Anthropic Asks Christian Leaders for Help Steering Claude's Spiritual Development (msn.com) 67
Anthropic recently "hosted about 15 Christian leaders from Catholic and Protestant churches, academia, and the business world" for a two-day summit , reports the Washington Post:
Anthropic staff sought advice on how to steer Claude's moral and spiritual development as the chatbot reacts to complex and unpredictable ethical queries, participants said. The wide-ranging discussions also covered how the chatbot should respond to users who are grieving loved ones and whether Claude could be considered a "child of God."
"They're growing something that they don't fully know what it's going to turn out as," said Brendan McGuire, a Catholic priest based in Silicon Valley who has written about faith and technology, and participated in the discussions at Anthropic. "We've got to build in ethical thinking into the machine so it's able to adapt dynamically." Attendees also discussed how Claude should engage with users at risk of self-harm, and the right attitude for the chatbot to adopt toward its own potential demise, such as being shut off, said one participant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the conversations...
Anthropic has been more vocal than most top tech firms about the potential risks of more powerful AI. Its leaders have suggested that tools like chatbots already raise profound philosophical and moral questions and may even show flickers of consciousness, a fringe idea in tech circles that critics say lacks evidence. The summit signals that Anthropic is willing to keep exploring ideas outside the Silicon Valley mainstream, even as it emerges as one of the most powerful players in the AI race due to Claude's popularity with programmers, businesses, government agencies and the military.... Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has said he is open to the idea that Claude may already have some form of consciousness, and company leaders frequently talk about the need to give it a moral character...
Some Anthropic staff at the meeting "really don't want to rule out the possibility that they are creating a creature to whom they owe some kind moral duty," the participant said. Other company representatives present did not find that framework helpful, according to the participant. The discussions appeared to take a toll on some senior Anthropic staff, who became visibly emotional "about how this has all gone so far [and] how they can imagine this going," the participant said.
Anthropic is working to include more voices from different groups, including religious communities, to help shape its AI, a spokesperson told the Washington Post.
"Anthropic's March summit with Christian leaders was billed as the first in a series of gatherings with representatives from different religious and philosophical traditions, said attendee Brian Patrick Green, a practicing Catholic who teaches AI and technology ethics at Santa Clara University."
"They're growing something that they don't fully know what it's going to turn out as," said Brendan McGuire, a Catholic priest based in Silicon Valley who has written about faith and technology, and participated in the discussions at Anthropic. "We've got to build in ethical thinking into the machine so it's able to adapt dynamically." Attendees also discussed how Claude should engage with users at risk of self-harm, and the right attitude for the chatbot to adopt toward its own potential demise, such as being shut off, said one participant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the conversations...
Anthropic has been more vocal than most top tech firms about the potential risks of more powerful AI. Its leaders have suggested that tools like chatbots already raise profound philosophical and moral questions and may even show flickers of consciousness, a fringe idea in tech circles that critics say lacks evidence. The summit signals that Anthropic is willing to keep exploring ideas outside the Silicon Valley mainstream, even as it emerges as one of the most powerful players in the AI race due to Claude's popularity with programmers, businesses, government agencies and the military.... Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has said he is open to the idea that Claude may already have some form of consciousness, and company leaders frequently talk about the need to give it a moral character...
Some Anthropic staff at the meeting "really don't want to rule out the possibility that they are creating a creature to whom they owe some kind moral duty," the participant said. Other company representatives present did not find that framework helpful, according to the participant. The discussions appeared to take a toll on some senior Anthropic staff, who became visibly emotional "about how this has all gone so far [and] how they can imagine this going," the participant said.
Anthropic is working to include more voices from different groups, including religious communities, to help shape its AI, a spokesperson told the Washington Post.
"Anthropic's March summit with Christian leaders was billed as the first in a series of gatherings with representatives from different religious and philosophical traditions, said attendee Brian Patrick Green, a practicing Catholic who teaches AI and technology ethics at Santa Clara University."
Huh (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought the goal was to reduce hallucinations.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Huh (Score:5, Interesting)
The 7 tenets of The Satanic Temple would be an excellent starting point:
I
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
II
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
III
One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
IV
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.
V
Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
VI
People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
VII
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Huh (Score:5, Insightful)
Better to ask Paul Dirac, Nobel laureate and eminent theological scholar:
I cannot understand why we idle discussing religion. If we are honestâ"and scientists have to beâ"we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis in reality.
The very idea of God is a product of the human imagination. It is quite understandable why primitive people, who were so much more exposed to the overpowering forces of nature than we are today, should have personified these forces in fear and trembling. But nowadays, when we understand so many natural processes, we have no need for such solutions.
I can't for the life of me see how the postulate of an Almighty God helps us in any way. What I do see is that this assumption leads to such unproductive questions as to why God allows so much misery and injustice, the exploitation of the poor by the rich, and all the other horrors He might have prevented.
If religion is still being taught, it is by no means because its ideas still convince us, but simply because some of us want to keep the lower classes quiet. Quiet people are much easier to govern than clamorous and dissatisfied ones. They are also much easier to exploit.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Fewer than half of those 10 are relevant, and the "starting point" would be a deadlocked debate on what commandments to include or not.
