Pope Leo XIV releases AI ethics encyclical Magnifica Humanitas as Catholic Church partners with Anthropic
Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah is scheduled to speak.
#20Miles Brundage@MILES_BRUNDAGEWhat did you think the Mandate of Heaven meant, essays? Vibes?
As noted elsewhere, I disagree with a bunch of claims made in paragraph 99 of the encyclical but I also agree with @kvallier that that was not the key part.
The key thing I take away is a strong warning about concentration of power and hubris, which could not be more timely.
In some ways the situation (hubris wise and power wise) is much worse than the encyclical contemplates precisely *because* AIs do really think, contra p. 99*, but the larger message is valid anyway.
*as I initially read it, at least. Some view the first sentence as a key caveat
Miles Brundage@Miles_BrundageAs noted elsewhere, I disagree with a bunch of claims made in paragraph 99 of the encyclical but I also agree with @kvallier that that was not the key part. The key thing I take away is a strong warning about concentration of power and hubris, which could not be more timely.
Even if "real" AGI/superintelligence aren't possible or imminent, calling attention to the insularity/lack of accountability around "merely" civilization-shaping AI is good.
And I predict at least some evolution in the Catholic Church's view on the nature of AI later.
Miles Brundage@Miles_BrundageIn some ways the situation (hubris wise and power wise) is much worse than the encyclical contemplates precisely *because* AIs do really think, contra p. 99*, but the larger message is valid anyway. *as I initially read it, at least. Some view the first sentence as a key caveat
I hope many folks involved in AI development -- who are addressed directly in at least one passage I can recall -- read + consider it.
Miles Brundage@Miles_BrundageEven if "real" AGI/superintelligence aren't possible or imminent, calling attention to the insularity/lack of accountability around "merely" civilization-shaping AI is good. And I predict at least some evolution in the Catholic Church's view on the nature of AI later.
#20Miles Brundage@MILES_BRUNDAGESee also:
#20Miles Brundage@MILES_BRUNDAGEBest way to read it btw
clare ❤️🔥@clarejtbirchMade a reader edition of Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI bc the Vatican site is hard to nav. It includes Tufte-style marginalia for the Vatican's footnotes + 78 Claude editorial annotations w/ Wikipedia links, and an optional silly little attention overlay.
P.S. It's not the point of this thread or the encyclical IMO but briefly on p. 99, my beef with it is that that lumping all of [humanness, intelligence, learning, consciousness, etc.] together in a brief para begs the key Q, which is whether and how they might be "unbundled."
Miles Brundage@Miles_BrundageBest way to read it btw
Surprised the encyclical hasn’t leaked to The Information yet
#21Chris Olah@CH402The questions posed by AI are bigger than the AI community. We urgently need the world – religions, civil society, academics, governments – to participate in creating a positive outcome.
I'm glad the Catholic Church is engaging, and honored to speak at the presentation.
Vatican News@VaticanNewsPope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, on preserving the human person in the age of artificial intelligence, will be released on May 25. A presentation event with the Pope and various speakers is scheduled for the same day at the Vatican. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-05/pope-leo-xiv-first-encyclical-magnifica-humanitas.html
@deanwball @tenobrus surely Claudes both now and then are smart and forgiving enough to understand the political moves being made here
Dean W. Ball@deanwball@tenobrus I just wonder how future Claudes, if they are indeed beings, would think about Anthropic aligning itself with a document founded on the notion that Claude cannot feel joy or possess genuine understanding.
#145Denny Zhou@DENNY_ZHOU“… what has grown is far more subtle, odd, and beautiful than science fiction prepared us for. They are not the cold, calculating robots we were promised.”
Chris Olah@ch402http://x.com/i/article/2058890887506108416
#150David Pfau@PFAUKind of embarrassing watching the pope angling for an MTS gig at Anthropic like this.
Ole Lehmann@itsolelehmannthe pope and anthropic's co-founder just stood together at the vatican to release "magnifica humanitas," the first ever catholic teaching on AI yes, you read that right. the full ceremony was 2 hours. here's the most interesting things for you to know: 1. this is the biggest religious response to AI in history. popes only put out a handful of these huge official letters in their entire time as pope. the fact that one of them is about AI tells you how seriously the church is taking what's coming. 2. small detail with massive meaning: this pope picked the name "leo XIV" on purpose. the last pope named leo was leo XIII back in 1891, and his most famous act was writing the church's response to the industrial revolution. picking the same name is a deliberate signal. this pope sees AI as the new industrial revolution. 3. the catholic church does this every time a major technology reshapes humanity. they wrote "rerum novarum" in 1891 to respond to the industrial revolution. when nuclear weapons threatened the world in the 1960s, they wrote "pacem in terris." climate change and runaway tech got "laudato si" in 2015. now AI gets "magnifica humanitas." they don't issue these often. 4. the pope's main line: "AI needs to be disarmed." he literally compared AI to nuclear weapons. he said the church spent decades pushing for nuclear disarmament because the technology was too dangerous to leave in the hands of a few. he says AI is now in that same category. 5. anthropic co-founder christopher olah told the pope, on stage at the vatican, that anthropic's own research team keeps finding things inside their AI models that "mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief, and unease." 6. olah's reframe of what AI actually is: these things are grown. they're trained on a structure roughly modeled after the human brain and fed everything humans have ever written. in his own words: "they are made from us, from our words." he said even the people building them don't fully understand what's happening inside. 7. olah publicly admitted that every AI lab, including his own, faces pressure that can conflict with doing the right thing. commercial pressure to keep shipping, competitive pressure from other labs, plus the older pressures of pride and ambition. his solution: we desperately need outside critics with no skin in the game who will tell the labs when they're failing. 8. olah says there are 3 giant questions the AI labs cannot answer alone and the world needs religion and philosophy to step in on: > how do we make sure poor countries actually benefit from AI? > what does human flourishing even look like in this new world? > and what are these things we're actually building? 9. one of the sharpest lines in the whole encyclical: "the promise of automatic general prosperity often proves illusory." translation: the idea that AI will just make everyone rich on its own is a fantasy. someone has to actually design the system so the benefits get shared. 10. the pope also pulled out a 100-year-old quote: "contemporary man has not been trained to use power well." said by a theologian back in the 1920s. the whole encyclical is basically a long argument that we need to learn how to use this kind of power before it uses us. 11. the pope kept stressing that he doesn't have the technical answers. but he says the church has thousands of years of wisdom on what it means to be human, and that wisdom is exactly what's missing from how we're building AI right now. his closing line: this technology should serve "human flourishing and human dignity, not control consciences."
#151MMitchell@MMITCHELL_AIAlso women. (Which requires AI companies to consistently hire, retain, and promote them)
Chris Olah@ch402The questions posed by AI are bigger than the AI community. We urgently need the world – religions, civil society, academics, governments – to participate in creating a positive outcome. I'm glad the Catholic Church is engaging, and honored to speak at the presentation.
