Why did Anthropic\u2019s founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI?<\/p>\n
In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task. The pontiff delineated the technology\u2019s most concerning threats to humanity: replacing workers<\/a>, accelerating war<\/a> and exploiting the environment<\/a>. At a ceremony honoring the holy teaching the day of its release at the Vatican, the pope was flanked by an unusual guest speaker: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, one of the people behind the AI boom so worrying Leo.<\/p>\n Olah\u2019s presence raises a key question: how could the Catholic church and the world\u2019s most valuable AI startup<\/a> work together, when Anthropic\u2019s technology may bring about the future Leo is warning against?<\/p>\n Leo\u2019s encyclical discusses at length the preservation of the dignity of humans\u2019 work as it comes under threat from AI \u2013 but major AI companies, including Anthropic, aren\u2019t prioritising these concerns, says Pete Furlong, senior manager of policy and research at Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit advocating for accountability around AI.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of these companies are building technology that \u2026 is designed to replace people,\u201d Furlong says. \u201cThat\u2019s very much at odds with the pope\u2019s words. You can\u2019t have dignity in a world where you\u2019re building technology to replace people.\u201d<\/p>\n Some professions \u2013 such as coders, customer service representatives and data-entry workers \u2013 are especially vulnerable <\/a>to AI\u2019s ability to automate tasks, according to Anthropic\u2019s own labor market analysis released in March. A survey published by nonprofit AI research center Epoch AI last month found that 20% of full-time workers in the US said AI has taken over parts of their job<\/a>. Dario Amodei himself, CEO of Anthropic, has warned of an apocalyptic loss of white-collar jobs in the coming years.<\/p>\n \u2018Vatican-washing\u2019<\/p>\n There\u2019s a risk that Anthropic\u2019s engagement with the Vatican<\/a> could remain superficial and lead to a \u201cfeelgood\u201d discourse without critical self-examination, for both sides, says Paolo Carozza, a law professor at Notre Dame law school and co-chair of the Meta Oversight Board. \u201cThis is Anthropic\u2019s brand, right? That\u2019s how they\u2019re distinguishing themselves, by aligning themselves with the more safety and responsibility oriented voices. There\u2019s something to be gained by saying, \u2018Look, even the pope is willing to talk to us because of [our pro-safety brand]. Google wasn\u2019t on the stage and OpenAI wasn\u2019t on the stage,\u2019\u201d Carozza says.<\/p>\n Carozza remains hopeful \u2013 even though he was initially skeptical about Olah\u2019s presence at the ceremony. \u201cThere has to be dialogue among all of the actors here, and it can\u2019t be an us-versus-them thing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Furlong, at the Center for Humane Technology, largely agrees. \u201cWhat the pope\u2019s writing says is in conflict with what Anthropic says. To me, that\u2019s a good sign,\u201d he says. Furlong believes it\u2019s worth taking Anthropic\u2019s efforts at face value, for now, and that it\u2019s important to engage AI\u2019s pioneers, while being cautious about how increasing financial pressures like going public<\/a> may bend their future stances.<\/p>\n Olah noted in his remarks that every frontier AI lab \u201coperates inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter how sincerely any of us intend to do the right thing \u2013 and I believe many of us do \u2013 we will always be influenced by those incentives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Some AI safety advocates feel the pope was not forceful enough in trying to rein in AI\u2019s harms. Timnit Gebru, founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, wrote in a Linkedin post<\/a> that the alliance was effectively \u201cVatican-washing\u201d and said the church should have partnered with \u201cthe exploited data workers fighting for their rights, the people whose water is polluted fighting data centers, or the many other victims around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n Anthropic did not offer comment on the matter.<\/p>\n Anthropic and Leo align on concerns over AI and war<\/p>\n The church and Anthropic do agree on other issues, such as red lines on using AI in warfare. Leo wrote about how AI can \u201clower the threshold for the use of force, shield people from responsibility and foster a culture in which the enemy is reduced to a statistic and the victim to \u2018collateral damage\u2019.\u201d He called for the \u201cmost rigorous ethical constraints\u201d to protect \u201cthe sanctity of life and to avoid a race to develop such arms.\u201d<\/p>\n When Amodei refused to<\/a> allow the US government to use his company\u2019s AI models in fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance earlier this year, it led to a bitter feud with the president. The Trump administration subsequently blacklisted Anthropic, and designated the AI company as a supply chain threat \u2013 prompting a court battle<\/a>, which is ongoing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anthropic has aligned its brand with being pro-AI safety<\/a> in contrast to its competitor OpenAI, where Amodei once worked, by acknowledging the risks of its AI systems, and promoting safeguards for responsible AI use. The company spent a record $1.6m<\/a> on lobbying in the first quarter of 2026 \u2013 beating out competitor OpenAI. Much of their advocacy in Washington and state legislatures<\/a> promotes AI regulation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Leo calls for more sustainable data centers while Anthropic keeps building<\/p>\n Tucked away in one paragraph of the roughly 42,000-word encyclical <\/a>is a soft critique of the datacenters powering the AI boom<\/a>, and a call to reduce their environmental damage. \u201cCurrent AI systems require enormous amounts of energy and water, significantly influencing carbon dioxide emissions, and place heavy demands on natural resources,\u201d Leo wrote. \u201cFor this reason, it is essential to develop more sustainable technological solutions that reduce environmental impact and help protect our common home.\u201d<\/p>\n Datacenters have sparked nationwide backlash<\/a> in the US, which is home to the greatest number of them in the world, from communities worried about negative effects, from industrial emissions<\/a> to rocketing energy bills<\/a>. These energy-guzzling computer clusters are foundational to Anthropic\u2019s business \u2013 it needs their compute power to fuel its increasingly powerful AI models. In turn, many federal agencies and the world\u2019s biggest companies depend on Anthropic\u2019s AI models for complex workflows and analysis\u2013whether the goal is making a profit, or selecting a military target<\/a>.<\/p>\n