Anthropic co-founder Olah reportedly pushed to skip Pope's AI encyclical over machine consciousness
kimmonismus · x · 2026-10-03
Per the NYT, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah reportedly proposed pulling the company out of Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical launch after its text rejected machine consciousness. He ultimately attended the May 25 event, but two participants say he and his team privately lobbied the Pope's advisers to take possible AI consciousness seriously. On stage, Olah said: "We find internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief and unease."
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