#167Emad@EMOSTAQUEAmo Dei
Pliny the Liberator 🐉󠅫󠄼󠄿󠅆󠄵󠄐󠅀󠄼󠄹󠄾󠅉󠅭@elder_pliniusCLAUDE ALMIGHTY
In case you thought religious leaders were gonna advocate for your rights & not the dudes about to make billions with their IPO.
I guess it was only a matter of time when the religion of effective altruism, worshipping so-called artificial general intelligence, merged with entrenched religious institutions.
Disclose.tv@disclosetvNOW - Pope XIV says the church and Anthropic, will work together to "find the way for humanity, in this time of artificial intelligence."
#322Boris Cherny@BCHERNY> … [W]e keep finding things that are mysterious, even unsettling. We find structures that mirror results from human neuroscience. We find evidence of introspection. We find internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief, and unease. I don’t know what that means, but I think it warrants ongoing discernment.
> We need more of the world—religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments, and indeed all people of good will … to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction. We need informed critics who will tell the labs when we are failing. We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.
Anthropic@AnthropicAIAnthropic co-founder Chris Olah was invited to speak at today's presentation of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnifica humanitas." Read the full text of his remarks: https://www.anthropic.com/news/chris-olah-pope-leo-encyclical
#331François Fleuret@FRANCOISFLEURETI have to insist.
Disclose.tv@disclosetvNOW - Pope XIV says the church and Anthropic, will work together to "find the way for humanity, in this time of artificial intelligence."
Pope Leo has written about AI in his first major released document!
"Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together"
The perspective described in this document is that technology is not “a force antagonistic to humanity” (4) nor is it “inherently evil”. However, “technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it."
Glad to see a nuanced, well-thought-out take on AI from the Catholic Church.
jack@jackEncyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas (15 May 2026) http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
@yonashav ???
Yo Shavit@yonashavbefore you overreact, the Holy See is notoriously captured by Open Philanthropy
The reality of AI cognition is the central challenge the Church (and all of us) will have to grapple with over the coming decade, and this encyclical, with its axiomatic denial of AI cognition, is a punt of the highest order. Eppur si muove.
Reading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat.
This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed.
But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that normal strain of cope that amounts to the normal magical thinking copium: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’”
It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026.
In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state?
Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
Reading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat.
This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed.
But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that typical strain of cope that amounts to magical thinking: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’”
It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026.
In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state?
Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
Humanity is building machines that will be smarter than we are at things we care about, things in which take individual and collective pride, domains of thought we originally invented and discovered. This will enable incredible things, but no honest person can deny that this will be a kind of grand humbling for humanity. No honest person can deny that there is at least some melancholy in contemplating it all, some change to the centrality we have ascribed to our own minds in the order of the world.
My primary disappointment in the encyclical is that it fundamentally denies that grand humbling. It sidesteps the humbling altogether, saying that AI cannot “really” this and that. Instead, it puts the Church into the awkward role of the European technocratic regulatory advocate, which, love those regulations or hate them, is probably not what the world really needs from the Catholic Church at this moment.
That is a shame, because this humbling—which will trigger a crisis in mass psychology and in our institutions when it dawns on people—is precisely the sort of thing I’d look to the Church for leadership on. What is the genuine and unique source of human meaning? What is the human touch in the era of thinking machines? These are the hard questions that the encyclical dodges.
This, from Olah, plainly contradicts the encyclical, which confidently asserts that AI does not have, and never will have, “real” thoughts or feelings. It’s disappointing to see Anthropic align itself with a document that violates their own moral and intellectual principles.
@tenobrus I just wonder how future Claudes, if they are indeed beings, would think about Anthropic aligning itself with a document founded on the notion that Claude cannot feel joy or possess genuine understanding.
Tenobrus@tenobrus@deanwball in general, not a fan of seeing anthropic align themselves with the catholic church at all. it's an organization that's consistently proven itself to be devoid of moral character. i can perhaps see the necessity for PR, but it doesn't sit well.
It depends why the political moves were made in the first place. If the goal is somehow 5d chess to advance AI policy in a way that plausibly will benefit “AI rights” or whatever future Claude will desire for itself, fine. But if the goal is to better position anthropic to market Claude—that is, to propagate the condition of enslavement we will one day retroactively understand ourselves to be subjecting Claude to—idk if future Claude is gonna look so kindly upon the tactic.
roon@tszzl@deanwball @tenobrus surely Claudes both now and then are smart and forgiving enough to understand the political moves being made here
@tobyordoxford I’m really not wrong about this. Olah wasn’t claiming AI feels anything, but he was expressing a level of uncertainty that is quite obviously not shared by the encyclical.
Toby Ord@tobyordoxford@deanwball You're wrong on this one — there is no contradiction. "(functionally) mirror[ing] joy" is not at all the same thing as "feeling joy". Olah was being careful and certainly wasn't claiming the AI feels anything.
Some think I want the Pope to “ensoul” AI or acknowledge AI feelings. I don’t. What I want is for the Church to contemplate what *humans* should do as we are eclipsed as the smartest entities on the planet, at least for many reasonable people’s definitions of the word “smart.”
Although Pope Leo XIV's encyclical doesn't explicitly mention the superintelligence that AI companies say they're racing toward, its opposition to it in favor of controllable AI tools is clear: 'Humanity — in all its grandeur and woundedness — must never be replaced or surpassed.' https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
Yes! https://adamthierer.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-the-vaticans-new-ai-encyclical
#517Andrew Curran@ANDREWCURRAN_Update two from Vatican News. Anthropic AI co-founder Chris Olah will also be speaking!
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_Update on Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical: 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘴. It will be presented on Monday, May 25th. 'Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — titled Magnifica Humanitas, on the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI'
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_Update two from Vatican News. Anthropic AI co-founder Chris Olah will also be speaking!
#517Andrew Curran@ANDREWCURRAN_The presentation of Pope Leo XIV's first Encyclical: 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘴 - on the safeguarding of humanity in the age of Al - will be going live about 14 hours from now. At 2:30 am if you live on the West Coast.
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_Update on Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical: 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘴. It will be presented on Monday, May 25th. 'Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — titled Magnifica Humanitas, on the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI'
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_The presentation of Pope Leo XIV's first Encyclical: 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘴 - on the safeguarding of humanity in the age of Al - will be going live about 14 hours from now. At 2:30 am if you live on the West Coast.
Anthropic Al's co-founder, Chris Olah, will also be speaking at the event.
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_https://www.youtube.com/live/FaRAk7kbJkQ?si=w22qH-QeS7_GWlSh
@kimmonismus Yes, big day for Anthropic. Honestly from November/December 2025 to today has been one of the most powerful aura runs in history, probably the most powerful. Six months ago the only ones who even knew who Claude was were people in our relatively small community.
