I Am Retiring from Tech to Live Offline
Simon Willison's Weblog3d agoEthicsSimon Willison highlights Chad Whitacre’s decision to leave tech and Open Source, framed not as a forum threat but as concrete action. Whitacre describes wanting to become “AI Amish” or “Internet Amish,” moving toward an offline, analog life closer to 1980 than 1780. A previous post about using Claude Code with Opus 4.5 shows how agentic AI felt intoxicating and unsettling enough to push him away from technological accelerationism.
The Pope isn’t AGI-pilled
The Verge AI6d agoEthicsPope Leo XIV released Magnifica Humanitas, an encyclical warning that AI use is never purely technical when it affects people’s lives. The Verge frames the message as a rejection of AGI-centered tech optimism, focusing instead on rights, opportunity, status, and freedom. Anthropic’s cofounder appearing alongside him highlights the growing tension between AI industry leaders, ethics, and public accountability.
Anthropic Co-founder Speaks at Vatican on Pope Leo XIV’s AI Encyclical
INSIDE 硬塞 AI7d agoEthicsPope Leo XIV released Magnifica Humanitas, the Vatican’s first top-level document focused on AI. The encyclical centers on human dignity and calls on the AI industry to take ethics seriously and accept external oversight. Anthropic’s co-founder speaking at the Vatican highlights how AI governance is becoming a broader public, moral, and institutional issue beyond company self-regulation.
Corey Quinn on Anthropic's Influence on the Pope's AI Ethics Encyclical
Simon Willison's Weblog7d agoCommentaryCloud commentator Corey Quinn reacted to Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah's influence on the Pope's new AI ethics encyclical, 'Magnifica Humanitas'. Quinn joked that getting the Pope to canonize a product's technical limitations as a spiritual treatise is the ultimate lobbying feat. The commentary highlights the surreal intersection of AI safety advocacy, corporate branding, and global religious authority.