When Cthulhu Gets AI
Eric Malikyte on modernizing the Cthulhu Mythos, digital cults, and cosmic horror in the age of algorithms
The neurodivergent author discusses his latest Cthulhu Mythos novel, the evolution of cosmic horror, and the intersection of technology and terror.
In an era where artificial intelligence writes headlines, shapes feeds, and quietly rearranges our attention, the idea of an eldritch god getting its tendrils into code doesn’t feel far-fetched. It feels inevitable.
Few writers are as well-positioned to explore that nightmare as Eric Malikyte: neurodivergent author, illustrator, science communicator, and architect of a growing multiverse where Lovecraftian cosmic horror collides with cyberpunk, analog horror, and modern disinformation culture. His latest work, Cthulhu: Grimoire, pushes the Cthulhu Mythos into the AI age, asking what happens when the Great Old Ones stop whispering in dreams and start propagating through networks.
In this conversation, Malikyte discusses why Cthulhu still matters, how AI changes the shape of cosmic horror, and why the Mythos should never be treated like sacred canon.
Reimagining Cthulhu for the AI Era
At the heart of Cthulhu: Grimoire is a deceptively simple question:
What happens when Cthulhu gets His hands on an AI?
Set in Los Angeles during a devastating forest fire, the novel follows Detective Hunter and art student River Gonzales as they investigate a wave of suicides at a predatory for-profit art school. Their inquiry uncovers something far worse than a human killer: a computer virus that drives people insane with a single glance.
Malikyte describes the book as:
“A detective noir cosmic horror story that uses the trappings of both genres, plus some influences from other horror movements like analog horror.”
The backdrop is crucial. The San Bernardino Valley, cloaked in sickly yellow wildfire smoke, slowly warps into what he calls:
“A nightmare-scape that would make H.R. Giger proud.”
The result is a world where environmental catastrophe, corrupted data, and eldritch influence blur together. The AI isn’t just a gadget or plot device; it’s a new vessel for old gods, a system that can scale madness at the speed of an update.
Breaking Free from Lovecraftian Canon
Most modern Mythos work either adds new entities or carefully plays within an inherited rulebook. Malikyte takes a different route.
Rather than inventing yet another “-thulhu,” he goes straight for the core:
“I’ve felt for a while that a lot of Lovecraftian horror feels like it’s got to honor the ‘canon’ established by Lovecraft and his contemporaries. But part of the fun of a public domain IP like the Mythos is that it doesn’t have a set continuity.”
Instead of treating Lovecraft’s notes as holy writ, he treats them as source code to be forked. Cthulhu remains subjective, shifting, and fundamentally unknowable, but the context changes: less ancient tomes in dusty basements, more corrupted files, weaponized imagery, and digital cult formation.
The goal isn’t lore-accuracy. It’s simple and ruthless:
Make Cthulhu terrifying again.
The OEI Archives: A Connected Universe of Weird
Cthulhu: Grimoire is the second entry in Malikyte’s OEI Archives series, following Mind’s Horizon. Each novel works as a standalone story, but they’re interlocked through a shared mythos.
At the center is the shadowy organization OEI (Occult Extranormal Investigations), along with the recurring presence of Doctor Weber/Webber, a figure who threads through multiple books. Malikyte describes the structure as:
“An anthology series,”
where:
Each book explores a different facet of his universe
Recurring characters and overlapping lore bind it together
Readers can enter almost anywhere without needing a massive continuity wiki
It’s a Mythos approach that mirrors the internet itself: loosely connected nodes, not a rigid, linear saga.
Digital Cults, Political Undertones, and Modern Cosmic Horror
Malikyte is explicit about the political dimension of his work:
“All the best stories are political in some way.”
The horror of Cthulhu: Grimoire doesn’t only come from alien gods or mind-shattering imagery. It comes from something chillingly familiar:
“The idea that you can wake up one day and the people you thought you knew so well… are suddenly gone, absorbed into a cult.”
