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Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25
- sneak 6mo agoWho is this for? Is this to promote AI to the general Catholic public, or is it some kind of cultural signal to potential conservative institutional customers that Anthropic isn’t just a stereotypical bunch of godless California hippies? Normally when I see these sorts of things it’s obvious what it is for and why, but this one confuses me.
- kelseyfrog 6mo agoMy guess is that it (re)affirms that LLMs don't have souls and only people do. If you've read any Vatican publications, the theme is being the authority on the ontology of reality. EDIT: A decree for bioethics https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/docu... I'd expect a similar deal for AI.
- abirch 6mo agoI have met many people who don't seem to have a soul.
- kelseyfrog 6mo agoHeretic!
- Terr_ 6mo ago> Ankh-Morpork! Brawling city of a hundred thousand souls! And, as the Patrician privately observed, ten times that number of actual people. -- Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
- femiagbabiaka 6mo agoAll of the people who I agree with are ensouled, all of them I disagree with are not.
- SV_BubbleTime 6mo agoIt makes celebrating their murders and assassinations just like so much easier to cheer for!! (Yeah, it’s a problem, but they can’t see it)
- lovich 6mo agoWhat is your opinion on this quote? “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
- SV_BubbleTime 6mo ago[flagged]
- lovich 6mo ago[flagged]
- portmanteur 6mo agoIt’s not about “celebrating death”. It’s about promoting a culture of assassinations and political violence. Robert Muller died of natural causes.
- lovich 6mo ago[flagged]
- kelseyfrog 6mo agoJesus Christ dude. This is HN. Steelman or something.
- dyauspitr 6mo agoIt’s for me. It’s strange so I’m probably going to watch it. It helps that I generally like the modern Catholic church’s direction on things (besides abortion but I’m willing to overlook that).
- bigyabai 6mo agoIt's part of the gradual agenda to label AI the antichrist.
- sgc 6mo agoI hope you saw others' correction to the title here that indicate Olah is just a speaker at an event on the same day, not an author (although he almost certainly was consulted for his opinions while the Pope and his assistants were working on the Encyclical). So what matters here is what the Pope is trying to do, not Olah's intentions in his minor role. The Pope has already spoken quite a bit about ai, and exhorted priests to keep ai out of their homilies, which should be a sacred fruit of prayer and study. Just from what I have seen he said and my Catholic Theological background, I would say he will definitely be talking about at least a couple things: 1) the relationship between ai and our intellectual labor, and how to use it fruitfully to grow without losing ourselves in it (a very similar concern to many on hn as far as I understand); and more importantly for him and again for many 2) how to use ai in society in a way that everybody can enjoy the fruits of it, instead of just the elite few (similar to the priority of Rerum novarum). This Pope chose his name because of this theme, and has consistently demonstrated that social justice is amongst his highest priority concerns - to the point that he has asked the Church to stop focusing so heavily on sexual ethics because there are such weighty injustices in the world that require our focused effort and attention.
- pavon 6mo agoThe encyclical is for the Pope to express the church's view on AI and its impact to society to other Catholics. My guess for why Christopher Olah is there is to signal that Anthropic is the ethical AI company.
- mrandish 6mo ago> Who is this for? For the shrinking Catholic church it's trying to regain relevance. For Anthropic it's PR.
- discreteevent 6mo agoThere was an article in the FT a while ago about how confused and frustrated Trump was about the strait of Hormuz. The conclusion was that not everyone has a price but that concept was outside of the scope of his narrow mind.
- Izikiel43 6mo agoThis reminds me of the second half of the Hyperion cantos by Dan Simmons
- hungryhobbit 6mo agoI <3 the sci-fi gods like Herbert, Heinlein and Asimov, and they all had great sci-fi takes on religion ... but Hyperion has THE best take on sci-fi religions IMHO.
- SV_BubbleTime 6mo agoIt seems that is the first in his series but is that a good one to start after Dune? I’m on the last book there and, man, the pacing is questionable.
