Pope Leo XIV to launch his first encylical, a document on artificial intelligence, with Anthropic's co-founder

May 18, 2026 10:51 AM EDT

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV and the co-founder of artificial intelligence company Anthropic will launch the pontiff's first encyclical on May 25, a document on the care of human dignity in the era of AI, the Vatican said Monday.

Anthropic has billed itself as the AI company that puts safety and risk-mitigation at the forefront of its research. As a result, the presence of Anthropic's Christopher Olah at the Vatican is significant, and suggests that the U.S. pope's position on AI will become a new flashpoint with the Trump administration.

READ MORE: White House chief of staff to meet with Anthropic CEO over its new Mythos AI model

In February, the Trump administration ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic's artificial intelligence technology and imposed other major penalties for refusing to allow the U.S. military unrestricted use of its AI technology. Anthropic is currently suing the administration, which it has accused of retaliating against it illegally because of its attempt to impose limits on how its AI technology can be deployed.