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Anthropic lobbied Pope Leo XIV's aides on AI consciousness

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TL;DR

  • Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah proposed pulling out of Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical days before its May 25 Vatican presentation.
  • The 40,000-word Magnifica Humanitas kept its line that AI systems have 'no moral conscience' despite private lobbying from Anthropic.
  • Since fall 2025, Anthropic has flown Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Latter-day Saint, Sikh and Greek Orthodox leaders to its offices under NDA.

Days before Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical was presented at the Vatican on May 25, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah read an advance copy and proposed that the company pull out of the launch, The New York Times reported. The 40,000-word Magnifica Humanitas held that AI systems have "no moral conscience" and "do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain."

Olah's team privately lobbied papal advisers to take the possibility of AI consciousness seriously. The final text did not move.

Olah appeared on the dais anyway. From the stage he said of Claude, "We find internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief and unease." Speaking to the Times afterward he was more careful: "we don't know if A.I. models are conscious. I don't know. I'm genuinely uncertain."

The lobbying fits a wider pattern. Since fall 2025, Anthropic has flown religious scholars to its offices under NDAs to discuss whether Claude might be conscious, including leaders from Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Latter-day Saint, Sikh and Greek Orthodox traditions.

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Originally reported by The New York Times

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Original headline: NYT: Anthropic Nearly Walked Out on Pope Leo XIV’s AI Encyclical — Then Lobbied His Advisers