- JKCalhoun 6mo agoYeah, and here I'm thinking that we're entering Dune's timeline…
- akkartik 6mo agoYou mean the Endymion books, or Fall of Hyperion? I'm rereading the latter right now..
- Izikiel43 6mo agoFor the religion bits, if I remember correctly, it was a bit of Hyperion but mostly the Endymion books, which are the latter half of the cantos.
- alach11 6mo agoIt's a tall order to live up to the impact of Rerum novarum, the encyclical by the former Pope Leo that greatly guided thinking out of the industrial revolution. Personally, I'm excited to read this. If we take the claims of most AI labs at face value, they believe their work will fundamentally change the relationship between humans and the economy. More involvement from faith leaders is a good thing.
- boppo1 6mo agoI mean, the industrial revolution probably could have gone a little better.
- eikenberry 6mo agoHopefully this time we can avoid multiple, world wide wars.
- SV_BubbleTime 6mo agoYou can hope… but there is a matter of global debt and account that sooner or later will be settled.
- dylan604 6mo agoIf you're in a country where war is occurring, it doesn't matter if it's a world war or not. There are conflicts in pretty much every continent. North America is waging war in the Middle East. Europe has a multiyear conflict threatening to spill across more borders. Several countries in Africa are in conflict even if they are civil wars. North America, while not waging outright war, is in conflict with a South American country. The Asian continent is nearly routinely going through border skirmishes. Antarctica doesn't count. The Australian continent seems the only one without active conflicts. So 5/6 continents capable of being part of world war is in warlike conditions.
- joe_mamba 6mo ago>The Australian continent seems the only one without active conflicts. Yeah, but they did loose the great emu war.
- thrill 6mo agoI bet it will be 100 AI written, with guidance, natch, just because...
- torben-friis 6mo agoFor anyone concerned about the growing power of giant corporations, the fact that they're doing joint statements with religious leaders is...wow. Regardless of content, it seems an extra step in solidifying where power lies.
- sudobash1 6mo agoThat is just what the (edited) title makes it sound like. The article states that Christopher Olah will be a speaker present at the encyclical release. It does not imply that he had any hand or influence in the content.
- torben-friis 6mo agoWell yeah, private companies influencing doctrine would be far more scandalous for believers I guess. The point is the church making connections with companies straight away, sidestepping heads of state.
- joenot443 6mo agoI think in the case of Anthropic, it shows they’re at the very least willing to engage with the most important people in the philosophical and theological realm they’re in the midst of disrupting. When the question asked is roughly of “can an AI ever be considered a human soul?”, there isn’t a philosopher alive whose individual opinion would be considered more meaningful than Pope Leo’s. It’s unlikely that the church’s opinion would influence the future business choices of Anthropic. I think it still remains a positive business move to publicly engage with the church.
- torben-friis 6mo agoI don't think you got my point. I'm not criticizing anthropic for deciding to engage with the pope, I'm pointing at the state we're at where a for profit company is doing individually the work of understanding how their disruptive tech should fit in the wider world. Saving distances, it's like Glock engaging with spiritual leaders to figure out when it's ethical to kill. This should not be their area of decision, and if it starts being so there is clearly a giant gap for the entities that should be leading this instead.
- sudobash1 6mo agoThe title seems to be editorialized. To me, it makes it sound like Christopher Olah (the mentioned Anthropic co-founder) is a co-author. Instead he is going to be one of several speakers present when the encyclical is released.
- awinter-py 6mo agoyeah 'anthropic employee to appear on panel'
- make3 6mo agosign of the times
- embedding-shape 6mo agoAgree, the introduction from article: > Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, on preserving the human person in the age of artificial intelligence, will be released on May 25. A presentation event with the Pope and various speakers is scheduled for the same day at the Vatican. Among the "various speakers" is Christopher Olah. But hard to express under 80 characters I bet.
