Deirdre Bosa(@dee_bosa):One of the biggest questions in AI right now: how much autonomy and moral standing do we give increasingly capable systems? Anthropic is more open to models developing independent judgment, even potentially deserving rights or welfare consideration. Microsoft is taking the opposite view: AI stays subordinate to humans. "Anything that doesn’t serve humans or is not in human control is not worth doing"

2026.10.02 21:58

One of the biggest questions in AI right now: how much autonomy and moral standing do we give increasingly capable systems? Anthropic is more open to models developing independent judgment, even potentially deserving rights or welfare consideration. Microsoft is taking the opposite view: AI stays subordinate to humans. "Anything that doesn’t serve humans or is not in human control is not worth doing"

Christopher Hale@ChristopherHale

2026.10.02 13:21

NEW: According to a bombshell report in the New York Times, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah threatened to walk out of Pope Leo XIV’s AI encyclical launch in May because the pope rejected the idea that machines can be conscious. Olah’s team then privately lobbied the pope’s advisers “to take the possibility of model consciousness seriously.” Pope Leo XIV held firm. For months, Anthropic has wined and dined theologians and religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements, hoping they would bless the idea that Claude has moral standing.