May 10, 2024

Claude 3 AI: Anthropic's Groundbreaking Work in Ethical AI

Anthropic is leading the world with a safe and ethical AI assistant named Claude, by using constitutional training and collecting public input, making AI development more transparent and responsible.

In the ever-evolving realm of AI, a critical question emerges: how to assess their capabilities and limitations ethically? Anthropic, the creators of Claude, a next-generation AI assistant, is at the forefront of addressing this challenge through their innovative approach: Constitutional AI.

Claude 3 AI Model

Claude 3 Opus recently outperformed ChatGPT-4 and Gemini Ultra in graduate-level reasoning, and the lightweight Claude 3 Haiku overpowered ChatGPt 3.5. This raises the question of safety, as more AI potential gets unleashed.

The Need for Ethical Guardians in the AI Age

Previously, the safeguards were put in place with the help of human contractors, putting artificial guardrails - an imperfect method. Now, as AI transcends its initial, specialized tasks inching closer to AGI - robust ethical oversight becomes paramount. Anthropic recognizes the potential risks, from biases to malicious applications, and proposes Constitutional AI (CAI) as a revolutionary solution for safe AI.

CAI: Instilling an Ethical Compass in AI

CAI represents a paradigm shift. It trains an AI model to critique its own outputs based on a pre-defined set of ethical principles, akin to a constitution. This process involves two stages:

Supervised Learning: The AI is exposed to prompts and generates responses while being guided by ethical principles. It then revises its responses based on feedback.
Reinforcement Learning with Feedback Loop: The fine-tuned model generates multiple responses. A separate model, trained on the constitution, selects the most aligned option. This iterative process allows the primary model (Claude, in our case) to refine its outputs based on the ethical framework.

1. Supervised Learning Stage. 2. Reinforcement Learning stage. — Claude 3 Learning Process

This is done in hopes that AI, even in its early stages is controlled and safe.

Crafting Claude's Constitution: Actually asking the Public

Developing the constitution is a complex undertaking. Anthropic recognized the need for inclusivity and partnered with the Collective Intelligence Project to gather public input from over 1,000 Americans. This collaborative effort yielded a unique constitution emphasizing objectivity, impartiality, and accessibility. Evaluations revealed that the public constitution model exhibits:

Lower bias: Particularly in areas like disability and physical appearance.
Potential for greater objectivity: Indicated by slightly lower political ideology scores.

AI Safety Levels: Proactive Risk Management

Anthropic's vision extends beyond public feedback. They propose responsible scaling, inspired by a similar system, developed for biological materials and labs. The AI Safety Levels system scales safety measures with the size of the model. This might slow them in the race with OpenAI, but It defines specific criteria and safeguards for different AI risk levels, aiming to mitigate potential issues before deployment.

Conclusion: The Ethical Leader

The ethical implications of AI demand our attention. Anthropic's work paves the way for AI systems that are not just powerful but inherently aligned with human values. The developer proves, that a strong ethical vision is a strong compliment to a powerful achievement, such as Claude 3.