Why is AI company Anthropic helping launch Pope Leo XIV's encyclical?

Anthropic’s lead interpretability researcher, Christopher Olah, will participate in Pope Leo XIV’s May 25 presentation of the encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas*, focused on AI’s impact on human dignity. The Vatican, which has previously warned about AI threats, announced the collaboration this week, though it had earlier launched an AI study group expressing skepticism toward the technology. This is not the first time Anthropic has engaged with religious leaders. In March, Olah hosted a meeting at the company’s San Francisco headquarters for 15 Christian leaders, including Meghan Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. The discussion centered on how AI models like Anthropic’s Claude LLM operate and sought feedback on ethical considerations in AI development. Olah, 33, has organized multiple dialogues with philosophers and faith communities, aiming to educate them on AI’s capabilities and risks. Sullivan described him as deeply invested in these conversations, emphasizing the need for Catholics to understand AI’s societal implications. Anthropic has positioned itself as an ethical leader in AI, refusing military contracts with the Trump administration for lethal autonomous weapons and opposing mass surveillance. The company’s reputation for safety was highlighted in a March *Time* magazine profile, which called it ‘the frontier AI lab with the greatest emphasis on safety.’ The May 25 Vatican event will further solidify Anthropic’s engagement with faith-based ethics discussions, as Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical addresses AI’s role in protecting human dignity. Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics at Santa Clara University, called Olah ‘the right person’ to represent industry in this dialogue, given Anthropic’s stance against unethical AI applications.