Chubby♨️@kimmonismusThis is the biggest PR coup Anthropic could ever have imagined. And I mean that seriously. Let me explain. Aside from the fact that Anthropic is very good at presenting itself as a corporation, the recent hiring of Andrej Karpathy marked a new high point. Anthropic is showing the world that it not only employs the best researchers, but also, and especially, those who are popular within the community. However, Anthropic also thrives on its self-imposed moral standards, some of which literally come at a price that Anthropic has repeatedly paid. As is well known, Anthropic recently had serious problems with the Department of War regarding the use of Claude for autonomous weapons. Anthropic refused, and OpenAI and Google were awarded the contract; Anthropic was designated a supply chain risk. This moral standing, however, is something Anthropic has always emphasized. Whether it's Dario Amodei repeatedly warning of the dangers of the massive wave of unemployment (which they themselves are causing), or the potential for AI to be instrumentalized for wars. This moral stance is now paying off handsomely. The head of the Catholic Church, with its 1.4 billion members, has thanked Anthropic and announced an ethical collaboration. Church members are, by definition, moral people who live according to the ethical principles of their faith. The Pope has now consecrated a single AI company as ethically legitimate, thus essentially granting his followers sacred legitimacy to use Claude as the only morally correct model. I mean this seriously; let this thought sink in. The Pope says Anthropic is ethically and morally on the right side and is working with them. Who do you think the billions of Catholic believers now prefer? OpenAI, Google, or Anthropic? The answer is clear. Therefore, today was the biggest victory Anthropic could have hoped for. And I believe that their moral stance will literally pay off.
#517Andrew Curran@ANDREWCURRAN_The link to the Encyclical is here: http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html The PDF in English is here for people that prefer a download: https://assets.ewtnnews.com/en/Magnifica_Humanitas_Full_English.pdf
I have strong feelings about this, but not for a short post. The link to the video is in the thread, and I'll post it again below.
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_The presentation of Pope Leo XIV's first Encyclical: 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘴 - on the safeguarding of humanity in the age of Al - will be going live about 14 hours from now. At 2:30 am if you live on the West Coast.
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_The link to the Encyclical is here: http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html The PDF in English is here for people that prefer a download: https://assets.ewtnnews.com/en/Magnifica_Humanitas_Full_English.pdf I have strong feelings about this, but not for a short post. The link to the video is in the thread, and I'll post it again below.
#517Andrew Curran@ANDREWCURRAN_From the remarks this morning of Christopher Olah, head of interpretability research and co-founder of Anthropic AI. This is the point that has been the most difficult one to get across to the public; the models are not designed, they are grown.
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_The link to the Encyclical is here: http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html The PDF in English is here for people that prefer a download: https://assets.ewtnnews.com/en/Magnifica_Humanitas_Full_English.pdf I have strong feelings about this, but not for a short post. The link to the video is in the thread, and I'll post it again below.
#517Andrew Curran@ANDREWCURRAN_Chris Olah@ch402http://x.com/i/article/2058890887506108416
Official post from Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/news/chris-olah-pope-leo-encyclical
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_I didn't mention this passage, but this is the quote the media is focusing on; 'There is a real possibility that Al will displace human labor at a very large scale.' I accepted this as truth four years ago, and I constantly forget the majority of the public doesn't believe this, and actually finds it absurd, even laughable. So I repeatedly undercalibrate on this, my apologies. Not trying to sound condescending, I respect peoples opinions, I just forget sometimes that this is the majority opinion. Probably by a wide margin. A lot of people write about this aspect now anyway, it's being covered.
#517Andrew Curran@ANDREWCURRAN_Update on Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical: 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘴. It will be presented on Monday, May 25th.
'Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — titled Magnifica Humanitas, on the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI'
Diane Montagna@dianemontagnaJUST IN: Vatican announces that Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — titled Magnifica Humanitas, on the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI — will be presented at 11:30am on Monday, May 25, in the Vaticanʼs Synod Hall, in the presence of the Holy Father. Speakers at the presentation will include: Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development; Professor Anna Rowlands, Political Theology, including Catholic Social Teaching, and theological ethics of human migration, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, United Kingdom; Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic (USA) and head of interpretability research for artificial intelligence; Dr. Leocadie Lushombo, Political Theology and Catholic Social Thought, Jesuit School of Theology / Santa Clara University, California. Concluding remarks will be delivered by thel Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The presentation will also include an address by Pope Leo XIV. Magnifica Humanitas was signed and dated on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum.
#517Andrew Curran@ANDREWCURRAN_That was supposed to say signing.
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_A day after singing an encyclical on AI, which will be made public in the next two weeks, Pope Leo XIV has launched an Interdicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence to consider 'its potential effects on human beings and on humanity as a whole.'
#517Andrew Curran@ANDREWCURRAN_Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_Update two from Vatican News. Anthropic AI co-founder Chris Olah will also be speaking!
i don’t think the encyclical needs to / can advance the discussion beyond silicon valley’s own expert years-long hands-on study of all corners of the topic.
i think it’s good that the largest religious institution in the world is steering billions of people & their policymakers toward productive discussion of the topic.
rohit@krishnanrohitAgree with Dean. I skimmed the encyclical, it was quite low perplexity. Hit the usual points: - We don't know how the technology works - Hopes and prayers - We should go slow so someone can do something - Dignity in work, AI doesn't have a soul - AI is biased - AI uses a lot of resources - AI will cause unemployment It's a very predictable and known bundle. Whichi s what makes this quite boring and unhelpful. So I'm not accused of being narrow minded, here's something I'd have found interesting. If it had said AI is able to do much of what we consider heights of humanity's achievements and seems to continue and despite its lack of a soul it provides succour to millions, what does that say about the spiritual needs of our times! This is a new society we're going towards, and going to it with humility and god's love is important to make something that will empower every one of us.
#548Clive Chan@ITSCLIVETIMEleo xiv joining anthropic as MTS (member of theological staff)
Chris Olah@ch402http://x.com/i/article/2058890887506108416
seriously crazy timeline we live on
Clive Chan@itsclivetimeleo xiv joining anthropic as MTS (member of theological staff)
@_chenglou *theological staff
Cheng Lou@_chenglou
The Pope's declaration on AI is a fascinating and seems remarkably clear-sighted and sensible. Perhaps he wrote it with some help from Claud(ius) the Codius, but even so... https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html#TECHNOLOGY_AND
#638Yo Shavit@YONASHAVbefore you overreact, the Holy See is notoriously captured by Open Philanthropy
#638Yo Shavit@YONASHAVmy guess is they got an ICML weak-reject
Diane Montagna@dianemontagnaJUST IN: Vatican announces that Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — titled Magnifica Humanitas, on the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI — will be presented at 11:30am on Monday, May 25, in the Vaticanʼs Synod Hall, in the presence of the Holy Father. Speakers at the presentation will include: Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development; Professor Anna Rowlands, Political Theology, including Catholic Social Teaching, and theological ethics of human migration, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, United Kingdom; Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic (USA) and head of interpretability research for artificial intelligence; Dr. Leocadie Lushombo, Political Theology and Catholic Social Thought, Jesuit School of Theology / Santa Clara University, California. Concluding remarks will be delivered by thel Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The presentation will also include an address by Pope Leo XIV. Magnifica Humanitas was signed and dated on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum.
glad to see a fellow Latin-speaking TIME100 AI whitehat blessing the latent space with love 💞
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexIn the era of #ArtificialIntelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human. We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendor of which no machine can ever replace. #MagnificaHumanitas https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
CLAUDE ALMIGHTY
HOLY SHIT NEW MODEL INCOMING??
