This Monday, Pope Leo XIV read a new inflammatory anti-AI encyclical in front of theologians and cardinals in the Vatican. But one person who was on the guest list caught the guests off guard: Christopher Olahco-founder of Anthropic, an artificial intelligence and research company founded in 2021.
“The so-called artificial intelligences do not experiment, they do not have a body, they do not feel joy or pain, they do not mature through relationships and they do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean,” Pope Leo XIV said in his speech. since they do not judge good and evil, they do not understand the ultimate meaning of situations or assume responsibility for the consequences,” he added.
On Tuesday, the company reported that Olah had been invited to deliver remarks at the Vatican and shared a copy of his speech on its press page. Vanity Fairhas had access to these statements.
In his speech, the AI mogul praised Leo XIV and focused on his hope that people outside the AI industry will continue to discuss these issues. “We need more people in the world to do what His Holiness has done here: take this seriously, look closely and push events in a better direction“he explains.
“We need informed critics to tell laboratories when we are failing. We need moral voices that incentives cannot bend,” he added.
assured that “the gesture is, in fact, an expression of the great willingness and desire for us to participate more fully in the dialogues that are occurring.”
From the US, they see it favorably
For its part, Cardinal Blase Cupichbishop of the Pope’s hometown, has assured in The New York Times who expected a collaboration between technology companies and the Church. “I believe that this openness on the part of Mr. Olah, as well as the Holy Father, can be the bridge through which all of this can happen.”
