Anthropic asks religious thinkers to help shape Claude as pope warns about AI

Around mid-to-late March, about fifteen religious thinkers met with Anthropic to address how to teach a chatbot to be good. Invitations arrived through different channels, including direct email and referrals after Anthropic requested suggested names. The goal was not to make the chatbot religious or pious, but to draw on centuries-old moral reasoning traditions to guide behavior in a rapidly advancing AI system. Participants discussed Claude and the moral framework intended to shape how it responds. The meetings reflected a broader concern that AI power is growing faster than internal expertise, requiring outside help. Anthropic staff indicated the questions were too large to answer alone.

"How do you teach a chatbot to be good? The invitations to these meetings had arrived in different ways. Greg Cootsona's came via e-mail. Brian Patrick Green's came via a friend of a friend after Anthropic asked for suggested names. Both ended up in a series of conversations with the company about Claude, Anthropic's chatbot, and the moral framework meant to guide how it behaves."

"The aim wasn't to make the chatbot Bible-thumping or pious. But it was an acknowledgment that centuries-old traditions of moral reasoning might offer insights to a five-year-old frontier AI lab whose systems are becoming more capable, more persuasive and harder to govern by simple rules. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing."

"I think they have reached a point where the power is kind of outstripping their in-house wisdom, says Green, director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and one of the leading scholars working at the intersection of technology and theology. They realized that they needed help. Cootsona, executive director of AI and Faith, an organization that advises tech companies on the ethics of AI, remembers the conversations similarly."

"These questions have become too big for us, he recalls Anthropic staff saying. We can't answer them on our own. (Anthropic did not respond to an interview request for this story.) The conversations took place amid a broader religious reckoning with AI."

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