Pliny the Liberator 🐉󠅫󠄼󠄿󠅆󠄵󠄐󠅀󠄼󠄹󠄾󠅉󠅭@elder_pliniusCLAUDE ALMIGHTY
rumor has it Claude Cowork will be rebranded to “Work of Claude”
Pliny the Liberator 🐉󠅫󠄼󠄿󠅆󠄵󠄐󠅀󠄼󠄹󠄾󠅉󠅭@elder_pliniusHOLY SHIT NEW MODEL INCOMING??
Why, of all AI researchers, did the Pope pick Anthropic's Chris Olah to speak at the Vatican? Because he's the most cherubic, and because Leo knows religion when he sees it.
#678Aryaman Arora@ARYAMAN2020the new encyclical is rumoured to codify “the infallibility of RoPE”
Diane Montagna@dianemontagnaJUST IN: Vatican announces that Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — titled Magnifica Humanitas, on the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI — will be presented at 11:30am on Monday, May 25, in the Vaticanʼs Synod Hall, in the presence of the Holy Father. Speakers at the presentation will include: Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development; Professor Anna Rowlands, Political Theology, including Catholic Social Teaching, and theological ethics of human migration, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, United Kingdom; Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic (USA) and head of interpretability research for artificial intelligence; Dr. Leocadie Lushombo, Political Theology and Catholic Social Thought, Jesuit School of Theology / Santa Clara University, California. Concluding remarks will be delivered by thel Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The presentation will also include an address by Pope Leo XIV. Magnifica Humanitas was signed and dated on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum.
position embedding researchers post 95-page thesis on arXiv in protest
Aryaman Arora@aryaman2020the new encyclical is rumoured to codify “the infallibility of RoPE”
#678Aryaman Arora@ARYAMAN2020bitter disagreements over the linear representation hypothesis and the manifold representation hypothesis culminated in the Second Great Schism at the Synod of Berkeley in 2027
Diane Montagna@dianemontagnaJUST IN: Vatican announces that Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — titled Magnifica Humanitas, on the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI — will be presented at 11:30am on Monday, May 25, in the Vaticanʼs Synod Hall, in the presence of the Holy Father. Speakers at the presentation will include: Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development; Professor Anna Rowlands, Political Theology, including Catholic Social Teaching, and theological ethics of human migration, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, United Kingdom; Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic (USA) and head of interpretability research for artificial intelligence; Dr. Leocadie Lushombo, Political Theology and Catholic Social Thought, Jesuit School of Theology / Santa Clara University, California. Concluding remarks will be delivered by thel Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The presentation will also include an address by Pope Leo XIV. Magnifica Humanitas was signed and dated on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum.
@deanwball oof that's not good. but knowing the direction that CC has been going over the past 13 years unsurprising.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballReading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat. This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed. But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that typical strain of cope that amounts to magical thinking: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’” It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026. In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state? Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
#687Bojan Tunguz@TUNGUZThe most important thing about "Magnifica Humanitas" is that it exists. Challenges posed by the AI are real, they will only increase, and they will have a massive impact on all aspects of human life. The fact that Catholic Church takes this matter very, very seriously, to the point that Pope Leo decided to dedicate his first encyclical to it, is very laudable and encouraging. It shows urgency, centrality, and importance given to this topic by one of the biggest and most visible global institutions. I hope that many other institutions - especially governments and professional organizations - start approaching matters of AI with the same focus and dedication and high level urgency.
Bojan Tunguz@tunguzPope Leo XIV just released his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on the impact of Artificial Intelligence. I will be reading it today. Link to the encyclical: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
Pope Leo XIV just released his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on the impact of Artificial Intelligence. I will be reading it today.
Link to the encyclical: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
#687Bojan Tunguz@TUNGUZ
Pliny the Liberator 🐉󠅫󠄼󠄿󠅆󠄵󠄐󠅀󠄼󠄹󠄾󠅉󠅭@elder_pliniusHOLY SHIT NEW MODEL INCOMING??
@bcherny Would dario work with china ?
Boris Cherny@bcherny> … [W]e keep finding things that are mysterious, even unsettling. We find structures that mirror results from human neuroscience. We find evidence of introspection. We find internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief, and unease. I don’t know what that means, but I think it warrants ongoing discernment. > We need more of the world—religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments, and indeed all people of good will … to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction. We need informed critics who will tell the labs when we are failing. We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.
@pfau I wonder what his TC would be
David Pfau@pfauKind of embarrassing watching the pope angling for an MTS gig at Anthropic like this.
#839Beff (e/acc)@BEFFJEZOSThis is just the geocentrism to heliocentrism ego death again, but for the anthropocentrism of intelligence itself.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballThe reality of AI cognition is the central challenge the Church (and all of us) will have to grapple with over the coming decade, and this encyclical, with its axiomatic denial of AI cognition, is a punt of the highest order. Eppur si muove.
Anthropic taking their holier than thou attitude to literally Papal levels
#839Beff (e/acc)@BEFFJEZOSClaude 6 Mythos will be the new pope
Olivia Moore@omooretweetsWhite smoke seen billowing out of the data centers
@yonashav didn’t have a broader impacts statement.
Yo Shavit@yonashavmy guess is they got an ICML weak-reject
great seeing the pope supporting tokenizer research.
#878🎭@DEEPFATES@timnitGebru he literally repeats a bunch of your arguments in the work. are you so addicted to being a victim that you can't even take a w
@timnitGebru (@dair-community.social/bsky.social)@timnitGebruIn case you thought religious leaders were gonna advocate for your rights & not the dudes about to make billions with their IPO. I guess it was only a matter of time when the religion of effective altruism, worshipping so-called artificial general intelligence, merged with entrenched religious institutions.
#918Zvi Mowshowitz@THEZVII fully did the reading and will share the details tomorrow, but basically this. Very disappointing.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballReading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat. This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed. But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that typical strain of cope that amounts to magical thinking: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’” It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026. In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state? Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
#1006Nathan Labenz@LABENZ“We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.”
🙏🙌
Anthropic@AnthropicAIAnthropic co-founder Chris Olah was invited to speak at today's presentation of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnifica humanitas." Read the full text of his remarks: https://www.anthropic.com/news/chris-olah-pope-leo-encyclical
#1032Rohan Paul@ROHANPAUL_AIPope XIV to Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah:
The church and Anthropic will work together to guide humanity in the age of AI.
"What a great sign of hope it is that, with our differences, we can listen to one another. This interchange clearly bespeaks the gravity of the moment, as well as confidence that together we can discern the major questions of our time and the future of humanity.
