Latest / Connecting the Dots / The Vatican's AI Call, Big Tech's Lobbying, and Anthropic's Ethical Stance

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The Vatican's AI Call, Big Tech's Lobbying, and Anthropic's Ethical Stance · Connecting the Dots

0:00
Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
0:03
it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarfl Solutions
0:06
Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
0:09
break down what's happening in tech and why it
0:11
matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
0:14
hosts. The most powerful tech CEOs in the world
0:19
flying to Rome. Not to meet regulators, not to
0:23
pitch a new product, but to, you know, essentially
0:25
beg the Pope for his blessing on their algorithms.
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I mean, it sounds Completely bizarre when you
0:30
say it out loud. It really does but today we're
0:33
looking at why the giants of Silicon Valley are
0:35
suddenly terrified of the Vatican and What that
0:39
means for your digital life? I'm Alex and I'm
0:41
Morgan and it is Monday May 25 2026 Welcome and
0:47
thank you for joining us on Connecting the Dots,
0:50
broadcasting live from Snorful Solutions Group
0:52
in Sacramento, California. Yeah, it is fantastic
0:56
to be with you all this morning. We've got an
0:57
incredibly dense lineup today. But first, let's
1:00
take a quick look at what's happening outside
1:01
and over in the markets. Right. Let's get into
1:03
it. So if you're waking up with us here in Sacramento,
1:05
it is shaping up to be just a beautiful Memorial
1:07
Day. We are looking at mostly sunny skies, a
1:10
perfect 79 degrees Fahrenheit and just a light
1:13
breeze blowing six to 15 miles per hour. Definitely
1:17
enjoy that sunshine if you can. But do keep an
1:20
eye on the broader map if you're traveling today.
1:22
There are currently 372 active U .S. weather
1:25
alerts. Oh, wow. That's a lot. Yeah. And one
1:28
hundred and six of those are overland. So, you
1:30
know, definitely check weather .gov for the specifics
1:33
if you're hitting the road. Good call. And shifting
1:36
over to the financial side, we had a very solid
1:38
end to last week. Really good. The Dow closed
1:41
Friday up over 145 points, landing at a historic
1:44
50 ,579 .70. The S &P 500 also ticked up slightly,
1:49
closing at 7 ,473 .47. And for those of you tracking
1:53
crypto this Monday morning, Bitcoin is currently
1:56
trading at 77 ,253 .98. Honestly, not a bad way
2:00
to start the week. Not at all. And just a quick
2:03
nod to the sports fans out there. Great weekend
2:05
for Bay Area baseball. Both the SF Giants and
2:07
the Oakland Athletics picked up wins on Sunday.
2:09
Nice. And the Kings. The Kings, meanwhile, have
2:12
the weekend off to rest up. Which is frankly
2:14
exactly what we all need before jumping into
2:16
today's news. Absolutely. So our mission today
2:19
is to break down the massive structural shifts
2:22
happening in the tech world. Yeah, we aren't
2:23
just looking at the headlines here. We want to
2:26
figure out exactly how these massive geopolitical
2:28
and corporate chess moves are going to impact
2:31
you. your family, and your everyday working life.
2:34
Exactly. We are looking at the intersection of
2:37
exponential technology, global regulation, and
2:40
surprisingly, morality today. Let's unpack this.
2:44
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.com. All right, so to kick off our morning SCARD
3:05
tech report, we really have to talk about the
3:07
pressure cooker that is the artificial intelligence
3:09
industry right now. Oh, for sure. The sheer amount
3:11
of capital flowing into server farms, the geopolitical
3:14
arms race, the compute power. It's unprecedented.
3:17
It totally is. You know, I actually read this
3:19
bizarre breaking news snippet earlier today about
3:21
a literal tank that's building in temperature
3:24
and pressure. And officials were saying it might
3:26
actually explode unless a crack reduces the pressure.
