Peter Thiel Called the Pope a Communist. He Also Came for Anthropic. This Is What AI Looks Like Now.

When a technology becomes a political weapon, everyone becomes the enemy.

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I’ve been writing about Anthropic since February.

Pentagon blacklists. Court injunctions. Treasury emergency meetings. Export controls with 90-minute deadlines. Eight parts. Hundreds of comments.

I thought I’d seen the wildest version of this story.

Then Peter Thiel stood at the Aspen Ideas Festival on July 2 and called the Pope a Chinese communist.

In the same speech, he said Anthropic — the company I’ve been tracking all year — would rig the 2028 elections for the Democrats.

The audience laughed.

I didn’t know what to do.

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Here’s what actually happened.

In May, Pope Leo XIV — the first American pope — released his first major encyclical. 42,000 words. The document called for AI to be “disarmed” and demanded robust international regulation. He warned about dehumanization, job displacement, warfare. Real concerns. Serious document.

Thiel’s response at Aspen: because Americans might actually listen to the Pope and China won’t, the encyclical only slows down one side of the AI race. Therefore — in his own words — Leo is “working for the Chinese Communists.”

The Vatican did not respond to requests for comment.

Then Thiel went further. He called Anthropic “a woke liberal company” that is “winning the AI race” — and suggested, without evidence, that they could use that position to influence the 2028 elections.

No proof offered. No pushback from the stage. Just laughter from a wealthy festival audience in Colorado.

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Here’s the pattern I keep seeing and can’t shake.

When Dario warned about dangerous AI capabilities — fear-monger. Working against America.

When the Pope warns about dangerous AI capabilities — Chinese communist agent.

When Fable 5 gets too powerful — government shuts it down globally.

When Chinese models match those same capabilities — silence.

Everyone who asks a moral question about AI ends up, in Thiel’s framing, working for something sinister. Regulators. Environmentalists. The Pope. Anthropic apparently. Anyone who isn’t accelerating at full speed is the enemy.

This isn’t a technology argument anymore.

AI has become a political weapon. And once something becomes a political weapon the actual conversation — about safety, about who benefits, about what we’re building toward — gets impossible to have.

Last week I posted about this double standard on X. Got called dumb. Muted twice.

Thiel said the same thing to a room full of billionaires and got laughs.

Same energy. Different stage.

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If this is making you think — share it. This conversation matters.

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I don’t know what Thiel actually believes versus what he performs for festival audiences.

What I know is this — the moment you frame every call for restraint as enemy action, you’ve made it impossible to have the conversation we actually need to have.

The Pope isn’t a communist. Anthropic isn’t rigging elections. And the people asking hard questions about AI aren’t working for China.

They’re just asking hard questions.

That used to be considered a good thing.

So here’s where I land after eight months tracking this story:

Who do you trust to make the real decisions about AI — the government that banned Fable 5 with 90 minutes notice, the billionaires calling the Pope a communist, or the researchers who keep getting called fear-mongers for pointing out what’s actually in the models?

Drop it in the comments. I’ll read every one.

— Alex, MBM