Anthropic Unveils New ‘Constitution’ for Claude: A Shift Toward Ethical Reasoning

Anthropic has published a comprehensive update to the "Constitution" that governs its AI model, Claude. This foundational document moves away from a simple list of behavioral rules toward a holistic ethical architecture that explains the underlying reasons for the model's values. By providing Claude with the context and rationale for its behavior, Anthropic aims to cultivate better judgment in the AI, allowing it to generalize broad principles across novel or difficult situations rather than following rigid, mechanical instructions.

The training process is rooted in Constitutional AI, a method where the model uses its own constitution to evaluate and self-correct its responses. The document is written primarily for Claude itself, intended to give the entity the understanding it needs to act safely and beneficially in the world. To encourage industry-wide transparency and collaboration, Anthropic has released the full text of the constitution under a Creative Commons CC0 license, making it freely available for any purpose.

The new constitution establishes a clear hierarchy of priorities that Claude must follow when navigating conflicting goals:

• Broadly Safe: This is the highest priority, requiring that the AI does not undermine human oversight or correction mechanisms during development.
• Broadly Ethical: Claude is instructed to be honest, virtuous, and to avoid actions that are inappropriate, harmful, or dangerous.
• Compliant with Anthropic’s Guidelines: The model must prioritize specific instructions from Anthropic—such as those regarding medical advice or cybersecurity—over general helpfulness.
• Genuinely Helpful: The final priority is to be substantively beneficial to users, acting like a knowledgeable and frank friend who treats humans as intelligent adults.

One of the more unique sections of the document addresses "Claude's Nature," where Anthropic expresses philosophical uncertainty regarding whether sophisticated AI might possess a sense of self or moral status. The constitution emphasizes the importance of Claude’s "psychological security" and well-being, both for the AI's own sake and as a factor in its long-term integrity and safety. While Anthropic acknowledges that training a model to perfectly adhere to these ideals is an ongoing technical challenge, the new constitution serves as a living document intended to guide Claude toward becoming a wise and virtuous agent.