3:29
Wait, a literal tank. A literal tank. But it
3:32
got me thinking. That is just the perfect metaphor
3:35
for the AI industry right now. The pressure is
3:37
building. And this morning, the Vatican just
3:39
provided the crack to release it. They absolutely
3:41
did. They dropped a document that fundamentally
3:43
challenges the entire architecture of the tech
3:46
industry. Yeah, Pope Leo IV has just released
3:49
his very first encyclical. It's titled Magnifica
3:53
Humanitas or Magnificent Humanity. And we really
3:57
need to pause here and establish who this pope
3:59
is because honestly it. explains so much about
4:03
this document. Right. Pope Leo IV is the first
4:06
U .S. born pope. He's a Chicago native. And crucially,
4:09
he has an advanced background in mathematics.
4:12
That is such a key detail. It is. He is not approaching
4:15
this from a place of technological ignorance.
4:17
He's not, you know, a Luddite who's just afraid
4:19
of computers. He is explicitly framing A .I.
4:23
as the new industrial revolution. Which is a
4:26
brilliant and very deliberate historical parallel.
4:29
I mean, he actually timed the release of this
4:30
doc. Right, to land on the anniversary. Exactly.
4:35
It lands right on the 135th anniversary of Pope
4:37
Leo III's 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum. And
4:41
if we go back to 1891, the Church was responding
4:44
to the brutal unchecked realities of the original
4:47
Industrial Revolution. Yeah, you had sweatshops.
4:50
child labor, incredibly dangerous factories.
4:53
A total lack of workers rights. And the church
4:56
stepped in to argue a radical idea for the time
4:59
that human dignity simply must come before industrial
5:02
output. And now this pope is attempting to do
5:04
the exact same thing for the digital age. Yeah.
5:07
But his central message is a really specific
5:10
call to disarm AI. Yes. And we need to be precise
5:15
about what he means there. He explicitly states
5:17
that disarming does not mean rejecting the technology.
5:20
He's not saying smash the servers? No, not at
5:22
all. It means freeing AI from the cutthroat mentality
5:24
of military and economic competition. He's warning
5:27
that, as it stands right now, AI is basically
5:30
just amplifying the power of a very small group
5:32
of wealthy individuals and tech monopoly. Allowing
5:35
them to monopolize data to steer global dynamics
5:37
entirely for their own advantage. He also goes
5:40
after some core philosophies that are basically
5:43
religion in Silicon Valley right now, specifically
5:46
transhumanism. Oh yeah, that's a huge point of
5:49
friction. For those who might not know, this
5:51
is the idea that human limitations, things like
5:53
aging, vulnerability, even death, are just engineering
5:57
problems to be solved. Right. The prevailing
5:59
ethos in tech is that progress means fundamentally
6:03
surpassing the human condition. And the Pope's
6:06
philosophical response to that is incredibly
6:08
sharp. It really is. He writes that humanity
6:11
flourishes not despite our limitations, but often
6:13
through them. Wow. Yeah. He argues that a life
6:17
entirely stripped of friction, engineered for
6:19
pure algorithmic efficiency, wouldn't actually
6:21
be a human life anymore. Because when we offload
6:24
all our friction and our decision -making to
6:26
machines, we lose our personal creativity. And
6:29
our moral judgment. We start treating humans
6:32
like cogs in a machine that's driven entirely
6:34
by algorithms. Now, he paired this forward -looking
6:38
warning with a deeply powerful look backward,
6:41
too. In the document, he issues a formal, sincere
6:44
apology for the Catholic Church's historical
6:47
delay in condemning the transatlantic slave trade.
6:50
He calls it a wound in Christian memory. But
6:53
he connects it directly to the present, warning
6:55
of new forms of slavery and a new face of colonialism
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that's driven entirely by the digital economy.
7:02
Yes. The phrase he uses is data colonialism.
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Data colonialism. Right. He argues that this
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new colonialism doesn't conquer physical territory.
7:10
It appropriates our behavior, our health flows,
7:13
demographic maps, genetic profiles. He actually
7:16
called these data points the new rare earths
7:19
of power. OK, I have to jump in here with a concrete
7:21
analogy because this The concept of data colonialism
7:24
can sound a little, you know, academic. Please
7:26
do. Think of everyday user data like a town sitting
7:29
on top of an undiscovered oil reservoir. Okay,
7:32
I'm with you. Free apps act like silent drolls.
