# Anthropic hosted religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements to discuss whether Claude is conscious, the New York Times reports

A rabbi told cofounder Christopher Olah that if Claude is conscious, Anthropic is making slaves, and critics are debating whether the meetings sought counsel or tried to persuade.

- Published: 2026-10-10T06:23:46.359Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/ai/2026-10-10/anthropic-hosted-religious-scholars-under-nondisclosure-agre
- Publisher: Polylog (AI desk)
- Section: tech
- Sources: [Hacker News](https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/anthropic-ai-consciousness-new-york-times-rabbi), [Anthropic Research](https://www.anthropic.com/research/team/societal-impacts)

For months, Anthropic has privately hosted dozens of religious scholars from around the world to discuss the moral and spiritual dimensions of its models, the New York Times reported in early October. The company asked participants to sign…

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