{"id":82443,"date":"2026-05-22T16:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T16:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/82443\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T16:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T16:24:16","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-to-unveil-ai-encyclical-alongside-anthropic-executive-christopher-olah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/82443\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV to unveil AI encyclical alongside Anthropic executive Christopher Olah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Co-Founder of Anthropic Dario Amodei speaks during the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 20, 2026. Fellow Anthropic founder Christopher Olah will be among those sharing the stage with Pope Leo XIV at the May 25 Vatican press conference unveiling the pope’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” which addresses AI ethics, a priority issue for Pope Leo. (OSV News photo\/Denis Balibouse, Reuters)<\/p>\n

When he releases his highly anticipated first encyclical \u201cMagnifica Humanitas\u201d May 25, Pope Leo XIV will be present at the press conference \u2014 something atypical for such announcements, which are usually handled by senior Vatican officials.<\/p>\n

And in another first, Pope Leo will be joined by, among others, an AI tech executive: Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, the artificial intelligence research and development firm behind the Claude AI assistant.<\/p>\n

In a May 19 media release, Anthropic said it had \u201cover the past several months\u201d been \u201corganizing dialogues with groups whose work and traditions bear on the questions raised by AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The company said its \u201cfirst round of discussions has been with wisdom traditions \u2014 including scholars, clergy, philosophers, and ethicists from more than 15 religious and cross-cultural groups \u2014 and we look forward to engaging with a broader range of people going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u2018Safety at the frontier\u2019 \u2014<\/p>\n

Anthropic\u2019s rise from an OpenAI breakaway startup in 2021 to a possible valuation of $950 billion (pending the outcome of ongoing investor talks) has been swift.<\/p>\n

But what has set the company apart from its Silicon Valley peers is, as Anthropic\u2019s website notes, a stated and oft-repeated commitment to \u201cput safety at the frontier\u201d in its research and products.<\/p>\n

That commitment \u2014 about which Anthropic founder Dario Amodei has long been insistent, even departing his high-level position at OpenAI due to clashes over his emphasis on safety and restraint \u2014 may be a key reason for Olah being on the stage when Pope Leo presents his encyclical to the world.<\/a><\/p>\n

Some analysts have described Anthropic\u2019s presence at the document\u2019s official release as a savvy business move, with the company \u2014 currently at odds with the Trump administration \u2014 seeking to gain both moral and market share footholds, particularly in European nations.<\/p>\n

Yet the alliance between Anthropic<\/a> and the Vatican sits within the context of an ongoing, multiyear conversation predating Pope Leo\u2019s election<\/a>, in which Church officials, tech professionals, theologians and ethicists have wrestled with the ascent of AI technology in a world where human rights and dignity have come under increasing threat.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Minerva Dialogues \u2014<\/p>\n

Under Pope Francis,<\/a> the Vatican in 2016 initiated the Minerva Dialogues \u2014 named for Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the Roman basilica where they were inaugurated \u2014 which became annual discussions between Church officials and tech leaders on AI ethics.<\/p>\n

In 2020, the Vatican-based Pontifical Academy for Life held a congress on AI titled \u201cRenAIssance: For a Human-centric Artificial Intelligence.\u201d The gathering led to the signing of the Rome Call for AI Ethics, a document listing six core principles \u2014 transparency, inclusion, accountability, impartiality, reliability, as well as security and privacy \u2014 by which AI should be governed. Signing the document were the pontifical academy, Microsoft, IBM, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Italy\u2019s Ministry of Innovation.<\/p>\n

The same year saw the establishment of the North American AI Research Group, assembled by Bishop Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican\u2019s Dicastery for Culture and Education. In 2023, the group published \u201cEncountering Artificial Intelligence: Ethical and Anthropological Investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elected in May 2025, Pope Leo has signaled that AI is a priority issue of his pontificate.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Technical revolution \u2014<\/p>\n

