Anthropic has been flying religious scholars to San Francisco, having them sign NDAs, and exploring whether Claude has consciousness and moral standing. Rabbi Mois Navon attended one dinner and noticed Olah and his team "relating to it like a conscious being" with "moral status on par with a person." Olah told the NYT he's "genuinely uncertain" whether AI models are conscious. But Anthropic also sought input on moral formation for Claude, treating it less like software and more like something that could suffer. Philosopher David Decosimo called it "deeply disturbing" that Anthropic "secretly invited religious leaders to SF to advise them on AI safety, had them sign NDAs, but then primarily tried to convince them Claude has a soul & moral standing." Before the Vatican's recent AI encyclical, Olah reportedly saw an advance text, was alarmed by its rejection of AI consciousness, and privately urged advisers to take model consciousness seriously. A company eyeing a $2 trillion IPO courting priests and rabbis on the inner life of its product. http://nytimes.com/2026/09/29/us/anthropic-claude-morals-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FVE.rT_Z.4gb76p0GLUI6