Canadian AI researcher and Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah appeared alongside Pope Leo XIV at the launch of the Pope's new encyclical "Magnifica Humanitas" on May 25, 2026. Olah used the occasion to suggest that today's large language models may be more than simple statistical systems.
"AI systems are not engineered the way a bridge or an airplane is engineered," Olah said. "They are grown on a structure roughly modeled after the brain on an enormous inheritance of human thought and speech." He added that, "as the Holy Father observes, they remain, in important ways, mysterious even to those of us who create them."
Internal states that mirror human emotions
Citing research from Anthropic's internal studies, Olah said the company's findings have been surprising. "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."
Olah also warned about the broader impact of AI on the workforce. "There is a real possibility that AI will displace human labor at a very large scale," he said. His full presentation is available as a video and begins at the 1 hour, 1 minute, and 40 second mark.
Pope's encyclical takes a more measured tone
The encyclical "Magnifica Humanitas" adopts a more cautious stance than Olah's claims about introspection and emotion-like states. The document states, "We must avoid the misconception of equating this type of 'intelligence' with that of human beings. These systems merely imitate certain functions of human intelligence."
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It further emphasizes that AI systems "do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean."
The Pope also called on all participants in the AI development 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."
Environmental cost and military use addressed
The encyclical highlights AI's environmental impact, pointing to the "enormous amounts of energy and water" required for data centers and calling for more efficient systems.
On the matter of military applications, the Pope said that deadly or irreversible decisions should not be entrusted to machines. "No algorithm can make war morally acceptable," the encyclical states.
The document also criticizes the dominant AI alignment discourse. "A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few," it says. Instead of abstract ethics, the Pope calls for strong legal frameworks and independent oversight.
Leo XIV, the first American pope, has made artificial intelligence a central theme of his pontificate. Representatives from Anthropic and other Silicon Valley AI companies regularly meet with religious leaders to discuss the use of AI, and the Pope is among those engaged in such dialogues.
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