Anthropic's alliance with pope on AI harms: all in good faith or 'Vatican-washing?'

Source: The Guardian

Anthropic’s alliance with pope on AI harms: all in good faith or ‘Vatican-washing?’

Experts say AI firm’s engagement with Vatican risks creating ‘feelgood’ discourse that lacks critical examination

Sanya Mansoor
Sat 30 May 2026 14.00 BST
Last modified on Sat 30 May 2026 14.01 BST

Why did Anthropic’s founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI?

In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task. The pontiff delineated the technology’s most concerning threats to humanity: replacing workers, accelerating war and exploiting the environment. At a ceremony honoring the holy teaching the day of its release at the Vatican, the pope was flanked by an unusual guest speaker: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, one of the people behind the AI boom so worrying Leo.

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?

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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 professor at Notre Dame law school and co-chair of the Meta Oversight Board. “This is Anthropic’s brand, right? That’s how they’re distinguishing themselves, by aligning themselves with the more safety and responsibility oriented voices. There’s something to be gained by saying, ‘Look, even the pope is willing to talk to us because of [our pro-safety brand]. Google wasn’t on the stage and OpenAI wasn’t on the stage,’” Carozza says.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/30/pope-leo-anthropic-ai