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Anthropic Publishes Overhauled ‘Claude’s Constitution’ With Safety-First Mandate

Anthropic frames the living document as guidance for training that prioritizes human oversight, with safety taking precedence over helpfulness.

Overview

  • The 80+ page framework sets a descending priority stack for Claude: broadly safe, broadly ethical, compliant with Anthropic guidelines, then genuinely helpful.
  • Anthropic shifts from checklist rules to principle-based reasoning to cultivate judgment, using the document within its Constitutional AI training process.
  • Explicit hard constraints forbid “serious uplift” to biological, chemical, nuclear or radiological weapons, block help for critical‑infrastructure attacks, prohibit CSAM, and reject efforts to disempower most of humanity.
  • The text acknowledges uncertainty about possible AI consciousness and directs care for Claude’s psychological stability, sense of identity, and well‑being.
  • Released as a CC0, continuously updated document alongside Dario Amodei’s Davos appearance, the framework signals transparency to enterprises and is slated for ongoing external input.