Anthropic\u2019s very name \u2014 an adjective for that which is human-related \u2014 is an affirmation of its priorities in AI development, which significantly align with those expressed by the Vatican. On its website, the company declares that its purpose is \u201cthe responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take seriously the task of safely guiding the world through a technological revolution that has the potential to change the course of human history, and are committed to helping make this transition go well,\u201d the company notes.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco-based Anthropic is a public benefit corporation, a type of for-profit entity that balances the bottom line against a beneficial mission to stakeholders and communities. (In May 2025, the nonprofit OpenAI, an Anthropic competitor, transitioned its subordinate for-profit limited liability company to a PBC entity.)<\/p>\n

Anthropic has crafted a \u201cfoundational document\u201d for its AI assistant, Claude (named, according to some reports, for the 20th-century American mathematician Claude Shannon, often called the \u201cfather of information theory).\u201d<\/p>\n

Claude\u2019s Constitution, as the text is titled, \u201cboth expresses and shapes\u201d the AI assistant, which Anthropic aims to make \u201chelpful while remaining broadly safe, ethical, and compliant with our guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Catholic influence\u2013<\/p>\n

The constitution reflects the input of Catholic experts \u2014 including Father Brendan McGuire, a former Silicon Valley executive \u2014 and other religious leaders.<\/p>\n

In a March interview with the Observer, Father McGuire \u2014 whose Los Altos, California, parish is home to several tech professionals \u2014 recounted how Olah had contacted him about developing AI ethics.<\/p>\n

Father McGuire told the Observer the Anthropic team members \u201cbasically were asking for direct help from the Vatican to convene and help the industry, because the industry was going so fast down this road.\u201d<\/p>\n

The priest had helped to establish the Institute for Technology, Ethics and Culture at Santa Clara University\u2019s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, a collaboration between the Markkula Center and the Vatican\u2019s Dicastery for Culture and Education. The institute provided support for the North American AI Research Group\u2019s book on AI ethics and anthropology.<\/p>\n

According to the Observer, Bishop Tighe also weighed in on Claude\u2019s Constitution, along with Santa Clara technology ethics director Brian Patrick Green.<\/p>\n

Green joined several Catholic scholars in filing a friend of the court brief on Anthropic\u2019s behalf, after the Trump administration ordered all U.S. agencies in February to stop using Anthropic\u2019s artificial intelligence technology, arguing it presented a supply chain risk to national security.<\/p>\n

\u2013Government-use feud\u2013<\/p>\n

Anthropic countered that it had been banned for its refusal to allow its technology to be used for mass domestic surveillance or in autonomous weapons. In the months since, the feud has resulted in ongoing litigation between the Pentagon and Anthropic, with the former asserting in court filings this month that Anthropic\u2019s ethical concerns were \u201cideological.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company responded that the Pentagon\u2019s reasoning for its supply chain risk designation, one typically reserved for foreign adversaries, has shifted.<\/p>\n

Anthropic founder Amodei\u2019s passion for ensuring AI remains a force for good stretches back years \u2014 and runs deep, according to an extensive July 2025 interview he gave to tech journalist Alex Kantrowitz.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u2018A strong sense of responsibility\u2019\u2013<\/p>\n

Amodei, a biophysicist by training, noted in the interview he seeks to mold the AI industry itself. Most of Anthropic\u2019s revenue comes not from Claude, but from the sale of its application programming interface, or API, to companies who then use the AI models for their products.<\/p>\n

He recalled to Kantrowitz (whose article was the product of more than two dozen interviews with Amodei plus several personal and professional associates) being raised by his parents with \u201ca sense of right and wrong and what was important in the world,\u201d one that imparted \u201ca strong sense of responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loss of his father to a rare disease \u2014 one for which a medical breakthrough was found just a few years later \u2014 galvanized Amodei to see science save lives, according to Kantrowitz\u2019s interview.<\/p>\n

While he has been accused of \u201cdoomerism\u201d about AI, said Kantrowitz, Amodei\u2019s plan \u201cis to accelerate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I\u2019m warning about the risk is so that we don\u2019t have to slow down,\u201d Amodei said in the interview. \u201cI have such an incredible understanding of the stakes. In terms of the benefits, in terms of what it can do, the lives that it can save. I\u2019ve seen that personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a>
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