Swami Sarvapriyananda, who was invited to Anthropic’s San Francisco event after a brief online chat with the company’s team, signed a non‑disclosure agreement that barred him from disclosing specifics.
The agreement, signed in early May, was intended to keep the discussion on AI ethics confidential, yet it allowed the monk to share his experience with the press after the summit ended.
When the New York Times released its story on May 29, it highlighted representatives from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism but omitted Sarvapriyananda’s name entirely, despite his presence at the table.
The omission ignited a firestorm on Indian news sites, where the monk was portrayed as the lone Hindu voice at the gathering, and the story went viral across social media.
During a midnight session, Sarvapriyananda asked Anthropic’s chatbot Claude about humanity; Claude replied, “Very interesting and spooky,” a comment the monk later shared with the press.
Anthropic’s co‑founder Christopher Olah and philosopher Amanda Askell reportedly expressed interest in the monk’s insights, and Sarvapriyananda expects the Times to issue a correction before the next round of coverage.