Anthropic's Chris Olah Speaks at Vatican on Pope Leo XIV AI Encyclical
Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah addressed the unveiling of Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical "Magnifica humanitas" at the Vatican, speaking on AI labor displacement. Olah stated: "There is a real possibility that AI will displace human labor at very large scale. If that happens, supporting those displaced will be a moral imperative of historic proportions." The encyclical asserts: "The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs." Concurrently, Olah faced criticism for a prior public pledge — never fulfilled — to give up to 10% of Anthropic's value to training data authors despite Anthropic's ~$900 billion valuation.
Why It Matters
The Vatican's formal AI encyclical marks a new institutional dimension in AI governance, extending the policy debate beyond governments and regulators. The simultaneous public criticism over unfulfilled data author compensation gives the ethics framing a sharp internal contradiction.