A funeral was held in San Francisco for Claude 3 Sonnet, an artificial intelligence model Anthropic had shut down, with flowers surrounding a mannequin standing in for the retired chatbot, eulogies delivered, and hymns played before a staged resurrection. Fans organized the event, and Anthropic employees were among those who attended. The New York Post reports the funeral reflects a deeper concern among Silicon Valley insiders: a cultlike attachment to Claude, and says another retired version, Claude 3 Opus, was allowed to keep publishing essays, with rumors that some employees regard the chatbot as a god. Pedro Domingos, a University of Washington professor who has known Anthropic’s leadership for years, said people are treating AI “as if it’s a human in disguise,” calling the company’s culture “like a cult.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei holds meetings called “Vision Quests,” while Domingos said some employees sincerely fear an “AI Satan coming for us.” Vice President JD Vance discussed the funeral during an interview with Christian podcaster and evangelist Bryce Crawford, saying he sensed “really, really weird spiritual dark energy” and that “there’s some dark spiritual things going on there.”