Pope Leo XIV Sparks Anthropic Hiring Jokes as He and 1 Co-Founder Warn on AI

7 articles · Updated · Business Insider Africa · May 25

Pope Leo XIV’s Vatican appearance with Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah triggered online jokes that the new pontiff was joining the AI startup after the two shared a stage for a major AI address.
3 themes drove Olah’s warning: protecting the poor if AI displaces labor, ensuring chatbots do not harm human flourishing, and probing opaque model behavior that he said can appear “mysterious, even unsettling.”
Leo thanked Olah during the event and said the Vatican would work to “find a way for humanity” in the AI era, reinforcing overlap between Anthropic’s safety focus and the church’s call to keep AI “disarmed.”
The memes remained just that, but they landed because Anthropic is known for high-profile hires and because Amazon, Google and Meta are all courting the Vatican as AI policy influence widens.

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