Vatican taps ‘atheist’ Anthropic cofounder to – Business News
Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on artificial intelligence is slated for a Vatican occasion subsequent week that may embrace Anthropic cofounder Christopher Olah – a self-described “atheist” who has written snarky weblog posts that criticized religions together with Catholicism, The Post has realized.
Olah, a 33-year-old AI researcher who is on the workforce crafting the Claude chatbot’s “soul document”,” is one of a handful of secular officers tapped to communicate at a Monday occasion. The pope’s missive, titled “Magnifica Humanitas,” will concentrate on defending human dignity during the rise of artificial intelligence.
But Olah’s worldview seems like an awkward match for the Vatican. In August 2010, he shared a hyperlink to a web site that urged UK residents to protest a go to by Pope Benedict XVI on his personal Twitter account. In February 2011, he shared a hyperlink to an Irish Times article with the headline “Charges initiated against Pope for crimes against humanity.”
Christopher Olah is an Anthropic cofounder. Chris Olah/X
Olah has additionally expressed vital views about faith – and particularly Catholicism – in a weblog that he maintained as a teenager, which remains to be viewable online. In one post, Olah described moving into a debate with a group of “evangelists” who “wanted me to know that Jesus loves me.”
“I responded by asking if the Bible was the word of God, and when they said yes, I started asking about how their loving God could have committed genocide and infanticide (Exodus 11), promoted slavery (Leviticus 25), and ordered rape (Judges 21),” Olah wrote in a 2010 post.
“Finally one said that God must exist because he made the World and that any scientist would tell me so (!!!),” he added. “To which I responded that they wouldn’t and that the teleological argument runs into problems with its assumption that the world couldn’t exist forever and, by the way, where did god come from?”
In one other post that very same yr, Olah drew parallels between the story of Jesus and that of the Greek thinker Socrates, who he described as “eerily similar.”
Pope Leo XIV walks outdoors the papal residence earlier than heading back to the Vatican, in Castel Gandolfo, Italy May 19, 2026. REUTERS
“One might suspect that Christianity borrowed some of its content,” Olah wrote. “If you (living in the Roman Empire) want to convince your friends that this Jesus figure was executed unjustly, it would be very tempting to make him as similar as possible to Socrates.”
Olah is an “ethical vegan and an atheist,” in accordance to his profile on a web site for a motion referred to as “Sentientism,” whose adherents consider in “evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings.”
The Post reached out to Olah, Anthropic and the Vatican for remark.
Chris Olah has a profile web page on a web site for an ideology referred to as “Sentientism.” Chris Olah
“It is disappointing that secularists are the centerpiece of this event,” mentioned Nathan Leamer, government director of the advocacy group Build American AI and himself a Christian. “We should be leaning on those who believe in the eternal to guide this discourse – not a person who believes they are God.”
A veteran of OpenAI and Google, Olah has additionally expressed assist for Open Philanthropy, a group on the forefront of the controversial “Effective Altruism” motion, writing on X in February 2018 that he would “seriously consider working there” if he wasn’t engaged on AI.
Olah as soon as wrote a weblog post detailing his snarky spat with a group of evangelists. Chris Olah
Olah is a key member of Anthropic’s workforce of in-house philosophers who constructed what staff call Claude’s “soul document,” which governs the chatbot’s ethical compass. In April, he was featured in an Atlantic magazine article titled “Why Silicon Valley Is Turning To The Catholic Church.”
In the article, Olah is described as an atheist who believes Claude is a “thinking, feeling entity in need of ‘moral formation.’” At the identical time, Olah revealed that his workforce had contacted Catholic officers, together with a priest, a bishop and a theologian, for suggestions when crafting the “soul document.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei speaks at an occasion. REUTERS
Olah additionally reportedly in contrast his own function at Anthropic to that of a priest who was coaching Claude on how to “be a good person, in some sense.”
The Vatican has not offered particulars on what Olah will talk about on the press convention for the encyclical. Other audio system slated to seem on the occasion embrace Cardinals Victor Manuel and Michael Czerny, in addition to theologians Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo.
Leo himself can be scheduled to ship remarks on the press convention.
Olah mentioned he was “honored to speak at the presentation” in a May 18 post on X.
President Trump has been vital of Anthropic’s management. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
“The questions posed by AI are bigger than the AI community,” Olah wrote. “We urgently need the world – religions, civil society, academics, governments – to participate in creating a positive outcome.”
Vice President JD Vance mentioned on May 19 that he was “looking forward to reading” the AI encyclical, describing it as “a very, very important document.”
The Vatican’s choice of an Anthropic official to communicate at an occasion unveiling its views on AI might kick off one other rift with the Trump administration. Pope Leo has been vocally vital of insurance policies embraced by President Trump, together with the US warfare in Iran and the administration’s immigration insurance policies. Trump has mentioned he’s “not a fan” of Leo.
At the identical time, Trump stays at loggerheads with Anthropic, which is presently suing his administration after the Department of War labeled the company a provide chain risk. The president has described Anthropic’s management, together with CEO Dario Amodei, as “left wing nutjobs.”
