Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind Claude, has been consulting religious scholars, philosophers and ethicists as it explores questions surrounding AI behaviour, morality and consciousness. Among those consulted was Hindu monk Swami Sarvapriyananda, who visited Anthropic’s San Francisco headquarters for discussions about ethics and the development of Claude. Anthropic has confirmed that it has been holding dialogues with scholars and practitioners from more than 15 religious and cross-cultural traditions.

According to Sarvapriyananda, Anthropic initially approached him for an online conversation before inviting him to its headquarters. He has described meeting people from different religious traditions as well as professionals working in areas such as mental health. Specific details of his discussions with the company remain private because he said they were conducted under a non-disclosure agreement. Reports about the meetings have drawn attention to the company's broader effort to bring perspectives beyond computer science into discussions about advanced AI.

Anthropic said its outreach is intended to broaden the conversation around frontier AI rather than align Claude with any single religious worldview. The company said it has been engaging scholars, clergy, philosophers and ethicists to understand how different traditions approach questions such as character, values and moral decision-making. It said these discussions are meant to provide a range of perspectives, including religious, secular and philosophical viewpoints, as it works on the behaviour and values of its models.

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The discussions also intersect with questions about whether increasingly sophisticated AI systems could possess consciousness or have some form of moral status. Anthropic's 2026 Claude Constitution explicitly says the company remains uncertain about whether Claude might have consciousness or moral status, either now or in the future. The document says these questions are serious enough to warrant consideration while acknowledging that the scientific and philosophical issues remain unresolved.

Sarvapriyananda, who leads the Vedanta Society of New York and is part of the Ramakrishna Order, is known for explaining Advaita Vedanta through lectures and digital platforms. His participation therefore brought a Vedanta perspective into Anthropic's wider discussions about ethics, values and the nature of consciousness. The outreach reflects a broader attempt by the company to examine AI development through multiple intellectual and cultural traditions rather than relying solely on technical approaches.

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