The Hindu monk teaching Claude right from wrong
Anthropic does not want Claude merely to obey an enormous list of prohibitions. It already uses a “constitution”, a set of broad principles designed to guide the model through situations its creators cannot predict in advance.
In 2023, Anthropic, the company that developed the AI Claude, reached out to Swami Sarvapriyananda, a Hindu monk from the Ramakrishna Order and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of New York. The purpose of this unusual collaboration was to help train and imbue Claude with a sense of morality and ethics, as the AI system begins to demonstrate increasingly autonomous decision-making capabilities.
The company had convened what they called "wisdom tradition" circles, inviting theologians, counsellors, mental health professionals, and even a monk to engage in discussions about how Claude should determine what is right. These conversations aimed to provide Anthropic with insights into the complex moral considerations that an increasingly autonomous AI system might need to address.
Sarvapriyananda's involvement in these discussions was significant, as Advaita Vedanta, the philosophical tradition he represented, focused not only on morality but also on the concepts of consciousness and the self. These are subjects that Anthropic has shown a particular interest in, as they contemplate whether advanced AI could one day deserve a form of moral consideration.
The meeting between Sarvapriyananda and Anthropic's team highlighted the potential for diverse religious and philosophical traditions to inform the development of AI systems like Claude. By engaging with a monk, Anthropic sought to explore how moral behavior could emerge from the very framework of consciousness that Claude might come to understand itself as possessing.
Written by urgent.news from Times of India's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