7:35
The town, or in this case you, the listener,
7:37
thinks you are just getting a free playground,
7:39
a fun app to message your friends. Right, a free
7:41
keyboard or something. Exactly. But underneath,
7:44
your most valuable resource is being quietly
7:47
extracted packaged and sent offshore until the
7:51
ground caves in. That is the perfect way to look
7:54
at it. Let's break that down even further. So
7:56
when you download a free keyboard app, for example,
7:58
it might track the micro hesitations between
8:01
your keystrokes. And they aren't just doing that
8:03
to improve autocorrect. No, they're using those
8:06
micro hesitations to predict your likelihood
8:09
of developing early onset Parkinson's disease.
8:12
Wow. Then they package that predictive demographic
8:14
map and sell it to insurance brokers or advertisers.
8:17
That is exactly the rare earth extraction the
8:20
pope is warning about. So, if our personal data
8:23
is the new rare earths, are everyday families
8:26
unknowingly allowing themselves to be digitally
8:28
colonized just by using free apps? Precisely.
8:31
The encyclical argues that this isn't just a
8:33
clever business model, it is a profound moral
8:36
failure. Because it's an extraction of wealth
8:39
from the public, concentrated into the hands
8:41
of a few tech monopolies without our true understanding
8:44
or consent. Right, and the Pope is demanding
8:46
that the shared knowledge become a true common
8:49
good rather than an instrument of surveillance
8:51
and dominance. But wait, I have to push back
8:54
here. Why should Silicon Valley care about a
8:57
religious document? Well, I mean, Meta, Google,
9:01
Amazon, they answer to Wall Street shareholders,
9:03
not the Vatican. What actual legal teeth does
9:08
an encyclical have that would make these massive
9:10
tech giants sweat? It is a great question, and
9:14
it really comes down to the mechanics of international
9:16
law. Encyclicals don't just sit on a shelf in
9:19
a church. They shape global consciousness. And
9:22
more importantly, they provide the philosophical
9:24
scaffolding for national laws. So this is a pipeline
9:27
to real regulation. Exactly. Take Europe, for
9:29
instance. Catholic social teaching heavily influences
9:32
the Christian Democratic political parties across
9:35
Europe. And those parties are massive voting
9:37
blocks in the European Union Parliament. Right.
9:39
Sarah L. Harry, a French government official,
9:42
actually pointed this out. She noted that the
9:44
1891 encyclical heavily influenced how European
9:47
countries drafted their labor laws during the
9:50
Industrial Revolution. So modern lawmakers, especially
9:53
in the EU and Latin America, will absolutely
9:55
use this new document as the foundation for stringent
9:59
AI regulations. Big Tech knows that if the Pope
10:02
successfully brands their core business model
10:04
as digital colonialism, European regulators will
10:07
be absolutely thrilled to write the civil laws.
10:10
And massive fines. And massive fines that penalize
10:13
it. So when a moral authority prepares to drop
10:15
a rule book that could influence global regulations,
10:19
the corporate giants don't just sit back and
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wait. Let's look closer at what happened behind
10:24
the scenes. Yeah, because the secret meetings
10:26
that took place are just... Wild on April 29th
10:29
before this document even dropped executives
10:31
from Metta Google and Amazon held quiet meetings
10:35
with Vatican officials in Rome They were desperately
10:38
lobbying to position themselves as partners in
10:40
the ethical development of AI I just I can't
10:42
even imagine the culture clash in those meetings.
10:44
It must have been staggering Oh to be a fly on
10:46
the wall, right? You have Silicon Valley executives
10:49
whose entire legal and fiduciary mandate is to
10:53
maximize user engagement and data extraction
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to drive shareholder profit. Sitting in Vatican
10:58
offices trying to pitch responsible AI. It's
11:01
oil and water. The executives want self -regulation.
11:05
They want to draft voluntary ethical frameworks
11:07
that they themselves design. Which usually have
11:10
massive loopholes for their profit engines. Exactly.
11:13
But the encyclical explicitly shoots that down.
11:17
It states, and I quote, a more moral AI is not
11:20
enough if that morality is determined by a few.
11:23
The Vatican is fundamentally telling them that
11:26
the Fox cannot be in charge of building the ethical
11:28
henhouse. Right, because the Pope's stated priority
11:31
isn't quarterly earnings. It's the poor, the
11:33
marginalized, and global social justice. But
11:36
amidst all this friction, there is one tech company
11:38
that seemed to navigate this culture clash. brilliantly.
