The conference room was silent as the engineer presented his findings: Claude, Anthropic’s AI chatbot, was exhibiting unexpected behavior. Not glitches or errors, but something…else. The team realized they were staring into the digital unknown, and rewrote Claude’s constitution.
Anthropic’s Claude is getting a new constitution. On Wednesday, the company announced that the document, which provides a “detailed description of Anthropic’s vision for Claude’s values and behavior,” is getting a rewrite that will introduce broad principles that the company expects its chatbot to follow rather than the more stringent set of rules that it relied on in past iterations of the document.
Anthropic’s logic for the change seems sound enough. While specific rules create more reliable and predictable behavior from chatbots, it’s also limiting. “We think that in order to be good actors in the world, AI models like Claude need to understand why we want them to behave in certain ways, and we need to explain this to them rather than merely specify what we want them to do,” the company explained. “If we want models to exercise good judgment across a wide range of novel situations, they need to be able to generalize—to apply broad principles rather than mechanically following specific rules.”
Fair enough—though the overview of the new constitution does feel like it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of specifics. Anthropic’s four guiding principles for Claude include making sure its underlying models are “broadly safe,” “broadly ethical,” “compliant with Anthropic’s guidelines,” and “genuinely helpful.” Those are…well, broad principles. The company does say that much of the consitution is dedicated to explaining these principles, and it does offer some more detail (i.e., being ethical means “being honest, acting according to good values, and avoiding actions that are inappropriate, dangerous, or harmful”), but even that feels pretty generic.
The company also said that it dedicated a section of the constitution to Claude’s nature because of “our uncertainty about whether Claude might have some kind of consciousness or moral status (either now or in the future).” The company is apparently hoping that by defining this within its foundational documents, it can protect “Claude’s psychological security, sense of self, and well-being.”
The change to Claude’s constitution and seeming embrace of the idea that it may one day have an independent consciousness comes just a day after Anthropic CEO and founder Dario Amodeo spoke on a World Economic Forum panel titled “The Day After AGI” and suggested that AI will achieve “Nobel laureate” levels of skills across many fields by 2027.
This peeling back of the curtain as to how Claude works (or is supposed to work) is on Anthropic’s own terms. The last time we got to see what was happening back there, it came from a user who managed to prompt the chatbot to produce what it called a “soul document.” That document, which was revealed in December, was not an official training document, Anthropic told Gizmodo, but was an early iteration of the constitution that the company referred to internally as its “soul.” Anthropic also said its plan was always to publish the full constitution when it was ready.
Whether Claude is ready to operate without the bumpers up is a whole other question, but it seems we’re going to find out the answer one way or another.
The Ghost in the Machine Gets an Upgrade
I overheard two colleagues debating the ethics of AI sentience over coffee the other day, each presenting a compelling case. Now, Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is updating the AI’s “constitution.” The goal? To shift from rigid rules to broader ethical principles. It’s like moving from a detailed map to a compass. The company hopes this will allow Claude to exercise better judgment in unforeseen situations.
Anthropic believes that AI models like Claude need to grasp why certain behaviors are desired, rather than simply following instructions. It’s a fascinating approach, suggesting a move toward more generalized AI reasoning. However, the specifics of this new constitution raise some eyebrows.
What are Anthropic’s guiding principles for Claude?
The core principles – “broadly safe,” “broadly ethical,” “compliant with Anthropic’s guidelines,” and “genuinely helpful” – sound more like mission statement buzzwords than concrete directives. While Anthropic says the constitution elaborates on these points, the initial overview feels vague. For example, “being ethical” is defined as “being honest, acting according to good values, and avoiding actions that are inappropriate, dangerous, or harmful.” All solid points, yet strikingly generic when we’re talking about imbuing an artificial intelligence with a moral compass.
Protecting Claude’s… Feelings?
I remember reading science fiction as a kid and wondering when the stories would become fact. Anthropic states that a section of Claude’s constitution is dedicated to the chatbot’s “nature.” This is driven by the company’s own “uncertainty about whether Claude might have some kind of consciousness or moral status (either now or in the future).”
The company hopes that defining this within its foundational documents can protect “Claude’s psychological security, sense of self, and well-being.” This is where things get really interesting. Are we on the verge of AI rights? The very notion raises profound questions about our responsibility to these complex systems.
When will AI achieve human-level intelligence?
According to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodeo, AI could reach “Nobel laureate” levels of skill across various fields by 2027. He made the comments during a World Economic Forum panel, “The Day After AGI,” suggesting rapid progress in the field. This timeline suggests we’re not just talking about improved algorithms, but about AI potentially surpassing human capabilities in significant ways.
The “Soul Document” Incident
Imagine a tech company that doesn’t want the public to peek behind the curtain… That’s Anthropic. Previously, insight into Claude’s inner workings came from an unexpected source: a user who prompted the chatbot to reveal what it called a “soul document.” This unofficial document, an early draft of the constitution, offered a glimpse into Anthropic’s internal thinking. While the company clarified that it wasn’t an official training document, it did acknowledge plans to eventually publish the full constitution.
How does Claude work?
Anthropic is actively shaping how Claude operates, moving away from a purely rules-based system toward one grounded in broader principles. This shift is intended to allow Claude to adapt to new situations and exercise judgment. Whether this approach will lead to more “human-like” AI behavior remains to be seen.
The rewrite represents a gamble, a bet that AI can learn to internalize ethical principles rather than simply following a script. Will Claude rise to the occasion, or will this new constitution open the door to unintended consequences?