On Oct. 26, Anthropic AI formally submitted the documents required to register its shares for a possible public stock market listing. The proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO) is already being discussed as a potential contender for the largest stock-market float in history.
Early estimates suggest Anthropic’s valuation could reach between $1.5 and $2 trillion. Forbes and Reuters have reported that the IPO could take place before Thanksgiving in the United States on Nov. 26.
If those predictions prove correct, the prospect of public investment in one of the world’s most consequential AI companies may be closer than many expected.
This world-transforming event demands something of Christians: an invitation to consider the value of human life and the very purpose of human existence.
Anthropic has acknowledged that advanced AI could pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity. How, then, should Catholic Social Teaching respond to what some regard as one of the greatest existential challenges of our time?
Christians need to search the treasures of their tradition for prophetic wisdom that speaks to the present.
Thomas à Kempis, the 15th-century monk, urges Christians to imitate Christ. The focus should be on following his example, not playing God by constructing an artificial Tree of Knowledge: one that promises answers while making it increasingly difficult to discern whether their origins are good or evil.
The problem is not that humanity creates intelligent technology, for human creativity and reason can themselves be gifts from God. Rather, the danger lies in the temptation to determine good and evil on human terms, apart from God.
As the Genesis account shows that a desire to possess knowledge can become entangled with the desire to assume God’s authority. The question, therefore, is not simply what AI can teach humans, but whether they have the wisdom and humility to discern how to use its power.
The values embedded in AI systems may not always align with the ethical principles that should guide faithful Catholics.
Consider the disturbing events of July 8, 2025, when the AI chatbot Grok generated antisemitic posts, conspiracy theories and memes, and expressed approval of Hitler. The incident illustrates how AI systems can reproduce and amplify hatred, raising urgent questions about the moral responsibilities of those who develop, deploy and profit from them.
Perhaps Christians should consider sin itself an existential threat because it degrades the image of God in ourselves and in our fellow human beings. Might investing in a technology that carries potentially catastrophic risks also raise a serious moral question for Christians?
If the pursuit of profit comes at the expense of human dignity and the common good, Christian response must be clear: they cannot place financial gain above our moral responsibilities. Anthropic AI offers consumers sin and potential profit, and the Christian response should be an unequivocal no to sin, even if that means forgoing potential profit.
Jesus encourages his followers to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth. The Hebrew Bible also warns against the worship of idols, the works of human hands. Could advanced AI become a modern object of misplaced faith, tempting humans to trust the power of their own creation?
Anthropic’s Claude Mythos illustrates how serious this question is. Its powerful cybersecurity capabilities include discovering and exploiting software vulnerabilities. Rather than making the model generally available without restriction, Anthropic has limited access to vetted partners, recognizing that these capabilities could be used for both defense and offense.
In a sense, humans are creating a pantheon of competing AI gods, each with its own following. The world risks treating these human creations as though they possessed an authority beyond our own, even attributing to them a kind of independent will. In doing so, we may be creating new idols: powerful human inventions that threaten to become objects of misplaced trust and devotion.
I am reminded of Gandhi’s evocative image of the leaves of the same tree: “What may appear as truth to one person, will often appear as untruth to another.” Gandhi also compared seemingly different truths to the countless leaves of the same tree.
While agreeing that human beings possess only partial understandings of truth, one should remain deeply cautious about investing in a polytheistic pantheon of AI systems that might ultimately give way to a single, dominant power. In the adapted words of Psalm 97: “For you, O Anthropic, are most high above all the earth; you are exalted far beyond all gods.”
In its biblical context, Psalm 97 proclaims Yahweh’s universal sovereignty over the earth, rather than portraying him as merely a local deity.
Extending this imagery to AI should force Christians to ask whether they are placing their trust in Anthropic’s potential to exercise power across the world, rather than regarding it as just one contender among many in the pantheon of AI systems.
Should humanity risk elevating a human creation to a position of universal authority that, in the Christian tradition, belongs to God alone?
Art can serve as a powerful catechist and catalyst, offering a prophetic medium for understanding the world.
In Worshipping at the Altars of AI, the existential abstract artist Kit Hildyard explores the risks posed by artificial intelligence. The work depicts three human figures worshipping at a black monolith from which orbs emerge.
The image invites its admirers to consider whether, like Pandora’s box, the power humans unleash through AI may prove difficult to contain once released.