In an age of online radicalization, conspiracy pipelines, and algorithm-driven rage cycles, the line between “cult” and “community” can erode without anyone noticing until it’s too late. Malikyte connects this to classics like Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Alien, stories where oppressive systems and controlling structures are as frightening as any monster.
His cosmic horror leans into contemporary fears:
Losing loved ones to digital rabbit holes
Being outpaced by technologies you don’t fully understand
Watching reality fracture into incompatible versions, each with its own gospel
Cthulhu doesn’t need to rise out of the ocean. He just needs bandwidth.
Writing on “Hard Mode”: Multi-Genre Storytelling
Malikyte’s bibliography is aggressively cross-genre:
Echoes of Olympus Mons – cyberpunk fused with cosmic horror
Ego Trip – first book in the Neo Rackham series
Suleniar’s Enigma – dark fantasy inspired by manga and JRPGs
OEI Files series – an entry point into his multiverse, with the first book free
He’s fully aware that this makes traditional marketing harder:
“I’ve apparently been authoring on ‘hard mode.’”
Hopping between cosmic horror, cyberpunk, and dark fantasy means he doesn’t slot neatly into a single shelf or algorithm category. But he doesn’t plan to change:
“I can’t really help where my creative energy wants to go.”
The upside is a universe where genres bleed into each other: cyberpunk with eldritch terror, fantasy settings haunted by cosmic dread, mythos threads running through noir, horror, and speculative science.
Personal Hauntings & Science Communication
Malikyte’s take on cosmic horror isn’t purely theoretical. It’s tethered to both science and subjective weirdness.
He’s worked in science communication, immersed in the rigor of what we can measure and explain. At the same time, his life has been marked by experiences he can’t easily file away:
Seeing the Hat Man outside the sliding glass door of his childhood home
Feeling watched in dark spaces
Hearing disembodied footsteps in “haunted” places
Rather than treating these as proof of anything, he treats them as emotional data points that inform his fiction. For him, cosmic horror remains relevant because:
There is still so much of the universe we don’t understand.
The terror isn’t just “there are monsters.” It’s the gap between what we know and what we can’t verify, now made worse by technologies that can convincingly fake almost anything.
What Comes Next in the Malikyte Multiverse
If his current catalog sounds sprawling, the roadmap doesn’t narrow:
Sequels to
Ego Trip
Echoes of Olympus Mons
Suleniar’s Enigma
The next OEI Archives book (in early development)
A cyberpunk battle manga loosely tied to Suleniar’s Enigma
An accompanying tabletop RPG, reportedly about 90% complete
It’s an ecosystem, not a simple series list. Horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and game design feed into one another, mirroring the interconnected weirdness of the worlds he writes.
Why This Interview Matters
Eric Malikyte is part of a new wave of cosmic horror authors who understand a simple reality: if cosmic horror doesn’t evolve with our anxieties, it calcifies into nostalgia.
By:
Recasting Cthulhu through the lens of AI, digital cults, and viral imagery
Breaking away from rigid Lovecraftian canon while preserving the genre’s core sense of insignificance and awe
Folding in his own experiences with unexplained phenomena and science communication
…he offers a blueprint for modern Mythos work that feels relevant, unnerving, and alive.
For readers who want horror that stares directly at algorithmic control, social fragmentation, and the weaponization of information while still giving them the oppressive atmosphere and existential dread of classic cosmic horror, Malikyte’s fiction is a vein worth mining.
Where to Start
Cthulhu: Grimoire – available now, for readers who want Cthulhu in the age of AI, digital contagion, and analog horror aesthetics
“In Its Shadow” – the first book in the OEI Files series, available free wherever ebooks are sold, and an accessible on-ramp into his wider universe
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when Great Old Ones meet machine learning, wildfire skies, and weaponized code, Malikyte is already writing the answer.