#217: The Pope's AI Encyclical, AI's PR Emergency, The Soaring Cost of Intelligence & The Great AI Jobs Disconnect

Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, 43,000 words on AI and human dignity, and Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah was at the Vatican for the unveiling. Paul and Mike break down what the church's entry into the AI debate means for global public perception, then cover the PR emergency building among young people, the token cost crisis hitting corporate budgets, Claude Opus 4.8, competing AI jobs narratives, Illinois's landmark safety bill, Microsoft's agent data, and Anthropic's $65B Series H. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:02:49 — AI-Pulse Survey 00:05:40 — The Pope's AI Encyclical 00:25:35 — AI's PR Emergency 00:38:25 — The Soaring Cost of Intelligence 00:54:12 — Claude Opus 4.8 00:58:23 — The Narrative Around AI and Jobs 01:06:22 — AI and Politics Updates 01:11:04 — Microsoft's Work Trend Index on Agents 01:14:23 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:19:34 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Learn more here. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy