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Claude's new constitution

anthropic.com

31–40 of 743 posts

Re: Claude's new constitution

#31
When you read something like this it demands that you frame Claude in your mind as something on par with a human being which to me really indicates how antisocial these companies are.

Ofc it's in their financial interest to do this, since they're selling a replacement for human labor.

But still. This fucking thing predicts tokens. Using a 3b, 7b, or 22b sized model for a minute makes the ridiculousness of this anthropomorphization so painfully obvious.

Re: Claude's new constitution

#32

This has massive overlap with the extracted "soul document" from a month or two ago. See https://gist.github.com/Richard-Weiss/efe157692991535403bd7e... and I guess the previous discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46125184

Makes sense, Amanda Askell confirmed that the leaked soul document was legit and said they were planning to release it in full back when that came out: https://x.com/AmandaAskell/status/1995610567923695633

Re: Claude's new constitution

#33
> Sophisticated AIs are a genuinely new kind of entity...

Interesting that they've opted to double down on the term "entity" in at least a few places here.

I guess that's an usefully vague term, but definitely seems intentionally selected vs "assistant" or "model'. Likely meant to be neutral, but it does imply (or at least leave room for) a degree of agency/cohesiveness/individuation that the other terms lacked.

Re: Claude's new constitution

#34
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We use the constitution at various stages of the training process. This has grown out of training techniques we’ve been using since 2023, when we first began training Claude models using Constitutional AI. Our approach has evolved significantly since then, and the new constitution plays an even more central role in training. >Claude itself also uses the constitution to construct many kinds of synthetic training data…

Ah I see, the paper is much more helpful in understanding how this is actually used. Where did you find that linked? Maybe I'm grepping for the wrong thing but I don't see it linked from either the link posted here or the full constitution doc.

This article -> article on Constitutional AI -> The paper

Re: Claude's new constitution

#35
post #11

https://www.anthropic.com/constitution I just skimmed this but wtf. they actually act like its a person. I wanted to work for anthropic before but if the whole company is drinking this kind of koolaid I'm out. > We are not sure whether Claude is a moral patient, and if it is, what kind of weight its interests warrant. But we think the issue is live enough to warrant caution, which is reflected in our ongoing efforts…

Anthropic has always had a very strict culture fit interview which will probably go neither to your liking nor to theirs if you had interviewed, so I suspect this kind of voluntary opt-out is what they prefer. Saves both of you the time.

Re: Claude's new constitution

#36

> Sophisticated AIs are a genuinely new kind of entity... Interesting that they've opted to double down on the term "entity" in at least a few places here. I guess that's an usefully vague term, but definitely seems intentionally selected vs "assistant" or "model'. Likely meant to be neutral, but it does imply (or at least leave room for) a degree of agency/cohesiveness/individuation that the other terms lacked.

The "assistant" is a personality that the "entity" (or model) knows how to perform as, it's strictly a subset.

The best article on this topic is probably "the void". It's long, but it's worth reading: https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/785766737747574784/th...

Re: Claude's new constitution

#37
This is dripping in either dishonesty or psychosis and I'm not sure which. This statement:

> Sophisticated AIs are a genuinely new kind of entity, and the questions they raise bring us to the edge of existing scientific and philosophical understanding.

Is an example of either someone lying to promote LLMs as something they are not _or_ indicative of someone falling victim to the very information hazards they're trying to avoid.

Re: Claude's new constitution

#38
post #3

I don't understand what this is really about. Is this: - A) legal CYA: "see! we told the models to be good, and we even asked nicely!"? - B) marketing department rebrand of a system prompt - C) a PR stunt to suggest that the models are way more human-like than they actually are Really not sure what I'm even looking at. They say: "The constitution is a crucial part of our model training process, and its content direct…

Anthropic is run by true believers. It is what they say it is, whether or not you think it's important or meaningful.

Re: Claude's new constitution

#40
post #28

Wait until the moment they get a federal contract which mandates the AI must put the personal ideals of the president first. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/M-26-0...

LOL this doc is incredibly ironic. How does Trump feel about this part of the document? (1) Truth-seeking LLMs shall be truthful in responding to user prompts seeking factual information or analysis. LLMs shall prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity, and shall acknowledge uncertainty where reliable information is incomplete or contradictory.

Everyone always agrees that that truth-seeking is good. The only thing people disagree on is what is the truth. Trump presumably feels this is a good line but that the truth is that he's awesome. So he'd oppose any LLM that said he's not awesome because the truth (to him) is he's awesome.
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