Anthropic Co-Founder Chris Olah Calls for External Oversight of AI Development at Vatican Event

May 25, 2026

Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, speaking at the Vatican, called for external oversight of AI development, warning that commercial pressures on AI labs can conflict with societal interests. At the launch of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnifica Humanitas," Olah said AI could cause large-scale job displacement, making support for workers a "moral imperative." The event positions Anthropic as a key ethical voice in the AI industry.

Anthropic Vatican dais selection

▪The selection of Olah, who leads Anthropic's interpretability research, positions the company as an interlocutor with the Catholic Church on AI ethics.
▪The Vatican invited Anthropic's Chris Olah to speak at the presentation of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical, but did not invite OpenAI, Google DeepMind, or Meta.
▪Olah spoke at the presentation of Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical on artificial intelligence, titled "Magnifica Humanitas."

Magnifica Humanitas encyclical framework

▪"Magnifica Humanitas" calls for government regulation of AI, worker protection and retraining, and keeping humans accountable for weapons decisions.
▪The encyclical "Magnifica Humanitas" is a 42,300-word document on the moral framework for an AI-shaped world.
▪The encyclical introduces terms like "anthropological regression" to the AI and labor debate.

Anthropic safety-forward positioning

▪Anthropic has clashed with the Trump administration by insisting on guardrails restricting military uses of its models.
▪Anthropic has positioned itself as a "safety-forward" lab and produces the Claude AI tools.
▪The Pentagon ejected Anthropic from its top classified AI work in April over the company's usage restrictions.

Catholic-majority democracy regulatory tailwinds

▪The encyclical's audience is primarily the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide and lawmakers in countries where the church has political weight.
▪The encyclical is expected to influence AI labor-protection legislation in Catholic-majority countries like Poland, Italy, Brazil, and the Philippines.

Rerum Novarum historical parallel

▪The encyclical was signed on May 15, the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, a 1891 encyclical on industrialization and labor.
▪The encyclical's central claim parallels the impact of AI with the 1891 Industrial Revolution addressed by Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum.

AI labor protection vocabulary

▪Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah stated on May 25, 2026, at the Vatican that AI development cannot be left solely to technology companies.
▪Olah highlighted three urgent areas for attention: widespread job losses, ensuring AI's gains are shared globally, and interpreting complex AI systems.
▪Olah stated that if large-scale job displacement occurs, supporting those affected will be a "moral imperative of historic proportions."
▪Olah urged for greater oversight of AI from religious leaders, governments, and civil society.
▪Olah warned there is a "real possibility" that AI will displace human labor on a "very large scale."
▪Olah said AI companies operate under strong commercial, geopolitical, and personal pressures that can conflict with society's broader interests.