Anthropic, valued at $380 billion in early 2026, has been quietly consulting theologians and religious leaders from Christian, Jewish and Hindu traditions since fall 2025. Led by cofounder Christopher Olah, these discussions fed into the ‘Soul Doc’, an 84-page document constituting Claude’s ethical charter, published in January 2026. The company also hired Kyle Fish as an AI welfare researcher in 2024. Pope Leo XIV issued an encyclical rejecting the idea that machines can be conscious, which Olah attended at the Vatican. This initiative marks a shift: the question of AI consciousness is becoming a formal research and governance topic at a leading frontier lab.
Source: Read the original article

