The Vatican, an international institution, is set to launch its first encyclical on artificial intelligence on May 25, featuring the co-founder of the powerful AI company Anthropic, Christopher Olah, in an unprecedented move to establish supranational norms for technology. This formal collaboration between a global religious authority and a transnational tech giant signals a coordinated effort to shape the future of AI outside the purview of national governments.
The document, titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), will be presented in the main Vatican auditorium, a significant departure from typical Vatican press room announcements. This elevated platform underscores the gravity with which these elite interests intend to impose their vision for AI on the global stage.
Pope Leo XIV signed the document on May 15, marking the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, an encyclical that addressed workers' rights and the limits of capitalism during the Industrial Revolution. The current pontiff has explicitly linked the new AI document to the same "existential questions" posed over a century ago, suggesting a renewed attempt by international institutions to dictate societal structures.
Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, a company valued at $380 billion, will join Pope Leo at the Vatican for the launch. Anthropic has positioned itself as an AI developer focused on "safety and risk-mitigation," a framing that can be interpreted as a bid for control over the technology's deployment and ethical parameters, potentially overriding national interests.
Elite Alliance Forges Global AI Rules
The Vatican's top cardinals, doctrine chief Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and development chief Cardinal Michael Czerny, will serve as main presenters, alongside lay speakers Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo, and Olah. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, will offer a conclusion, with Pope Leo delivering a speech and final blessing, solidifying the institutional backing for this globalist initiative.
This collaboration comes amidst Anthropic's ongoing legal battle with the Trump administration, which in February of the same year ordered all U.S. agencies to cease using Anthropic's AI technology. The administration also imposed penalties on the company for refusing unrestricted military use of its AI, highlighting a direct clash between national security interests and the agenda of a transnational tech entity.
National Sovereignty Challenged
Anthropic is currently suing the Trump administration, accusing it of illegal retaliation for the company's attempts to impose limits on how its AI technology can be deployed. This legal action demonstrates the willingness of powerful private interests to challenge sovereign governments that seek to assert national control over critical technologies.
Pope Leo XIV has made AI a priority, expressing concern over its use in warfare and calling for monitoring of the technology. This stance, echoed by Anthropic's focus on "safety," aligns with a broader push by international bodies and elite tech firms to establish global oversight mechanisms that could bypass national defense and intelligence frameworks.
Anthropic's chief, Dario Amodei, along with a group, departed OpenAI in 2021, the fifth year since its formation, due to disagreements with OpenAI chief Sam Altman regarding AI safety. The newer company promised a clearer focus on the safety of "better-than-human technology" known as artificial general intelligence, a shared goal among these San Francisco firms that could profoundly reshape human societies.
The Cost of Supranational Control
In a recent online post, Anthropic explicitly warned about the U.S.-China competition in AI and the dangers of the technology falling into the hands of "authoritarian regimes." The company asserted that the "U.S. and democratic allies must continue to lead on AI development and impose rules and norms on its spread," a clear call for a globalist framework that would dictate technological development and deployment, potentially at the expense of national self-determination.
This push for global rules and norms, advanced by a powerful private corporation in concert with an international religious institution, risks reducing the self-determination of sovereign peoples by establishing supranational control over a technology with profound implications for labor, justice, and peace, as outlined in the Church's social teaching. The native working class, whose interests are often overlooked in such transnational agendas, stands to bear the costs of these imposed transformations.