It actually seems more to me like dialectical materialism, which started centuries ago and was already secular. It bears more in character to the differences that other commenters have already voiced, in that human actors not only believed in its inevitability, but attempted to bring it about themselves. Multiple global superpowers implemented forced industrialization, cultural reformation, and command economies to bring it about.

The difference this time isn't sacred versus secular. It's public versus private. Whereas the purveyors of communism were governments, this is being done by corporations. Well-funded private organizations are led by decision makers who believe strongly this is the future, it is inevitable, and their only hope is to get there first. The actor didn't change from God to technology. It changed from labor to capital.

I make no comment on whether they will prove to be more correct than the believers in communism, but the analogy is obvious either way.

I kinda feel this way too. Reading some of the blog posts by AI "luminaries" I'm struck by how Stalinist they sound. They hold out some utopia that exists in their minds, and they are ready to feed people into the meat grinder to try and make it a reality. Stalin said that this generation would suffer so that the next lived in utopia, and that's kind of the same pitch they are making.

I think if we actually cared about making a better world, you'd take steps where each successive step is a positive one. Free healthcare, clean energy investments, etc..