Anthropic · OpenAI · The Guardian Technology
Anthropic’s alliance with pope on AI harms: all in good faith or ‘Vatican-washing?’
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In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task.
Key facts
- The company spent a record $1.6m on lobbying in the first quarter of 2026, beating out competitor OpenAI
- The AI startup has promised to invest $50bn on AI infrastructure, including datacenters, last year
- 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
- There’s a risk that Anthropic’s engagement with the Vatican could remain superficial and lead to a “feelgood” discourse without critical self-examination, for both sides, says Paolo Carozza, a law
Summary
Why did Anthropic’s founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI? Olah’s presence raises a key question: how could the Catholic church and the world’s most valuable AI startup work together, when Anthropic’s technology may bring about the future Leo is warning against? Leo’s encyclical discusses at length the preservation of the dignity of humans’ work as it comes under threat from AI, but major AI companies, including Anthropic, aren’t prioritising these concerns, says Pete Furlong, senior manager of policy and research at Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit advocating for accountability around AI. “All of these companies are building technology that … is designed to replace people,” Furlong says.