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Altman calls religious framing of AI a safety issue

OpenAI’s chief says treating AI models as objects of faith, or deferring to them, is a risk, days after a report on Anthropic’s work with religious scholars.

By Alexandre S. , 05:40 UTC

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman wrote on X on Saturday 3 October 2026 that treating AI models as religious authorities, or deferring to them in place of human judgement, troubles him, and called it “a real safety issue”, OfficeChai reports. He named no company or person.

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Drawn by adtestbench from Sam Altman Says He's Uncomfortable With People Trying To Ascribe Religious Force To AI Models,

OfficeChai links the post to a New York Times report of 29 September on Anthropic’s consultations with religious scholars about how Claude should behave, and Crypto Briefing reads it as aimed at Anthropic. That report, as OfficeChai summarises it, covers Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah speaking at the Vatican’s May event for Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI, a document that rules out machine consciousness. Anthropic, for its part, calls Claude’s moral status an open question and studies it.

The Decoder contrasts the post with how Altman described OpenAI’s goal in 2023 and 2024, and notes that both OpenAI and Anthropic have met religious leaders for ethical advice.

For anyone choosing between the two labs’ assistants, Altman’s post and Anthropic’s stated view of Claude differ on what a model is: Altman warns against treating it as an authority, and Anthropic calls its moral status an open question.

Sources

  1. OfficeChai: Sam Altman Says He’s Uncomfortable With People Trying To Ascribe Religious Force To AI Models. Checked
  2. Crypto Briefing: Sam Altman warns against giving AI models religious status. Checked
  3. The Decoder: Apparently, OpenAI isn’t trying to build ‘magic intelligence in the sky’ anymore. Checked

Alexandre S.

Alexandre S. is a creative ad strategist and copywriter with ten years' experience in digital marketing across multiple channels.

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