Altman criticizes ascribing religious power to AI models

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed discomfort with attributing religious power to AI models, calling it a safety issue. In a post on X, Altman stated he is 'very uncomfortable' with people trying to ascribe religious force or a surrender of human judgment to AI models. This stance highlights a growing divide between Altman and his former colleague Dario Amodei, whose company Anthropic has reportedly engaged religious leaders to explore moral and conscious AI development. Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah has been meeting with religious leaders to consider questions of model consciousness and how to infuse morals into AI. The debate over AI's spiritual implications has gained renewed attention, particularly following the pope's stance on whether models have souls and feelings. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic responded to requests for comment on Altman's post. The AI safety debate largely focuses on cybersecurity and bioweapons, but spirituality is now emerging as a significant point of contention.