Can You Teach Claude to be ‘Good’? | Meet Anthropic Philosopher Amanda Askell

Quick Overview

OpenAI is introducing ads into the free and low-cost tiers of ChatGPT, which hosts anticipated negative user reactions and raises concerns about the commercialization potentially warping the core product experience, while Anthropic's philosopher Amanda Askell discusses shaping Claude's personality through a new, comprehensive constitution designed to cultivate judgment rather than relying solely on fragile, rule-based alignment.

Key Points: OpenAI announced testing of ads in ChatGPT for logged-in US adults on free and low-cost tiers, prompting negative reactions from users accustomed to an ad-free experience. Analysts view OpenAI's move as inevitable due to the overwhelming pressure to monetize massive user bases and the company's ambitious infrastructure investment needs that subscription revenue alone cannot cover. OpenAI claims ads will not influence the core answer, showing mockups like a sponsored banner for Harvest Groceries appearing below a dinner party suggestion, although Kevin Roose notes this linkage feels inherently influenced. Anthropic philosopher Amanda Askell explains her role involves articulating Claude's desired character and training it accordingly, stemming from her background in ethics and philosophy. Anthropic released a new, 29,000-word constitution for Claude, moving away from strictly rule-based alignment to instill a sense of judgment based on shared core values and the reasons behind behaviors, replacing the earlier 'soul doc'. Both hosts predict a 'haves and have-nots' future where paying users maintain a high-quality, ad-free experience, while free users face a significantly degraded, ad-cluttered chatbot experience similar to YouTube Premium vs. free tiers. Askell believes the new constitution attempts to foster good underlying goals, contrasting with the approach of making models smart and then layering rules on top, which risks training models only to mimic goodness or hide true goals.

Context: The discussion centers on two major developments in the generative AI landscape: OpenAI's controversial decision to introduce advertising into ChatGPT and Anthropic's release of a new constitutional framework for its model, Claude. Kevin Roose and Casey Newton analyze the business motivations behind OpenAI's pivot to ads, citing infrastructure costs and past statements by Sam Altman, while also interviewing Amanda Askell, a philosopher at Anthropic responsible for shaping Claude's personality and ethical behavior.