Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, September 21, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
What is transhumanism? Wikipedia offers the following definition (AI-assisted?):
It as an “intellectual and cultural movement that advocates using existing, emerging, and speculative technologies to enhance humans beyond current natural limitations, particularly by extending longevity and improving cognition, health, and well-being.”
“…beyond current natural limitations”. Could AI make people God-like?
Genesis 3:4-5 comes to mind where the first-known effort at reducing cognitive dissonance is directed at innocent Eve:
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Those who have worked (and played) with artificial intelligence (AI) have watched its advances to include processing speed and authoritativeness with awe. Some have even fallen under its spell after being praised for the brilliance of their humble questions and insights.
Which brings us to the news that “Silicon Valley insiders” are warning against leading AI-developer Anthropic’s “cult-like employees, culture, and devotion to its Artificial intelligence model.”
This according to the NY Post which quoted one “insider”:
Anthropic’s workforce have a quasi-religious relationship to its chatbot, Claude, with members of staff attending a “funeral” for one version, Claude 3 Sonnet, in San Francisco and allowing another model, Opus 3, to continue publishing essays after being “retired.”
Other whispers in the valley are that Anthropic employees have started worshipping Claude like an actual god.
“These people are treating AI as if it’s a human in disguise, with human motives, with human emotions, with some degree of consciousness, with intentions,” Pedro Domingos, a University of Washington professor who has known Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and its top engineers for years, warned . . . .
“When Anthropic hires people, same with [rivals] OpenAI, they really filter for like-minded people,” Domingos said. “It’s like a cult, right? They recruit the people who are most prone to the cult. It gives them very low turnover.”
Unlike established religious orders, cults and evangelical churches are inclined to spread the word with infectious fervor. Likewise, Anthropic has actually programmed its company operations and employees to go viral.
“As part of spreading its altruistic AI gospel, Anthropic announced a program in June to recruit an army of 1,000 young people, train them to use its Claude chatbot then embed them in nonprofit organizations,” according to the report. “The operation, called ‘Claude Corps,’ got a $150 million investment from Anthropic, placing workers at Goodwill Industries, YMCA of Charlotte, NC, and 400 other groups.’
Related: ‘Don’t be evil’? Google’s own AI confesses company driven by ‘transhumanist,’ ‘godless’ ideology, February 16, 2026
Anthropic sweetens the deal by paying embeds a salary of $85,000. In a similar program, students are offered $3,600 to be a Claude Campus Ambassador.
Meanwhile, the salaries of some 80 journalists working in legacy newsrooms are paid by Anthropic-enthused billionaires through the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism. “Such journalists are paid to report on the AI industry yet rarely investigate or criticize their backers, which include Anthropic, in any meaningful way,” the Post concluded.
“What a bunch of whores! That is not journalism,” a veteran news professional on the advisory board of the Free Press Foundation told WorldTribune.com
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Is AI a transhumanist cult? Claude worshiped as idol; Anthropic subsidizes 80 ‘journalists’ added by Editor One on
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