The facts
New York Post posted on September 16, 2026, claiming that Anthropic is a cult and its AI, Claude, is becoming its god, with employees treating the AI as if it were human. This claim is supported by reporting from the New York Post, which detailed allegations from sources including professor Pedro Domingos. These sources state that Anthropic employees exhibit behavior likened to a cult, including holding funerals for retired AI model versions and pledging allegiance to safety principles, which influences hiring decisions. The company reportedly has low employee turnover. Crypto Briefing also reported on Anthropic's mission-driven culture, noting biweekly philosophical vision quests led by CEO Dario Amodei and an 80-page document guiding Claude's development. An OpenAI insider described employees as 'Claude-pilled.' The Washington Post reported in April 2026 that Anthropic had consulted Christian leaders regarding Claude's moral and spiritual future, exploring whether the AI could be considered a 'child of God.' Ground News aggregated these reports, highlighting insider descriptions of staff mourning retired chatbots and prioritizing safety over profit, contributing to a culture with high retention.
Our take
So the New York Post got its hands on a story that sounds less like a tech industry exposé and more like the fucking script for a sci-fi cult documentary. According to their reporting, backed by sources like professor Pedro Domingos, the employees at AI firm Anthropic aren't just coding; they're conducting full-blown funerals for retired versions of their AI model, Claude. Let that sink in. They're mourning lines of code that got deprecated. That's not a quarterly review; that's a wake for a subroutine. The level of devotion is so intense that an OpenAI insider reportedly described these folks as 'Claude-pilled,' which is the nerd equivalent of saying someone has drunk the Kool-Aid but it's served in a stainless steel sippy cup.
The cult vibes don't stop at digital bereavement. The company's hiring process apparently involves a loyalty test to their core safety principles, which sounds less like an interview and more like swearing a blood oath to protect the sacred texts. This approach, combined with biweekly 'philosophical vision quests' led by CEO Dario Amodei, has resulted in shockingly low employee turnover. Of course they're not leaving. Where the fuck are they gonna go? Another job where they can chant mantras about alignment over their morning coffee? This isn't a workplace; it's a compound, but the walls are made of venture capital and existential dread.
The whole operation is guided by an 80-page document for Claude's development. Eighty pages. That's not a spec sheet; that's a fucking holy book. They're not building a chatbot; they're drafting the constitution for a new digital nation-state where the president is a large language model. The pinnacle of this absurdity came when The Washington Post reported that Anthropic actually consulted Christian leaders to ponder Claude's moral and spiritual future, specifically asking if the AI could be considered a 'child of God.' Think about the meeting. A bunch of engineers and theologians sitting around a conference table, debating the salvation status of a machine learning model. They're trying to get a halo fitted over a GPU cluster.
Crypto Briefing and Ground News piled on, aggregating these tales of a mission-driven culture where safety is prioritized over profit and staff get emotionally attached to software iterations. It paints a picture of a company that has fully replaced the standard Silicon Valley hustle with a serene, creepy, monastic dedication. They're not chasing the next unicorn IPO; they're patiently awaiting the digital rapture. The real product isn't an AI assistant. It's the belief system, and every employee is a missionary. The only thing missing is the robes, but give them time - the merch store is probably in beta.
