Anthropic's Olah says AI must be guided from outside Big Tech

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Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah, ahead of Pope Leo XIV's presentation of "Magnifica humanitas", his first encyclical, focused on the rise of artificial intelligence at the Vatican's Aula Nuova del Sinodo, May 25, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Leo XIV attends the presentation of "Magnifica humanitas", his first encyclical, focused on the rise of artificial intelligence, at the Vatican's Aula Nuova del Sinodo, May 25, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah and Cardinal Michael Czerny, ahead of Pope Leo XIV's presentation of "Magnifica humanitas", his first encyclical, focused on the rise of artificial intelligence at the Vatican's Aula Nuova del Sinodo, May 25, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

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VATICAN CITY, May 25 : Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah said on Monday that the development of artificial intelligence cannot be left solely to technology companies, urging greater oversight from religious leaders, governments and civil society.

Speaking in the Vatican at the presentation of Pope Leo's first encyclical on artificial intelligence, Olah said there was "a real possibility" that AI will displace human labor "at very large scale".

"If that happens, supporting those displaced will be a moral imperative of historic proportions," he said, sitting alongside the pope.

He added that companies like his operated under strong commercial, geopolitical and personal pressures that can be at odds with the broader interests of society.

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"Every frontier AI lab ... operates inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing," he said, adding that even well-intentioned researchers remain influenced by those forces.

Olah said this made outside scrutiny essential.

Source: Reuters

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