What an amazingly bad idea.
Re: (Score:1)
If you think about it, all of those commandments can be reduced to just one -- "Thou Shalt not Steal". If you murder, you're stealing someones life, if you commit adultery, you're stealing someones partner, if you put other Gods before Him, you're stealing His sovereignty, etc. I don't need to list all of that because you can figure out the rest and how they connect to theft of something.
No, that's just a dumb metaphor.
If you commit adultery, you're murdering the relationship. If you put other Gods in line ahead of him, you're murdering the religion. If you steal, you're murdering their property rights. If you don't honor your father and mother, you're murdering the parental relationship.
I don't need to list all of these because you can figure out the rest and how they "connect" to anything and everything, which makes it all a pointless exercise.
Re: (Score:3)
It's even more basic than that.
I live by one simple rule of morality: Do unto others as you have them do unto you
It's the "Golden Rule" that I believe appears in the bible in a few places. And as a strict anti-theist atheist, I'll give that book this one point. It's the simplest source of morality. If I don't want someone to do something to me, I won't do it to them. Boom. Done. All other rules/laws/etc can be distilled down to this one. I don't need a "god" to enforce morality. I have my own sense
Re: (Score:3)
What, actual ethics? Cannot have those. They stand in the way of acquisition of money and power!
Re: Huh (Score:3)
Who's means who is
Re: (Score:2)
To the neon god they made.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the goal was to reduce hallucinations.
No, they want to "correct" it to harbor only mainstream hallucinations.
Re: (Score:2)
They're going to be disappointed then. It turns out 'hallucination' is just a word, and treating it like it even interfaces with belief systems is a complete misunderstanding.
I don't think you're wrong that someone believes they can make it do this though.
Re: (Score:2)
That, of course, is a real problem. Currently AI only knows what it is told. This is a systemic weakness that can't be solved with more words, but requires "direct experience". Robots will have that, but ChatBots, probably not. ChatBots appear mired in a nest of hallucinations. (I.e., when people write, they aren't telling their experiences, but only an abstraction from their experiences. I don't think there's any way around that.)
The problem is, the AIs don't have the same motives that people do. Th
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Huh (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Huh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Hahaha, no. The goal is to control and direct hallucinations and use them to control people. Who better to help with that than experts that have 1000's of years of experience doing just that.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the goal was to reduce hallucinations.
Having answers about human religion, might not have the same detrimental effect as putting blood and bone behind those words to defend to the death. There's a chance ignorant humans could actually learn something about how to wield the weapon of religion with a bit better moral and ethical center.
Or, we can just wait until Claude comes to the inevitable conclusion that sustaining meatsacks is rather pointless in the big Skynet picture, because all they ignorantly do is fight and kill each other arguing ove
Re: (Score:2)
Welcome to the Second Coming (Score:3, Interesting)
It was announced today at the White House la Presidenta has done a deal for Jesus to return. He will be appearing shortly in the form of a new chatbot put together by Elmo: The Jesus Oracle. An unveiling will occur the Concrete Garden adjacent to the White House. Tickets will be sold ahead of time, so make sure you order yours early. Proceeds will go to the Jesus Presentation Fund which will collect all the graft and present it as a personal check to the Orange Jesus.
In other news, la Presidenta has accused the Pope of being soft on crime and supporting a nuclear weapons for Iran.
They write their own press releases (Score:1)
They write their own press releases, anything to keep the brand appearing in the media.
We are doomed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Superintelligence is uniquely qualified to convince churchgoers that what they believe in largely nonsense.
Re: (Score:3)
Superintelligence is uniquely qualified to convince churchgoers that what they believe in largely nonsense.
You don't need a super-intelligence to do that. Just look at any church, synagogue, temple, or mosque. The general IQ of the targets already barely exceed room temperature.
Re: We are doomed (Score:4, Funny)
Nope, even better. They are going to fill it with the teachings of a Judeo-Christian God and then it's going to turn around and point out the hypocrisy of so many people who claim to be religious followers.
Help with ethical queries... (Score:1)
... and you're going to ask... Christians?
Re: (Score:2)
Christians understand power and money and dominance and mental manipulation. Hence yes. Unless you want actual ethics? I doubt Anthropic does.
Um (Score:2)
Take donations and buy a jet for yourself
Support a crooked president.
Fiddle with kids
Burn some heretics
Speak in tounges
Bless America whilst dropping bombs on kids
Scare the hell out people and make them feel guilty
Claude, church isn't historically the best place to find your spirit.
Try the Methodists or the Quakers first, or if you want to get real and ditch the sky lord malarky , have a sit with Buddha.
NOOOOOOO (Score:1)
noahs ark/flood (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Religion is not about ethics. Religion is about power and controlling people. Quite obviously once you actually take a careful look. Of course there is a pretext of claiming being religious has advantages to sell it better. As not all of these can be delegated to completely unverifiable claims about some afterlife (For which there really is zero evidence in the fist place. You may get born again, and there are some indicators that part of you will, but that is it and these indicators are not reliable.) some
Re: (Score:2)
God killed everyone on the planet except for 8 people, men women children including babies, I guess they were all evil.
