Pope Leo XIV teams with Anthropic's Olah for AI encyclical
The Vatican's first AI-focused encyclical features Anthropic's co-founder on May 25.
Pope Leo XIV is set to release his first encyclical—a formal papal letter—titled 'Magnifica humanitas' (Magnificent Humanity) on May 25 at the Vatican. The document focuses on preserving the human person in the age of artificial intelligence, building on the Pope's earlier remarks about AI threatening human dignity, justice, and labor. The launch event will include Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI model.
The encyclical echoes themes from Pope Leo XIII's 'Rerum Novarum,' a landmark text on worker rights during the Industrial Revolution. Pope Leo XIV has previously warned that AI 'simulates human voices and faces, wisdom and knowledge, consciousness and responsibility, empathy and friendship,' encroaching on human relationships. By inviting Olah, the Vatican may implicitly endorse Anthropic's self-branding as the 'ethical' AI option—a company that has already tapped a priest to help craft Claude's Constitution. The move underscores Silicon Valley's growing courtship of religious institutions, though the Church remains skeptical of tech's priorities regarding human dignity.
- Pope Leo XIV's encyclical 'Magnifica humanitas' launches May 25 at the Vatican, with Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah attending.
- The document focuses on preserving human dignity in the age of AI, building on the Pope's previous warnings about AI interfering with human relationships and communication.
- Anthropic has previously employed a priest to help shape Claude's AI Constitution, reinforcing its ethical AI branding amid the papal endorsement.
Why It Matters
A papal encyclical on AI could shape global ethics discourse and boost Anthropic's credibility as the 'ethical' AI leader.