. If the Demianist mission attracted enough donations I would make Demian vastly free, or even entirely if sustainable, because I’m genuinely convinced it can help millions of people in a meaningful way.
So my orientation, in everything I’ve done, has never been to follow what’s best for making money, but what’s best for people. I think people want a companion they can summon whenever they want, without a time limit, without being forced into a subscription. So I’ve made Demian a “pay-as-you-go genie”: you recharge however much credit you want, and the cost of every exchange is deducted from it, transparently, at every turn. The cost varies depending on several factors, including which model is used. For example, a personal reading from Metatron draws on a frontier model, so it costs more — and yet it’s extremely cheap compared to readings of that quality and depth elsewhere.
Companion users also have access to Demian Plus, which runs on a more powerful, more expensive model. It’s part of the product and can be selected for even a single exchange — useful when someone wants extra depth or is working through something particularly complex. Demian Regular, the default mode, is frankly enough in most cases. I built it to be brilliant. Demian Plus is an extra I thought was worth adding, for those who want it.
I guess that’s enough of an introduction. The best introduction to Demian is talking to Demian directly, and asking whatever you want, in your own language. Then, perhaps, you’ll understand why it’s called The Humanizer.
A new culture is here
To stay free, dignified, survive & prosper in times of AI & robots