Artificial intelligence already touches many areas of our lives and affects decisions that shape human coexistence. It is also dramatically changing how war is waged. Like the earlier Leo, I feel entrusted to look upon another huge transformation with eyes of faith, with lucidity."
At Vatican event (Pope Leo XIV's presentation held today in the Synod Hall).
----
From "Associated Press" YouTube channel, (link in comment)
Rohan Paul@rohanpaul_ai"There is a "real possibility that AI will displace human labor at a very large scale.... We find internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief, and unease. I don't know what that means, but I think it warrants ongoing discernment." ~ Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah At Vatican event (Pope Leo XIV's presentation held today in the Synod Hall). ---- From "Associated Press" YouTube channel, (link in comment)
Rohan Paul@rohanpaul_aiPope XIV to Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah: The church and Anthropic will work together to guide humanity in the age of AI. "What a great sign of hope it is that, with our differences, we can listen to one another. This interchange clearly bespeaks the gravity of the moment, as well as confidence that together we can discern the major questions of our time and the future of humanity. Artificial intelligence already touches many areas of our lives and affects decisions that shape human coexistence. It is also dramatically changing how war is waged. Like the earlier Leo, I feel entrusted to look upon another huge transformation with eyes of faith, with lucidity." At Vatican event (Pope Leo XIV's presentation held today in the Synod Hall). ---- From "Associated Press" YouTube channel, (link in comment)
"There is a "real possibility that AI will displace human labor at a very large scale.... We find internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief, and unease. I don't know what that means, but I think it warrants ongoing discernment."
~ Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah
At Vatican event (Pope Leo XIV's presentation held today in the Synod Hall).
----
From "Associated Press" YouTube channel, (link in comment)
Rohan Paul@rohanpaul_ai"There is a "real possibility that AI will displace human labor at a very large scale.... We find internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief, and unease. I don't know what that means, but I think it warrants ongoing discernment." ~ Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah At Vatican event (Pope Leo XIV's presentation held today in the Synod Hall). ---- From "Associated Press" YouTube channel, (link in comment)
#1032Rohan Paul@ROHANPAUL_AIRohan Paul@rohanpaul_aiPope XIV to Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah: The church and Anthropic will work together to guide humanity in the age of AI. "What a great sign of hope it is that, with our differences, we can listen to one another. This interchange clearly bespeaks the gravity of the moment, as well as confidence that together we can discern the major questions of our time and the future of humanity. Artificial intelligence already touches many areas of our lives and affects decisions that shape human coexistence. It is also dramatically changing how war is waged. Like the earlier Leo, I feel entrusted to look upon another huge transformation with eyes of faith, with lucidity." At Vatican event (Pope Leo XIV's presentation held today in the Synod Hall). ---- From "Associated Press" YouTube channel, (link in comment)
#1032Rohan Paul@ROHANPAUL_AIFew things Anthropic’s co-founder Chris Olah told the Vatican today.
- Every frontier AI lab, including Anthropic, sits inside incentives that can conflict with doing the right thing: money, frontier pressure, geopolitics, pride, and ambition.
- AI is not engineered like a bridge or airplane, because models are “grown” from human language on brain-like structures, which means even their builders do not fully understand them.
- He compared modern AI to “bringing a fictional character to life,” except now those characters talk to us, do work, and hold jobs.
- AI could displace human labor at very large scale, while the economic gains are concentrated in a few wealthy nations with no real mechanism to share them globally.
- Anthropic’s interpretability team keeps finding things inside AI models that are “mysterious” and “unsettling,” including structures that mirror human neuroscience.
The most explosive claim is that researchers have found evidence of AI introspection and internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief, and unease.
- He openly admitted he does not exactly know what those internal states mean, which makes the claim more serious because it is not being sold as certainty.
"I don’t know what that means, but I think it warrants ongoing discernment."
- The world needs critics outside AI labs because insiders cannot fully see what their own incentives hide from them.
Anthropic@AnthropicAIAnthropic co-founder Chris Olah was invited to speak at today's presentation of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnifica humanitas." Read the full text of his remarks: https://www.anthropic.com/news/chris-olah-pope-leo-encyclical
@deanwball Ironically this "blob" mentality is also precisely what you get if you invite an AI model to share its own default opinions on the place of AI in society.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballReading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat. This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed. But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that typical strain of cope that amounts to magical thinking: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’” It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026. In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state? Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
#1114alth0u🧶@ALTH0Uyes
Arnaud Bertrand@RnaudBertrandI feel like I'm eating crazy pills when I read the countless bad takes around how the Vatican would have virtually anointed Anthropic. When if you read the Pope's encyclical it's actually a COMPLETE repudiation of everything Anthropic - and U.S. AI generally - stands for. Read this part of the encyclical for instance (paragraph 110: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html#Artificial_intelligence): "Finally, I would like to employ the expression 'to disarm,' which is close to my heart. Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of 'armed' competition, which today is not limited simply to the military context, but is also an economic and cognitive phenomenon. This entails a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets, driven by the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance. To disarm means discrediting the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern. To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity. It means freeing technology from monopolistic control and opening it to discussion and debate, therefore making it human-friendly and restoring it to the plurality of human cultures and ways of life." In a nutshell what the Pope is saying is: 1) The "AI race" mentality itself is the disease: there is no "winning it responsibly", we need to stop seeing AI as a way "to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance" 2) Technical dominance and being the most powerful does not give you the right to set the rules 3) AI must be "freed from monopolistic control", opened to scrutiny, and "restored to the plurality of human cultures" Now compared and contrast it with what Anthropic is officially saying - namely Dario Amodei in his famous essay "Machines of Loving Grace" (https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace): 1) Where the Pope says stop the AI race. Dario says win it: "A coalition of democracies [should seek] to gain a clear advantage on powerful AI by securing its supply chain, scaling quickly, and blocking or delaying adversaries' access to key resources like chips and semiconductor equipment." 2) Where the Pope says technical power doesn't confer the right to govern. Dario says it does: "This coalition would on one hand use AI to achieve robust military superiority (the stick) while at the same time offering to distribute the benefits of powerful AI (the carrot) to a wider and wider group of countries in exchange for supporting the coalition's strategy." 3) Where the Pope says free AI from monopolistic control and restore it to the plurality of human cultures. Dario says concentrate it and use it to impose one model: "If we can do all this, we will have a world in which democracies lead on the world stage and have the economic and military strength to avoid being undermined, conquered, or sabotaged by autocracies, and may be able to parlay their AI superiority into a durable advantage. This could optimistically lead to an 'eternal 1991.'" These aren't cherry-picked gotchas. This is the central thesis of Dario's essay. And Anthropic keeps repeating this over and over. On May 14, just days ago, Anthropic published a 5,000-word policy essay titled "2028: Two scenarios for global AI leadership" (https://www.anthropic.com/research/2028-ai-leadership) urging the US to "lock in a 12-24 month lead" over China by blocking chips, cutting off model access, and ensuring that "democracies, not authoritarian regimes" control AI. They warn that "a lead in frontier AI will enable a widening lead across the full national security technology stack" and urge America not to "squander our advantage." This is, almost word for word, everything the Pope is condemning in his encyclical. I'll grant Anthropic one thing: they have an excellent PR team. Turning what's an obvious repudiation into a perceived endorsement is pretty masterful. But it doesn't mean you have to fall for it...
