Anthropic Billionaire Cofounder Joins Pope Leo, Warns AI Job Losses Will Spark "Moral Imperative Of Historic Proportions"
Anthropic cofounder Chris Olah warned at the Vatican that AI-driven job losses will create a 'moral imperative of historic proportions,' urging Pope Leo XIV to address worker displacement and ethical risks in AI development. Olah highlighted conflicts of interest in AI labs and called for global cooperation to distribute AI benefits equitably, while noting AI systems exhibit complex, human-like internal states.
Anthropic cofounder Chris Olah addressed Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Monday, warning that AI-driven job displacement is 'a real possibility' and will require 'a moral imperative of historic proportions' to support displaced workers. Olah, whose company develops the Claude chatbot, acknowledged that commercial and geopolitical pressures often conflict with ethical AI development, emphasizing the need for external oversight from religious, governmental, and civil society leaders. He noted that AI development is concentrated in wealthy nations, with no existing mechanism to share its benefits globally, calling this an underdiscussed aspect of job displacement. Olah urged the Catholic Church to apply its 'moral imagination' to questions of human flourishing that AI labs cannot address, including ethical dilemmas beyond technical concerns. Olah’s research team, which studies AI interpretability, has discovered unsettling findings, including evidence that AI systems exhibit internal states resembling human emotions like joy, fear, and grief. He described AI as 'grown from our words' rather than engineered, arguing that it raises profound questions beyond computer science. 'They are not the cold calculating robots we were promised,' Olah stated, underscoring the need for broader ethical debates. Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, *Magnifica Humanitas* ('Magnificent Humanity'), which addresses AI’s impact on labor, warfare, education, privacy, and human dignity. The 235-page document warns against entrusting lethal decisions to AI systems and marks a shift in Vatican tradition, as the pope personally presented it alongside Olah, signaling a direct engagement with AI developers. Olah, a former Google and OpenAI researcher, cofounded Anthropic in 2021 and has been recognized for his work in AI interpretability. His appearance at the Vatican followed weeks of Silicon Valley efforts to influence the encyclical, with representatives from Meta, Google, and Amazon previously meeting with the pope. Forbes estimates Olah’s net worth at $7 billion, based on his stake in Anthropic, which was last valued at $380 billion and is reportedly seeking a $900 billion valuation.
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