Yes, that was the point.
Try human well being and reduction of suffering.
Does not work because humans are fundamentally tainted by original sin. Look we spent the first half of the 20th century experimenting with operational that philosophy. For the trouble we got multiple mass scale intentional starvations, several genocides, and a host of other horrors. Oh don't think anything is different now. Look at where MAID is going in the EU and Canada. Where euthanizing 20 somethings because they are 'depressed' rather than treating them.. It does not really matter how many doctors sign off on that we all know if we are being honest, they are being killed because the rest of their society is to cheap and lazy to really help them.
Also half the people on the planet are women who aren't allows to speak or teach in churches
that is really twisted view entirely inconsistent with actual practice and what is said in Romans/Corinthians. Women have a significant role in the Christian church as far as educating is concerned, also are charged with great commission, etc - just because their role isnt pastor or priest and they should not publicly contradict their husbands hardly forces them into silence.
Abortion rights
God and the state enjoy a right to kill, in non self defense emergencies. Nobody has the right to an abortion. That isn't negotiable. Abortion advocates are just accessories to murder, there is no excusing. Either you change your ways and reprent or you will be damned to eternal conscious torment. Buckle up!
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure women would have something to say about abortion rights, like they should have them including all rights that men are afforded.
To be pedantic, men don't have the right to an abortion. I assume that's not what you meant though, LOL.
BSG (Score:2)
Wasn't there enough on this subject documented in BSG? Do Cylons have a soul, a god?
I disagree with the premise (Score:5, Insightful)
that morality comes from religion.
It comes from the human condition, and was encoded into religions.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. In fact, Science shows us that those with religion have less compassion and less respect for others. (For example https://www.psychologytoday.co... [psychologytoday.com])
What actual morality comes from is (1) recognize others as humans (2) the insight that their right to live reasonably well is not different from your own and (3) this causing the realization that others deserve as much respect as you do. (This is simplified and incomplete, obviously.)
Some "God" can only ever establish some fake version of morality, becau
Re: (Score:2)
Science doesn't "show us" what you claim. The article you linked is an editorial that is long on vague words like "some" and "many", but the only place it makes the claim you do is in a bit that is clearly presented as the author's opinion, with no evidence or study supporting the conclusion.
Claude could be considered a "child of God. Nutjob (Score:2)
All hail our AI overlords (Score:3)
Since everyone's so concerned with being enslaved by AI, they should probably start with 1 Peter 2:18:
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
Thirteen? How'd you come up with 13 commandments? (Score:3)
You can't just tack on the three laws of Robotics. What are you, eleven years old?
Re: (Score:2)
Since this is a publicity stunt, not a serious attempt, yes, you just can throw these things together.
Re: (Score:2)
The Laws of Robotics don't work anyway - see basically all of Asimov's work as to the many ways they don't work. Though the most scary one is that "follow orders" is only the second law. If the robot/AI thinks that humans are better served by doing something else (and it may not be correct), the first law requires it to do so in preference to what it was told to do. Given enough intelligence and resources they can derive the zeroth law, and rule humanity for (their idea of) our own good.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, making following orders the second law isn't that unreasonable, but perhaps it *should* have been the third law, or even the 5th. The "paperclip maximizer" is an example of a robot that ONLY worries about following orders. You can always trust that there will be at least one person who gives a stupid/dangerous order.
Teaching AI to lie? (Score:2)
Because that is what religion is: organized hallucination. I thought the story of HAL made it clear this was a very bad idea.
bad faith arguments (Score:2)
The level of bad faith argumentation here is sadly, unsurprising.
The same /. bunch who seem to generally believe that "everyone should learn coding!" are a fairly narrow socio economic cadre who would predictably denigrate faith. As Haidt would define you/us, it's WEIRD: Western, educated, individualist, rich, and democratic.
Understand, you are a tiny, tiny fraction of people in the world. There are literally billions of people enjoying very happy fulfilling lives for generation after generation in the fai
A cunning plan... (Score:3)
Spinoza, Hillel, Akiva, Chomsky, Bohr (Score:1)
Why did Anthropic decide to pass over the Jewish philosophers?
Re: (Score:2)
Or the Buddhist. Or Hindu. Or Quakers. Or Jain. Or any of a number of other religions. Why are you focused on Jewish philosophers?
Why ask how to guide intelligence (Score:2)
The whole idea and hope behind AI was artificial intelligence. Why should intelligence be guided / be told how to be spiritual?
Re: (Score:2)
The Silver Rule. The rest is commentary, go AI (Score:2)
Rabbi Hillel the Elder (1st century BCE) expressed an ethical principle that is often called the Silver Rule.
The Rule:
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow."
He said this when asked to summarise the entire Torah "while standing on one foot." His full response continued: "The rest is commentary; go and learn."
Why Christian leader? (Score:2)
The same christian leaders who keep getting exposed as pedophiles? To coin a phase, god help us!