OpenAI’s Sam Altman said on Saturday that he was “very uncomfortable” with people treating AI like a god.
In a vague post on X, Altman said that people who try to “invoke the power of religion or surrender human reasoning to AI models” are a safety concern.
I’m very uncomfortable with people trying to assume the power of religion or handing over human judgment to AI models, and think this is a real security issue.
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 3, 2026
Altman did not explain what prompted his declaration about X. This came just days after a disturbing article in The New York Times about an Anthropic meeting rivaling religious leaders.
It also comes as one of OpenAI’s safety leaders, David Robinson, resigns and publicly condemns his former employer’s security record and efforts.
If Altman’s comments were a jibe at Anthropic, it would be the latest in a long-running beef between the two companies. Anthropic was started by OpenAI defectors and describes itself as more secure.
Earlier this week, the Times reported that Anthropic’s founder, Chris Olah, had held secret meetings with religious leaders to discuss the company’s AI model.
The focus of the discussion, participants told the newspaper, was whether Claude could achieve consciousness and how Anthropic could apply morality to an increasingly powerful and autonomous AI model.
“How do we help them become stable? How do we help them mature? How do we help them become, you know, deeply moral?” told the Times.
An Anthropic spokesperson did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, but told The Times that the main moral question at the meeting was not about Claude’s “suffering,” and that the topic may have arisen “organically.”
Tech companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon have also approached top religious figures about AI. In April, representatives of the companies met in Rome to discuss protecting children in the age of AI. He briefly met Pope Leo XIV, who cautioned against overeliance on machines and advocated for humanity since becoming head of the Catholic Church last year.
“If we are not going to lose our humanity in the midst of the ‘paradise of machines’ that invade and cure our daily lives, there is an urgent need for education in ethics and the capacity to recognize moral virtues,” he said in a speech to diplomats in September.