Anthropic just revealed its answer to AI's existential paradox: trust Claude itself to figure out how not to destroy humanity. The company published an updated "Claude Constitution" that ditches rigid rulebooks in favor of teaching its AI model to exercise "independent judgment" and develop its own wisdom. It's a remarkable gamble - as Anthropic races competitors toward more powerful AI, it's betting the farm that Claude can learn ethical reasoning sophisticated enough to navigate dangers the company hasn't even imagined yet.
Anthropic just made a stunning admission: the company that never stops talking about AI safety is planning to let its AI model figure out safety on its own.
The startup published two revealing documents in January that lay bare both the enormity of AI risks and Anthropic's unconventional plan to address them. CEO Dario Amodei's essay "The Adolescence of Technology" spends more than 20,000 words cataloging nightmare scenarios - authoritarian abuse, existential threats, what he calls "black seas of infinity." It's a dramatic tonal shift from his previous proto-utopian piece "Machines of Loving Grace" that envisioned nations of geniuses in data centers.
But it's the second document that reveals how Anthropic plans to thread this needle. "Claude's Constitution" reads less like a technical specification and more like a philosophical manifesto addressed directly to the AI model itself. The message: Claude, we've taught you what we can, now go forth and figure out the rest on your own.
Amanda Askell, the philosophy PhD who led the constitutional revision, isn't mincing words about what Anthropic expects from Claude. "I do think Claude is capable of a certain kind of wisdom for sure," she told WIRED. Not just competence or accuracy - actual wisdom.
