Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah presents Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical, citing internal research on AI introspection while the Pope warns against equating machine intelligence with human consciousness

Christopher Olah presented Pope Leo XIV's encyclical 'Magnifica Humanitas' at its launch. Olah cited Anthropic's internal research claiming to find 'evidence of introspection' and 'internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief, and unease' in AI systems.

Pope Leo XIV's encyclical takes a more cautious stance, stating that AI systems 'do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain' and 'merely imitate certain functions of human intelligence.' The Pope also called for strong laws and independent oversight rather than relying on alignment determined by a few.

The Pope warned that deadly or irreversible decisions should not be handed off to machines, stating 'No algorithm can make war morally acceptable.' He also flagged AI's environmental cost, pointing to the 'enormous amounts of energy and water' needed for data centers.