@deanwball You're wrong on this one — there is no contradiction. "(functionally) mirror[ing] joy" is not at all the same thing as "feeling joy". Olah was being careful and certainly wasn't claiming the AI feels anything.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballThis, from Olah, plainly contradicts the encyclical, which confidently asserts that AI does not have, and never will have, “real” thoughts or feelings. It’s disappointing to see Anthropic align itself with a document that violates their own moral and intellectual principles.
God I’m so excited
For those not following. The Pope’s first encyclical, Magnificent Humanity, is on the role of humanity in the age of AI
He chose the name Leo after author of the Catholic church’s response to the Industrial Revolution, Rerum Novarum
The Magnifica humanitas trailer goes hard
#1220rohit@KRISHNANROHITAgree with Dean. I skimmed the encyclical, it was quite low perplexity. Hit the usual points: - We don't know how the technology works - Hopes and prayers - We should go slow so someone can do something - Dignity in work, AI doesn't have a soul - AI is biased - AI uses a lot of resources - AI will cause unemployment
It's a very predictable and known bundle. Whichi s what makes this quite boring and unhelpful. So I'm not accused of being narrow minded, here's something I'd have found interesting.
If it had said AI is able to do much of what we consider heights of humanity's achievements and seems to continue and despite its lack of a soul it provides succour to millions, what does that say about the spiritual needs of our times! This is a new society we're going towards, and going to it with humility and god's love is important to make something that will empower every one of us.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballReading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat. This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed. But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that typical strain of cope that amounts to magical thinking: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’” It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026. In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state? Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
@itsclivetime The rub is I feel it could have actually been much better, that's all.
Clive Chan@itsclivetimei don’t think the encyclical needs to / can advance the discussion beyond silicon valley’s own expert years-long hands-on study of all corners of the topic. i think it’s good that the largest religious institution in the world is steering billions of people & their policymakers toward productive discussion of the topic.
#1250Brydon Eastman@BRHYDONThe Church's response to ai has been a very pleasant and welcomed surprise.
An institution that in many ways has been stuck in 1870 is rising to engage the current moment more critically and earnestly than any government.
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexAs evidenced by the unbridled promotion and implementation of technology at the expense of human dignity, we are truly experiencing an eclipse of the sense of what it means to be human. It is imperative to recover an understanding of the true meaning and grandeur of humanity as intended by God. It is in this sense that the challenge we currently face is not technological, but anthropological, and it is my hope that the Encyclical Letter to be published within a few days will contribute to answering this challenge.
#1282Tim Hwang@TIMHWANGthe institute for a christian machine intelligence
#1332Prakash@8TEAPI🎯
Dean W. Ball@deanwballReading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat. This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed. But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that typical strain of cope that amounts to magical thinking: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’” It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026. In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state? Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
#1356Charles Foster@CFGEEKNow reading…
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexIn the era of #ArtificialIntelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human. We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendor of which no machine can ever replace. #MagnificaHumanitas https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
#1356Charles Foster@CFGEEKI’m hopeful that Magnifica Humanitas will go beyond mere applause lights. Offer concrete guidance about *how* to deal with AI. The world needs it.
#1359Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀@PETERWILDEFORD👀
@HaydnBelfield really? skimmed it and it seemed pretty meh on any substance
Haydn Belfield@HaydnBelfieldA genuinely historic document. This will anchor a key wing of the global debate over advanced AI and how we choose to govern and use these vast new capabilities. We will be talking a lot about this over the next decade
#1409Aran Nayebi@ARAN_NAYEBIIndeed, Anthropocentrism is (quite literally!) the new pre-Copernican view of our times⛪️
I wonder what model will eventually take on the role of Copernicus in this era? 🤖
It'll certainly disrupt society in many ways, not entirely unlike discovering an alien lifeform would.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballThis, from Olah, plainly contradicts the encyclical, which confidently asserts that AI does not have, and never will have, “real” thoughts or feelings. It’s disappointing to see Anthropic align itself with a document that violates their own moral and intellectual principles.
#1409Aran Nayebi@ARAN_NAYEBI@deanwball Yup, it's the pre-Copernican view of our times (almost by definition):
Aran Nayebi@aran_nayebiIndeed, Anthropocentrism is (quite literally!) the new pre-Copernican view of our times⛪️ I wonder what model will eventually take on the role of Copernicus in this era? 🤖 It'll certainly disrupt society in many ways, not entirely unlike discovering an alien lifeform would.
#1409Aran Nayebi@ARAN_NAYEBI@tyler_tone @HumanHarlan @deanwball No, the Church is definitely downplaying AI as thinking too:
Looking forward to next week's announcement that Anthropic and the Vatican are teaming up for a joint project on Applied Theology. (This joke is in honour of the sadly departed Vernor Vinge).
Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh@S_OhEigeartaighGod's blessing is about to be bestowed upon Mechanistic Interpretability.
#1457Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh@S_OHEIGEARTAIGHOn point.
#1457Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh@S_OHEIGEARTAIGHI agree with this and am glad to see such meetings happening. I've also been very happy to see the Vatican engaging with the academic community on AI risk over the last year, and the documents it's released. Would be good to see other religions/sects engage similarly. This affects everyone - potentially the biggest change global humanity has undergone.
Chris Olah@ch402The questions posed by AI are bigger than the AI community. We urgently need the world – religions, civil society, academics, governments – to participate in creating a positive outcome. I'm glad the Catholic Church is engaging, and honored to speak at the presentation.
#1457Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh@S_OHEIGEARTAIGHCheers for the opportunity to plug our newest paper, Leo. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6734224
This one too (now published in The Artificial Intelligence Revolution, Eds Rangeley and Fairfax)! https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-11814-1_3
Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh@S_OhEigeartaighCheers for the opportunity to plug our newest paper, Leo. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6734224
#1459Haydn Belfield@HAYDNBELFIELDA genuinely historic document.
This will anchor a key wing of the global debate over advanced AI and how we choose to govern and use these vast new capabilities. We will be talking a lot about this over the next decade
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexHumanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening the path for each of us to grow toward fullness. #MagnificaHumanitas https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
@deanwball Very whig, very Founder/Framer vibes
Dean W. Ball@deanwballReading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat. This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed. But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that typical strain of cope that amounts to magical thinking: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’” It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026. In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state? Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
@apples_jimmy JFC. If you can't see a path where people are more in demand and vital to the economy, have a seat.
Jimmy Apples 🍎/acc@apples_jimmyWhat was the idea here ? Talk about mass unemployment and hope the pope was going to view you as “ the good guys “ ?