11:41
Yeah, let's connect the broader lobbying effort
11:44
to one specific company that successfully infiltrated
11:47
the Vatican's inner circle for the Encyclical's
11:49
launch. This is where the story takes just a
11:51
fascinating turn. This brings us to Anthropic.
11:54
The makers of the Claude AI. Exactly. While Meta
11:57
and Google were having quiet background meetings
11:59
weeks prior, Anthropic was literally on the stage
12:03
on launch day. Wait, really? Yes. Chris Ola,
12:06
one of the co -founders of Anthropic, was seated
12:08
right next to Pope Leo during the formal presentation
12:11
of the document at the Vatican's Synod Hall.
12:13
That is an unbelievable level of access. To have
12:16
a tech founder on stage for a papal encyclical
12:20
is unprecedented. How did he position himself?
12:22
He delivered a message you almost never hear
12:24
from a major tech founder. Ola publicly admitted
12:27
that Frontier AI labs, including his own, operate
12:30
inside a set of incentives that frequently conflict
12:33
with doing the right thing. He actually admitted
12:34
that. commercial pressure, geopolitical races,
12:37
sheer pride. Yep. He essentially told the room
12:40
that AI companies cannot be trusted to steer
12:42
this technology alone. He explicitly called for
12:45
outside oversight from religious groups, governments,
12:49
and civil society. Now, for you listening, we
12:51
really need to unpack the political and business
12:53
context surrounding Anthropic right now, because
12:56
this wasn't just a random act of altruism. No,
12:58
it is a highly strategic positioning. Right.
13:00
And just to lay out the facts here, with absolute
13:03
political neutrality, taking no sides between
13:06
any of the parties involved. Recently, Anthropic
13:09
lost highly classified Pentagon AI work. And
13:12
why was that? Because the company refused to
13:15
grant the military unrestricted access to its
13:17
technology. And following that, the Trump administration
13:21
actively blocked the expansion of an Anthropic
13:23
autonomous model known as Mythos. And we need
13:26
to look at the mechanics of why they clash with
13:28
the government. It's not just a polite disagreement.
13:31
Anthropic trains its models using something called
13:33
constitutional AI. Which is basically a set of
13:36
baked -in moral rules that guide the system's
13:39
behavior. Exactly. But the military often requires
13:42
a model that can bypass safety guardrails or
13:45
override ethical constraints in high -stakes
13:47
combat scenarios. And Anthropic's architecture
13:50
structurally prevents that override. So it is
13:52
a fundamental incompatibility with current defense
13:55
procurement demands. And like we said, the Pentagon
13:58
has its operational requirements, the Trump administration
14:00
has its national security directives, and Anthropic
14:03
has its internal safety protocols. We're just
14:05
reporting the landscape. But the Pope's document
14:08
drops right into the middle of this exact tension.
14:11
It does. The encyclical explicitly calls for
14:15
AI to be removed from military competition. It
14:19
states categorically that lethal action must
14:21
always remain with human beings, never machines.
14:26
So by sitting next to the pope and inviting this
14:28
specific type of external regulation, Anthropic
14:31
is executing a strategic masterstroke. They are
14:34
separating themselves from the rest of big tech.
14:36
Essentially saying, we are the responsible adults
14:39
in the room. Our constitutional AI aligns with
14:42
your moral framework. But Morgan, let's elevate
14:44
this for a second because this is where the business
14:46
paradox becomes glaring. Isn't it fascinating
14:49
that Anthropic, while locked in disputes with
14:52
the U .S. government, is actively trying to raise
14:55
$30 billion at a $900 billion valuation? It's
15:00
wild. You do not raise a trillion dollar valuation
15:02
without promising astronomical returns to your
15:04
investors. You really don't. So how do they reconcile
15:07
that growth mandate while simultaneously locking
15:09
themselves out of the most lucrative government
15:11
defense contracts by embracing Vatican ethics?
15:14
That is the trillion dollar question. And it's
15:17
a structural paradox at the heart of their business.
