Anthropic's alliance with pope on AI harms: all in good faith or'Vatican-washing?' Experts say AI firm's engagement with Vatican risks creating'feelgood' discourse that lacks critical examination Why did Anthropic's founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI? In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task. At a ceremony honoring the holy teaching the day of its release at the Vatican, the pope was flanked by an unusual guest speaker: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, one of the people behind the AI boom so worrying Leo. Olah's presence raises a key question: how could the Catholic church and the world's most valuable AI startup work together, when Anthropic's technology may bring about the future Leo is warning against? Leo's encyclical discusses at length the preservation of the dignity of humans' work as it comes under threat from AI - but major AI companies, including Anthropic, aren't prioritising these concerns, says Pete Furlong, senior manager of policy and research at Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit advocating for accountability around AI. "All of these companies are building technology that is designed to replace people," Furlong says.

Pope Leo XIV speaks during a meeting with bishops, members of the clergy and families whose members have been victims of environmental pollution at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in Acerra, Italy, on 23 May 2026. Pope Leo XIV speaks during a meeting with bishops, members of the clergy and families whose members have been victims of environmental pollution at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in Acerra, Italy, on 23 May 2026. Americans echo Pope Leo's concerns about AI: 'It threatens workers, privacy and human life' Guardian readers in the US spoke of fears about unregulated AI in response to the pope's encyclical warning about the risks of the technology I n his first major papal text since assuming leadership of the Catholic church last year, Pope Leo issued a stark warning about the rise of artificial intelligence this week, denouncing the "culture of power" driving the AI age. Calling for the "most rigorous" ethical constraints on AI - which he described as one of the greatest threats facing humanity today - the first US-born pope also warned of "new forms of slavery" emerging through the digital economy. Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope's concerns, describing AI as an "unregulated" industry increasingly being used to the "detriment of too many people", while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm .

'In Silicon Valley, some have suggested that the pope doesn't know what he's talking about.' 'In Silicon Valley, some have suggested that the pope doesn't know what he's talking about.' The intelligent and thoughtful encyclical is an important warning of the uses and misuses of a rapidly developing technology. O ften I'm asked if I think that the novels of the future will all be written by AI. Do I worry that a machine can do what I do, only better? I usually say something like: "No algorithm is going to write Anna Karenina!" which is also not a real answer.

Users I Read the Pope's Encyclical on A.I. I'm Astounded By What He Wrote. It's an urgent warning--and a celebration of humanity and what we can do at our best. Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. You're already subscribed to the aa_Nitish_Pahwa newsletter.

Ghana welcomes Pope's apology over Catholic Church's role in slavery Ghana has welcomed Pope Leo XIV's apology for the Catholic Church's historic role in slavery, describing it as an act of moral courage that was important in the global pursuit of truth, human dignity and justice. The Pope issued the clearest apology yet for the Church's involvement in legitimising slavery and its delay in condemning it for centuries. The apology was published on Monday in the Pope's first major teaching document of his papacy, which also focused on the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) . Ghana was a major hub for the transatlantic slave trade when millions of people were captured and loaded on to ships, never to return home. Between the 16th and 19th Centuries, 12-15 million Africans were shipped to the Caribbean, with about two million dying during the journey.

What the Pope Said About A.I. Leo XIV's new encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas," presents a remarkable case for placing moral concerns, and not profit, or competitive advantage, or efficiency, at the center of any discussion of artificial intelligence. Last year, only months into his papacy, Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope, called on developers of artificial intelligence "to cultivate moral discernment as a fundamental part of their work." In response, the Silicon Valley billionaire and troll-in-chief Marc Andreessen began mocking the pontiff by tweeting an idiotic meme at him. The Pope raised the grave concern that artificial-intelligence companies were "totally ignoring the value of human beings and of humanity"; the venture capitalist Peter Thiel reportedly wondered whether the Pope might be in league with the Antichrist. The merchant princes of Silicon Valley appeared concerned that the new Pope would usurp their authority and diminish their power.

Ashton Kutcher: Hollywood isn't to blame for pushing unrealistic beauty standards US actor Ashton Kutcher has said he believes Hollywood is not pushing unreasonably high beauty standards, adding that wider society is to blame for the increasing desire to look perfect. The 47-year-old is currently starring in science fiction show The Beauty, which sees a drug become available that can transform a person into the most attractive version of themselves. Speaking to BBC News, Kutcher said he does not believe the film and TV industry is imparting the need for aesthetic homogeny. Entertainment is a reflection of society, he said. Across the different characters and actors in shows, some are traditionally handsome but others are just really interesting, he said.

Pope Leo XIV has hit out at those who minimise the increasingly evident impact of rising temperatures in his first major statement on climate change. Reiterating the words of his predecessor Pope Francis, the new pontiff lambasted critics who ridicule those who speak of global warming. The Pope's remarks, at a speech in Castel Gondolfo near Rome, will be seen as an implied criticism of US President Donald Trump, who last month called climate change a con. Pope Leo also called for greater action from citizens the world over on climate change, saying there was no room for indifference or resignation. The Pope was speaking at a conference to mark 10 years since the publication of Laudato Si'.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. What counts as cheating with AI? Teachers are grappling with how to draw the line This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Teachers say AI cheating is "off the charts," but research shows cheating rates remain unchanged since before ChatGPT. Schools favor "AI literacy" and redesigning assignments to encourage ethical technology use.

Personalized preference alignment for LLMs with diverse human preferences requires evaluation and alignment methods that capture pluralism. Most existing preference alignment datasets are logged under policies that differ substantially from the evaluated LLMs, and existing off-policy estimators focus solely on overall utility while ignoring preference pluralism. Extending Off-Policy Evaluation (OPE) to pluralistic preference alignment, therefore, remains an open question. Thus, we propose the Pluralistic Off-Policy Evaluation (POPE), the first framework for offline pluralistic preference evaluation and alignment in LLMs. POPE includes a unified reward function that combines (1) a collaborative utility component derived from human preference signals (e.g., upvotes or relevance scores) and (2) a diversity component inspired by entropy-based coverage measures, together reflecting pluralistic alignment. Furthermore, to estimate this reward from logged interactions, we derive decomposable inverse propensity scoring (IPS) estimators that separately evaluate relevance and diversity. Theoretically, we prove that our decomposed IPS estimators establish a lower bound on their variance. With the off-policy evaluated value function, we can directly enable off-policy optimization to further enhance pluralistic alignment. Empirical results demonstrate that POPE efficiently enhances pluralistic response generation and maintains the models' general capabilities on downstream tasks