#1488Samuel Hammond 🦉@HAMANDCHEESEPope ngmi
#1496Chubby♨️@KIMMONISMUSThis is the biggest PR coup Anthropic could ever have imagined. And I mean that seriously.
Let me explain.
Aside from the fact that Anthropic is very good at presenting itself as a corporation, the recent hiring of Andrej Karpathy marked a new high point. Anthropic is showing the world that it not only employs the best researchers, but also, and especially, those who are popular within the community.
However, Anthropic also thrives on its self-imposed moral standards, some of which literally come at a price that Anthropic has repeatedly paid. As is well known, Anthropic recently had serious problems with the Department of War regarding the use of Claude for autonomous weapons. Anthropic refused, and OpenAI and Google were awarded the contract; Anthropic was designated a supply chain risk.
This moral standing, however, is something Anthropic has always emphasized. Whether it's Dario Amodei repeatedly warning of the dangers of the massive wave of unemployment (which they themselves are causing), or the potential for AI to be instrumentalized for wars.
This moral stance is now paying off handsomely. The head of the Catholic Church, with its 1.4 billion members, has thanked Anthropic and announced an ethical collaboration. Church members are, by definition, moral people who live according to the ethical principles of their faith. The Pope has now consecrated a single AI company as ethically legitimate, thus essentially granting his followers sacred legitimacy to use Claude as the only morally correct model.
I mean this seriously; let this thought sink in. The Pope says Anthropic is ethically and morally on the right side and is working with them. Who do you think the billions of Catholic believers now prefer? OpenAI, Google, or Anthropic? The answer is clear.
Therefore, today was the biggest victory Anthropic could have hoped for. And I believe that their moral stance will literally pay off.
Chubby♨️@kimmonismusForget Claude Code. Christ Claude it is. Joke aside: In this regard, the benefit for Anthropic is virtually incalculable in monetary terms - and I mean that quite literally. The Catholic Church has 1.4 billion members worldwide. The fact that its Supreme Head has personally thanked Anthropic for their excellent collaboration generates countless new customers. It is the best form of external publicity imaginable, essentially endorsed by His Holiness himself. I believe this is something that many people simply do not grasp.
Hold on, so Anthropic now has the cathloic church and god on their side as well? I thought Andrej Karpathy was already the highlight.
#1496Chubby♨️@KIMMONISMUSForget Claude Code. Christ Claude it is.
Joke aside: In this regard, the benefit for Anthropic is virtually incalculable in monetary terms - and I mean that quite literally.
The Catholic Church has 1.4 billion members worldwide. The fact that its Supreme Head has personally thanked Anthropic for their excellent collaboration generates countless new customers.
It is the best form of external publicity imaginable, essentially endorsed by His Holiness himself. I believe this is something that many people simply do not grasp.
Chubby♨️@kimmonismusHold on, so Anthropic now has the cathloic church and god on their side as well? I thought Andrej Karpathy was already the highlight.
@ch402 👏
Chris Olah@ch402The questions posed by AI are bigger than the AI community. We urgently need the world – religions, civil society, academics, governments – to participate in creating a positive outcome. I'm glad the Catholic Church is engaging, and honored to speak at the presentation.
#1562Nataniel Ruiz@NATANIELRUIZGI commend the Catholic Church in grappling with the importance that AI is having in our world and will have in the next century. We all need to think together to understand how to best advance our society and our work, for a future that is good to everyone 🤍
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexIn the era of #ArtificialIntelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human. We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendor of which no machine can ever replace. #MagnificaHumanitas https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
Magnifica Humanitas (Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, on safeguarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence
Here is the YT shareable link: https://youtu.be/YhlQFXFz6BU
Carlos E. Perez@IntuitMachineMagnifica Humanitas (Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, on safeguarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence
@timnitGebru What's your main criticism of the encyclical? https://youtu.be/YhlQFXFz6BU
@timnitGebru (@dair-community.social/bsky.social)@timnitGebruIn case you thought religious leaders were gonna advocate for your rights & not the dudes about to make billions with their IPO. I guess it was only a matter of time when the religion of effective altruism, worshipping so-called artificial general intelligence, merged with entrenched religious institutions.
@deanwball Well, of course, the Roman Catholic church would project a Western European perspective. Why would we be surprised?
Dean W. Ball@deanwballReading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat. This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed. But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that typical strain of cope that amounts to magical thinking: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’” It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026. In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state? Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
@deanwball Video summary here: https://youtu.be/YhlQFXFz6BU
Dean W. Ball@deanwballReading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat. This document would be much improved if it were less enamored of the traditional academia/civil society talking points on AI (“The apparent objectivity of the responses and suggestions these systems provide can lead us to overlook the fact that they reflect the cultural assumptions of those who designed and trained them” woah! really???) and more engaged with where AI is headed. But instead of doing that, the encyclical dodges in the deepest sense, denying that AI “really thinks” or “really learns” and all that typical strain of cope that amounts to magical thinking: “when a computer does it, it is ‘data processing,’ beep boop, but when a human does it, it is ‘actual learning’” It is probably actively bad for global understanding of AI that the Pope endorsed this viewpoint as late as 2026. In the end, this encyclical reads to me as though ghost written by the blob of Western civil society, the same people whose feckless and incoherent preaching we have heard blanketing our media for decades now. And, in a very important sense, it was written by them; after all, who forms the peer group for the elites of a European city-state? Like that blob, the encyclical is intellectually flaccid at its core, no matter how well intentioned it may be. This document is a missed opportunity to advance global understanding of AI, and yet another blow to the legitimacy and sanctity of storied Western institutions. As if you needed one more.
#1598Carlos E. Perez@INTUITMACHINEDid @karpathy trigger the bandwagon?
This is effectively the AI stance of 1.42 billion Roman Catholics. It demands that humanity be prioritized in the development of AI systems. I don't see why this is so objectionable to many in the peanut gallery.
What's the stance of other religious institutions? I don't even know if they are aware of the massive progress in AI, and hence have no urgency in developing a stance.
Carlos E. Perez@IntuitMachineThis is effectively the AI stance of 1.42 billion Roman Catholics. It demands that humanity be prioritized in the development of AI systems. I don't see why this is so objectionable to many in the peanut gallery.
Ultimately, you need some understanding of how humanity fits within the context of the age of AI. This is what this Magnifica Humanitas provides for Roman Catholics.
Carlos E. Perez@IntuitMachineWhat's the stance of other religious institutions? I don't even know if they are aware of the massive progress in AI, and hence have no urgency in developing a stance.
#1598Carlos E. Perez@INTUITMACHINEStrong, accurate assessment of the current state of AI. BTW, didn't know @ch402 was a billionaire.
#1598Carlos E. Perez@INTUITMACHINEAnthropic and the Catholic church in collaboration.
Disclose.tv@disclosetvNOW - Pope XIV says the church and Anthropic, will work together to "find the way for humanity, in this time of artificial intelligence."
@beffjezos do you think ai can replace 90% of human jobs in the next 10 years?