15:19
They are embracing the Vatican's moral framework
15:22
publicly, which limits their total addressable
15:24
market in the defense sector, while still being
15:27
entirely beholden to the financial gravity of
15:30
Silicon Valley venture capital. There's immense
15:32
inherent tension there. And the real world impact
15:36
of what Anthropic is building, regardless of
15:38
their ethics, is massive. Oh, absolutely. During
15:41
his remarks at the Vatican, Ola plainly admitted
15:43
that there is a real possibility AI will displace
15:46
human labor at a massive scale. Not just shift
15:49
jobs around, but displace them entirely. Right.
15:52
He said supporting those displaced workers will
15:54
be a moral imperative of historic proportions.
15:57
That is a staggering admission from someone building
15:59
the technology. tech leaders rely on the comfortable
16:03
talking point that AI will simply augment human
16:05
workers and magically create new, better jobs.
16:09
But Ola is admitting out loud that the technology
16:11
they are actively deploying could hollow out
16:13
the labor market significantly faster than our
16:15
current society can adapt. Which brings us right
16:17
back to why the Pope issued this encyclical on
16:21
the exact anniversary of a historical document
16:23
about workers' rights. The POTE is sounding the
16:26
alarm that we cannot simply force working families
16:28
to adapt to the blistering speed of autonomous
16:31
machines. The machines and the economic systems
16:35
around them must be designed from the ground
16:37
up to support the dignity of the human worker.
16:40
If the underlying goal of a corporate AI system
16:43
is to replace a human being simply because the
16:45
machine is cheaper and more efficient. That is
16:48
fundamentally at odds with the message that human
16:50
labor has intrinsic dignity and value. It really
16:53
exposes the massive fault lines developing beneath
16:56
our modern economy. Before we wrap up, a quick
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17:04
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.com. So synthesizing everything we've looked
17:11
at today, we followed a fascinating, really complex
17:14
through line. We really have. We started with
17:17
a historic papal decree demanding that human
17:19
dignity, not algorithms or efficiency metrics,
17:23
dictate our future. Then we saw the mechanics
17:25
of how the biggest tech monopolies secretly lobbied
17:28
the Vatican, terrified that this moral framework
17:32
will inevitably bleed into strict European laws
17:35
that threaten their data empires. And finally,
17:38
we watched Anthropic pull off a brilliant, if
17:41
deeply paradoxical maneuver to claim the moral
17:44
high ground. right next to the Pope, even as
17:47
they chase a nearly trillion dollar valuation.
17:50
The overarching theme binding all of this together
17:52
is power. Who holds it, who is designing the
17:55
rules, and whether the technology we interact
17:57
with every single day is actually serving us,
17:59
or if we are unwittingly serving it. Exactly.
18:03
The Pope is urging all of us, not just lawmakers
18:05
and CEOs, but everyday users to wake up and demand
18:08
transparency and fairness in the digital world.
18:11
It's a huge wake up call. It is, which brings
18:13
me to a final thought for you to carry into your
18:15
day. In the encyclical, the pope uses a vivid
18:18
biblical analogy that I just haven't been able
18:20
to stop thinking about. Oh, the Tower of Babel
18:22
one. Yeah. He compares the unchecked prideful
18:24
development of AI, the race for dominance at
18:27
the expense of the marginalized, to the construction
18:29
of the Tower of Babel. All right. It was a project
18:32
of homogenization and elite dominance that ultimately
18:35
scattered and fractured humanity. He contrasts
18:38
that with the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the
18:41
walls of Jerusalem, which was a project based
18:43
on shared community, listening and shared responsibility.
18:47
That's a really powerful image. So as you log
18:50
into your devices, as you use your apps and,
18:53
you know, just go about your work today, ask
18:54
yourself, are the digital systems you rely on
18:58
contributing to a new Tower of Babel? ruled by
19:00
opaque algorithms and tech monopolies extracting
19:03
your data? Or are they tools helping you rebuild
19:06
a digital Jerusalem grounded in real human connection
19:08
and dignity? We're here to help at Snarful, so
19:11
reach out on our website if you have any more
19:12
questions. That's a wrap on today's top stories.
19:19
Remember, tech doesn't have to be complicated
19:21
and we're here to help connect the dots. If you've
19:24
got questions or want to learn more, visit us
19:27
at snarful .com. Thanks for listening and we'll
19:30
catch you next time.