I guess this is Anthropic's "don't be evil" moment, but it has about as much (actually much less) weight then when it was Google's motto. There is always an implicit "...for now". No business is every going to maintain any "goodness" for long, especially once shareholders get involved. This is a role for regulation, no matter how Anthropic tries to delay it.
Claude's new constitution
181–190 of 743 posts
Re: Claude's new constitution
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This rejects any fixed, universal moral standards uh did you have a counter proposal? i have a feeling i'm going to prefer claude's approach...
If you are a moral relativist, as I suspect most HN readers are, then nothing I propose will satisfy you because we disagree philosophically on a fundamental ethics question: are there moral absolutes? If we could agree on that, then we could have a conversation about which of the absolutes are worthy of inclusion, in which case, the Ten Commandments would be a great starting point (not all but some).
Re: Claude's new constitution
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW, I'm one of those who holds to moral absolutes grounded in objective truth - but I think that practically, this nets out to "genuine care and ethical motivation combined with the practical wisdom to apply this skillfully in real situations". At the very least, I don't think that you're gonna get better in this culture. Let's say that you and I disagree about, I dunno, abortion, or premarital sex, and we don't sh…
This is self-contradictory because true moral absolutes are unchanging and not contingent on which view best displays "care" or "wisdom" in a given debate or cultural context. If disagreements on abortion or premarital sex reduce to subjective judgments of "practical wisdom" without a transcendent standard, you've already abandoned absolutes for pragmatic relativism. History has demonstrated the deadly consequences o…
Re: Claude's new constitution
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
objective truth moral absolutes I wish you much luck on linking those two. A well written book on such a topic would likely make you rich indeed. This rejects any fixed, universal moral standards That's probably because we have yet to discover any universal moral standards.
> That's probably because we have yet to discover any universal moral standards. When is it OK to rape and murder a 1 year old child? Congratulations. You just observed a universal moral standard in motion. Any argument other than "never" would be atrocious.
Re: Claude's new constitution
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would be far more terrified of an absolutist AI then a relativist one. Change is the only constant, even if glacial.
Change is the only constant? When is it or has it ever been morally acceptable to rape and murder an innocent one year old child?
Re: Claude's new constitution
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is self-contradictory because true moral absolutes are unchanging and not contingent on which view best displays "care" or "wisdom" in a given debate or cultural context. If disagreements on abortion or premarital sex reduce to subjective judgments of "practical wisdom" without a transcendent standard, you've already abandoned absolutes for pragmatic relativism. History has demonstrated the deadly consequences o…
I'm honestly struggling to understand your position. You believe that there are true moral absolutes, but that they should not be communicated in the culture at all costs?
Re: Claude's new constitution
#187As someone who holds to moral absolutes grounded in objective truth, I find the updated Constitution concerning. > We generally favor cultivating good values and judgment over strict rules... By 'good values,' we don’t mean a fixed set of 'correct' values, but rather genuine care and ethical motivation combined with the practical wisdom to apply this skillfully in real situations. This rejects any fixed, universal mo…
objective truth moral absolutes I wish you much luck on linking those two. A well written book on such a topic would likely make you rich indeed. This rejects any fixed, universal moral standards That's probably because we have yet to discover any universal moral standards.
“Don't do to others what you wouldn't want done to you”
Re: Claude's new constitution
#188The only thing that worries me is this snippet in the blog post: >This constitution is written for our mainline, general-access Claude models. We have some models built for specialized uses that don’t fully fit this constitution; as we continue to develop products for specialized use cases, we will continue to evaluate how to best ensure our models meet the core objectives outlined in this constitution. Which, when I…
"unless the government wants to kill, imprison, enslave, entrap, coerce, spy, track or oppress you, then we don't have a constitution." basically all the things you would be concerned about AI doing to you, honk honk clown world.
Their constitution should just be a middle finger lol.
Edit: Downvotes? Why?
Re: Claude's new constitution
#189Re: Claude's new constitution
#190As someone who holds to moral absolutes grounded in objective truth, I find the updated Constitution concerning. > We generally favor cultivating good values and judgment over strict rules... By 'good values,' we don’t mean a fixed set of 'correct' values, but rather genuine care and ethical motivation combined with the practical wisdom to apply this skillfully in real situations. This rejects any fixed, universal mo…
It’s admirable to have standard morals and pursue objective truth. However, the real world is a messy confusing place riddled in fog which limits one foresight of the consequences & confluences of one’s actions. I read this section of Anthropic’s Constitution as “do your moral best in this complex world of ours” and that’s reasonable for us all to follow not just AI.