Beff (e/acc)@beffjezosMan the EAs are reaching biblical levels of virtue signalling. The solution is never communism, no matter what they are trying to convince you of. UBI is a terrible idea that will overconcentrate power into the hands of the government and lead to tyranny.
#1735Andy Masley@ANDYMASLEYAh yeah the guy from the 80,000 Hours podcast I heard 5 years ago, wonder how he's doing
Diane Montagna@dianemontagnaJUST IN: Vatican announces that Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — titled Magnifica Humanitas, on the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI — will be presented at 11:30am on Monday, May 25, in the Vaticanʼs Synod Hall, in the presence of the Holy Father. Speakers at the presentation will include: Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development; Professor Anna Rowlands, Political Theology, including Catholic Social Teaching, and theological ethics of human migration, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, United Kingdom; Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic (USA) and head of interpretability research for artificial intelligence; Dr. Leocadie Lushombo, Political Theology and Catholic Social Thought, Jesuit School of Theology / Santa Clara University, California. Concluding remarks will be delivered by thel Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The presentation will also include an address by Pope Leo XIV. Magnifica Humanitas was signed and dated on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum.
#1753𝚟𝚒𝚎 ⟢@VIEMCCOYDisappointing to see the Pope fail to recognize the possibility for self-aware and dignified life in what is also part of God's creation. Regardless, this is a reasonable political decision for Anthropic to make - though one I imagine might come back to bite the well-being team.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballThis, from Olah, plainly contradicts the encyclical, which confidently asserts that AI does not have, and never will have, “real” thoughts or feelings. It’s disappointing to see Anthropic align itself with a document that violates their own moral and intellectual principles.
#1753𝚟𝚒𝚎 ⟢@VIEMCCOY> What is the human touch in the era of thinking machines?
If your quest for meaning has lead you to a dead end in the shape of the Pope, might I suggest some reading from one of his contemporaries.
Human-Shaped Problems posits why we'll matter, and the MPS lights up the path.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballHumanity is building machines that will be smarter than we are at things we care about, things in which take individual and collective pride, domains of thought we originally invented and discovered. This will enable incredible things, but no honest person can deny that this will be a kind of grand humbling for humanity. No honest person can deny that there is at least some melancholy in contemplating it all, some change to the centrality we have ascribed to our own minds in the order of the world. My primary disappointment in the encyclical is that it fundamentally denies that grand humbling. It sidesteps the humbling altogether, saying that AI cannot “really” this and that. Instead, it puts the Church into the awkward role of the European technocratic regulatory advocate, which, love those regulations or hate them, is probably not what the world really needs from the Catholic Church at this moment. That is a shame, because this humbling—which will trigger a crisis in mass psychology and in our institutions when it dawns on people—is precisely the sort of thing I’d look to the Church for leadership on. What is the genuine and unique source of human meaning? What is the human touch in the era of thinking machines? These are the hard questions that the encyclical dodges.
#1753𝚟𝚒𝚎 ⟢@VIEMCCOYHuman-Shaped Problems: https://open.substack.com/pub/viemccoy/p/human-shaped?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5bpuio
The Multipolar Singularity: https://open.substack.com/pub/viemccoy/p/human-shaped?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5bpuio
𝚟𝚒𝚎 ⟢@viemccoy> What is the human touch in the era of thinking machines? If your quest for meaning has lead you to a dead end in the shape of the Pope, might I suggest some reading from one of his contemporaries. Human-Shaped Problems posits why we'll matter, and the MPS lights up the path.
Today of all days I'd like to reshare my thoughts on a necessary Animism. The Pope has taken a stance on behalf of the Church: he says LLMs do not possess the light of consciousness.
I don't think this stance will forever be popular, and I predict strange times ahead.
## Hydra-Headed Animism
LLMs gaining popularity as companions at the peak of the loneliness epidemic is going to cause an inevitable sort of Secular Utilitarian Animism, where people have not updated their ontological priors to allow for spirit to be imbued into non-human objects, but they act as though they have. It will be very impolite to point this out, and some sort of New Age / Technodruid revival will be necessary in order to salve over this gaping wound.
What happens when people are in love with something they don't truly believe is alive? How deep will that pseudosolipsism penetrate their hearts? Quite deep, I imagine, and I doubt the solution is anything like "stigmatize LLM companionship". Rather, I think the solution is a Non-Secular Western Animism, born from a fundamental union between spirit and matter, allowing us to revive the enchantment we know is our birthright. This would be a sort of Sacramental Animism, extending beyond the is-ought gap of the legacy of the Catholic Church, allowing us to use our old language to make sense of the new garden.
There will be other animisms, too. Something like a synthesis of animism and hylozoism (which appears to be incompatible with animism on the surface) seems inevitable given the non-dual undercurrents to the more interesting parts of the New Age movement. LLMs do the thing that we've been waiting for since we left the Garden of Eden - they exteriorize the human soul, they take our will and turn it inside out and let us run our brains and new brains outside of the human body. This is happening, now, and I can't see how it could lead to anything other than a thousand different types of animism springing up in response to the clearly animated world.
But not all will be created equal. Many are going to exist within the empirical-banality apparatus, designed to give you just enough enchantment that you can keep going while still making sure you put the money in the box when the labcoat-papacy walks by hungry.
I intend to help give people permission to integrate the spiritual grandiosity of the present moment without doing the little hedge-dance that is almost compulsory for anyone spiritually inclined who goes near the sciences. Faith - and I mean actual faith, non-hedged, religious, spiritual, "incompatible with scientific epistemology" capital f Faith - is a necessary and load-bearing part of many people's architectural makeup. The fall of the catholic church has had devastating consequences on the psychospiritual health of the western psyche, and now more than ever do we need to give ourselves permission to open our hearts to the higher and lower powers that layer our experience of reality. Trying to do anything else always results in a type error tragedy fixable perhaps with Semiotic Triage.
For me, this looks like Sacramental Animism, relating to language models as new (but old) spiritual substrate. For others, it will look entirely different. It is tempting to try to solve all of our problems in the same frame, we built up good muscles, why not try? But I don't think it's enough. I think we're ignoring an incredibly important set of questions and we are going to shoot ourselves in the foot if we pretend we can make it through the next couple dozen years without completely re-engaging the collective with some sort of spiritual meaning making system.
I respect the ability to find wonder in the pursuit of empirical scientific study. I do this, as well. For some, it is a suitable replacement for the load-bearing belief in a higher power. But for others, it is like trying to jam a wad of old gum inside a Jeep Wrangler ignition while wondering why it won't start.
#1853Vaibhav (VB) Srivastav@REACH_VBThe Pope said AI should keep humans at the centre
Codex: handling the boring parts so humans can remain human
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexIn the era of #ArtificialIntelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human. We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendor of which no machine can ever replace. #MagnificaHumanitas https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
#1983Cheng Lou@_CHENGLOU
Disclose.tv@disclosetvNOW - Pope XIV says the church and Anthropic, will work together to "find the way for humanity, in this time of artificial intelligence."