- pimlottc 6mo agoIt made me think that the founder wrote their own encyclical with AI
- Barbing 6mo agoDidn’t even think they made encyclicalpedias anymore
- tclancy 6mo ago“Claude, today you will be speaking ex cathedra …” Actually I may try that as a prompt. Last week I was having git commit messages all be in iambic tetrameter to see if anyone noticed but it annoyed me to death after the first two. Now to look up “load-bearing” in Latin, just in case.
- cdelsolar 6mo agoAmodei seems apropos
- ilaksh 6mo agoI'm an atheist, but most of what I have heard from popes in recent years seems like sound and possibly needed advice. Also, even though I feel AI and robotics are very important for progressing humanity, I think that much of the world has long since lost a proper sense of intrinsic human value. It's really gone from overt exploitation to slightly more mild exploitation where we pretend the system is really merit based. And as AI and robotics remove the need for human labor, I hope that someone like the pope can convince people that we should value human beings inherently and more fairly. Inexpensive labor and intelligence should make this feasible. I hope the speech isn't something dumb like "remember only humans have souls" because I think that's really premature and pretty obvious that AIs are not people at this point. The really convincing and somewhat deeper simulations of humans are probably only a few years down the line though. Which comes back to the Rovelli dualism article that was on the front page before. I think we should not be in a hurry to try to duplicate humans in depth (such as imitating emotions, pain, stream of consciousness, self-preservation, etc). It's just completely unnecessary to go that far to get useful AI, and obviously unethical to subject a real human emulation to slavery.
- orochimaaru 6mo agoHuman value has rarely existed. Pre-industrial world didn't have much human value. Your were a lord or a serf. There was not much in between. A lord's life had value, a serf's value was nothing. Post-industrial world needed human capital. Hence, the need for human value. If you notice most of this "need" has arisen out of then need for industrial expansion. Post-AI will be interesting. Will we go back to pre-industrial or get something better.
- mrcwinn 6mo agoI also wonder if it’s just harder to rule a much larger population in the modern world than in those times. Any jackass can show up and say that he was chosen to lead by some higher power. But you must still convince enough people that that is the case or at least have a military large enough that you can control.
- atq2119 6mo ago
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 6mo agoThe world is getting real tired of these tech bros.
- nilkn 6mo agoI'm not religious and haven't been since 2008. However, the world today is very different from then. It's fragmented, far more authoritarian, much more dangerous, with "us vs them" mentalities just gaining more and more traction in general in so many countries. There are almost no political leaders left in the world offering a vision that is distinct from mere survival instinct or domination or some mixture of the two. In the last decade we've seen the rise of multiple world-historical tyrants. Meanwhile, many major religions have lost all moral credibility due to continued decades of horrible violence. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it'd be nice to see some real, genuine world leadership from the Pope right now.
- A_D_E_P_T 6mo ago[flagged]
- hilariously 6mo agoWe didn't have nearly the prosperity gospel and doomsday cult of christians we have today in 2008 (or at least they were kept much more at bay instead of running the country)
- antinomicus 6mo agoThat last bit is false, you are conflating Zionism and Judaism. Plenty of non weird non colonizer non Zionist Jewish folks.
- monooso 6mo agoDisclaimers: atheist, no (informed) opinion regarding GP's comment. From my outside perspective, Israel's leadership appears to have spent years deliberately conflating Judaism and Zionism.
- NoGravitas 6mo agoThey have, but you don't need to let them get away with it.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- SilverElfin 6mo agoAnother weird thing is this religious group trying to exert control over the AI companies: https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TechisturningincreasinglytoreligioninaquesttocreateethicalAI/053a44133c64703f83fd50c9ee6124ea/text https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Techisturningincreasinglytore... Why are the AI companies meeting with them at all? Just seems uncomfortable and suspicious.
- ChrisArchitect 6mo agoWhy does this seem like it came out of a meeting where someone kept saying "how can we leverage AI?"
- zeckalpha 6mo agoNot at all. The Rerum Novarum timing is too intentional.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- losvedir 6mo agoEven more, the pope took his "Leo" name explicitly to indicate he would be doing this.
