At the A.I. Epicenter, Technologists Dismiss Pope Leo’s Warnings About the New Technology
The New York Times • • general
Key Points:
- Pope Leo XIV issued a 42,300-word open letter urging global protections against the rise of artificial intelligence, addressing the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics and emphasizing the need to safeguard humanity.
- Christopher Olah, co-founder of leading AI company Anthropic, joined the pope to symbolize the hoped-for dialogue between spiritual leaders and the tech industry on AI’s future.
- Jeremy Nixon, a prominent figure in the Bay Area AI community and co-founder of A.G.I. House, highlighted a fundamental disconnect between the pope’s humanist concerns about AI and the technologists’ optimistic vision of AI’s potential.
- Nixon noted that the differing perspectives between spiritual caution and technological ambition are longstanding and central to the AI community’s purpose, reflecting a deeper divide in how AI’s risks and possibilities are viewed.