Canadian AI developer and Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah presented Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnifica Humanitas" alongside him.
True to Anthropic's brand, Olah couldn't resist suggesting that today's language models might be more than just statistical systems. "AI systems are not engineered the way a bridge or an airplane is engineered," he said "[…] They are grown on a structure roughly modeled after the brain on an enormous inheritance of human thought and speech." And, "as the Holy Father observes, they remain, in important ways, mysterious even to those of us who create them."
Citing Anthropic's internal research, Olah said, "We 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." He also warned: "There is a real possibility that AI will displace human labor at a very large scale." Olah's full presentation is available in the video below (starting at 1:01:40).
The Pope says what you'd expect
The Pope's proposals don't hold many surprises. He called on everyone along the AI chain to take responsibility, warning that AI is "never neutral" because "it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it."