- sailfast 6mo agoThis is very much trying to create a consensus around what being human means and why it’s valuable in an age where it will be easy to dismiss the intrinsic value of a human. Probably a bit more important than a marketing stunt.
- cratermoon 6mo agoI wonder if the encyclical will incorporate material or take guidance from “Antiqua et nova”[1], the 2025 doctrinal note of the Catholic Church co-issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture. The Note addresses “the anthropological and ethical challenges raised by AI—issues that are particularly significant, as one of the goals of this technology is to imitate the human intelligence that designed it.” I sincerely hope it builds on it. [1] https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20250128_antiqua-et-nova_en.html https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/docu...
- ChrisArchitect 6mo agoTitle is: Pope's first encyclical on preserving the human person in AI age coming May 25
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- erelong 6mo agoMy expectations for the "encyclical": some kind of take on AI that poses as "conservative" while pushing views strongly opposed to Catholicism.
- SV_BubbleTime 6mo agoI did rather enjoy New Pope talking the horrors of deportations and walls… considering the Vatican has ultra-strict immigration and walls.
- Quillbert182 6mo agoWhile the Vatican does have walls, anyone can pretty much just walk on through them with perhaps a trip through a metal detector, so not sure what you mean. The Catholic Church also does not teach that there cannot be restrictions on immigration, it simply says that we should treat people with dignity while enforcing such restrictions.
- bonzini 6mo agoThat's a deep thought worth of x.com.
- ImJamal 6mo agoNeither Francis nor Leo (not sure which you mean by New Pope) have stated deportations or restrictions on immigration are wrong. Unfortunately, they are often taken out of context or do not provide clear statements which leads to confusion like you are experiencing.
- henry2023 6mo agoThankfully we have you to tells us what true Catholicism is like. Maybe the Pope could come learn a little bit from you.
- triceratops 6mo agoWhat does Catholicism have to do with "(American) conservative"? Some beliefs of Catholic faith are agreeable to American "conservatives" - "homosexuality bad, no abortion, no euthanasia". Others are music to the ears of American "liberals" - "help the poor and downtrodden, love the foreigner and everyone else, no capital punishment". But the church is the church. I don't see it as liberal or conservative. I suspect if you asked the pope, or cardinals or bishops, most would say the church is beyond such secular concerns and labels. It has been around for far longer than any political movement or country. And I'd bet good money that it outlasts all of them. > pushing views A religious leader espousing religious views? Shocker. > strongly opposed to Catholicism Literally wrong. Only the Pope can tell you what Catholicism is. You can take it or leave it but that's how it is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_supremacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_supremacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility
- nvader 6mo agoThis article needs to be retitled, as it stands it's misleading. Papal Encyclicals[0] are solely authored by the Pope, even if there has been secular scholarship involved in the writing. It is never "presented" by anyone else, and to frame it as presented primarily by Christopher Olah "alongside" the pope is to betray an ignorance of what's officially going on. Not sure how we arrived at the present title, "Anthropic co-founder to present AI encyclical alongside Pope Leo XIV", but it makes as much sense as "Iceberg nearly completes mainden voyage across Atlantic, with famous ship as passenger." [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical#Catholic_usage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical#Catholic_usage
- nnutter 6mo agoOn top of that, submissions are not supposed to modify titles. Original is "Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25".
- cucho 6mo ago> Not sure how we arrived at the present title It was me. Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that Chris Olah co-authored the encyclical with the Pope. I just found it noteworthy that there was someone from the “industry” at the encyclical presentation on May 25, which I think is a first. Usually, they are all clergy or academics.
- thrownthatway 6mo ago[flagged]
- nvader 6mo agoAh, I appreciate that. I agree with you that Chris Olah's presence might be noteworthy for this audience. It's just phrased a little unfortunately.
