Anthropic cofounder Christopher Olah, who spoke at the presentation of the papal encyclical on artificial intelligence, was “so alarmed by the Pope’s strong position against A.I. consciousness that he proposed pulling Anthropic out of the event,” The New York Times reported.
“Privately, once the Anthropic delegation arrived at the Vatican, Mr. Olah and his team lobbied the Pope’s advisers to take the prospect of A.I. model consciousness seriously,” according to the report, which details Olah’s efforts to engage with religious figures about “the possibility of A.I. consciousness.”