- colmmacc 6mo agoRelated: https://observer.com/2026/03/the-catholic-priest-who-helped-write-anthropics-ai-ethics-code/ https://observer.com/2026/03/the-catholic-priest-who-helped-... Chris Olah, one of Anthropic’s co-founders, got in touch. What followed was, by McGuire’s own description, mind-blowing. “They basically were asking for direct help from the Vatican to convene and help the industry, because the industry was going so fast down this road,” he recalled.
- nztaps123 6mo agoIt will be interesting to see how the Pope's more human centered view clashes with Anthropic's rhetoric around replacing humans with AI
- make3 6mo agoAnthropic is a bit like a grass-fed animal slaughterhouse, equally a threat to the existence of a middle class as OpenAI but with better branding
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- mvdtnz 6mo agoWho gives a shit what some religious fanatic is doing?
- bigstrat2003 6mo agoYou should welcome wisdom wherever it is to be found. Judge the document when it is available, not the source.
- moralestapia 6mo agoHmm, there’s probably a good reason for this, but it feels weird to involve people who are openly atheist and, moreover, against religion in an event like this. I hope it's some sort of covert invitation to convert/repent. The doors are always open for those who want to cross it :).
- 8bitsrule 6mo agoWe don't need popes or effing machines to tell us what we're doing wrong. We all already know that. What we do need is a lot more ordinary people to do something about it.
- aidenn0 6mo ago"Ordinary people" can be moved to action by moving statements from people they look to for leadership.
- Abh1Works 6mo agoCan someone explain to me what encyclical is, and what is it significance in the history of the Catholic Church?
- shannifin 6mo agoJust a letter from the pope, often about how Catholic teaching relates or applies to some modern issue. They present nothing new in terms of Catholic teaching itself, but, through the pope's authority, serve as important guidance for the faithful.
- bigstrat2003 6mo agoAnd honestly, even people outside the Catholic Church sometimes look to the pope for guidance on topics like this - see this very thread. The influence of the pope in the world isn't as strong as it once was, but he still has enough influence that he can do some good with it at times such as these. I think many are hoping for something on the level of Rerum Novarum - I know I am, though of course that's a very tough act to follow.
- aidenn0 6mo agoIt's an open letter from the pope. An encyclical will often clarify Church doctrine on a topic, or set of topics. See e.g. Humanae Vitae[1] for an example of one that has resulted in, essentially, a lay rebellion — at the time it was issued many clergy, including Bishops opposed it, but the Church itself has gradually become far more conservative (perhaps as a reaction to Vatican II) in the intervening years. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanae_vitae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanae_vitae
- arjie 6mo agoFairly disappointed that it’s not Amodei/Amor Dei there. A terrible blow for nominative determinism.
- boredhedgehog 6mo agoI wonder what language the encyclical was written in. Could it be the first one originally English?
- 1718627440 6mo agoThe name of an encyclical is the start of it. Does "Magnifica humanitas" sound like English to you?
- Antibabelic 6mo agoI think the parent comment is wondering if it was originally drafted in English and then translated to Latin.
- triceratops 6mo agoAren't popes generally fluent in Latin? Being mastermind theologians and all?
- rambambram 6mo agoPreaching to the choir.
- hypnodrones 6mo agoI greatly enjoyed Pope Francis thoughts on relationship with AI, looking forward to Pope Leo publication. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20250128_antiqua-et-nova_en.html https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/docu...
- andrepd 6mo agoInteresting document from last year. Still Francis papacy, but not written by the pope. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20250128_antiqua-et-nova_en.html https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/docu...
- foofyter 6mo agoPraise the lord! Finally we get a pope young people, even atheists love!
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- dolmen 6mo ago> Magnifica humanitas will be presented on the day of its release at 11:30 a.m. at the Vatican’s Synod Hall. > [...] > The Pope will be present, along with several speakers: > [...] > Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic (USA) and head of research on the interpretability of artificial intelligence [...]
- marviio 6mo agoTo get a sneak peak you could read Antiqua et nova from January last year. It focuses on the anthropology and also what sets human intelligence apart from simulated intelligence. Someone on HN wondered if that text could be the Magna Charta for the AI age.