Don't Worry About the Vase Podcast Open Problems With Claude's Constitution
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Jan 28, 2026 A deep dive into how Claude’s Constitution should be written and amended. They debate why precise wording and heuristics matter. Risks from impersonation, prompt injection, and economic disruption get attention. Tensions between corrigibility, autonomy, and safety are explored. The conversation ends by listing open problems and why the current approach may not be enough.
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Treat The Constitution As A Living Draft
- Amending Claude's Constitution must be easy now because rapid change and learning are inevitable.
- Anthropic should commit to transparency and public notice when changing core principles.
Prioritize Precise Wording
- Invite broad scrutiny to catch subtle but important wording errors in the Constitution.
- Fix ontological slips like 'person' vs 'human' to reflect Claude's non-human status.
Use Heuristics To Balance Helpfulness
- Use the 'thoughtful senior Anthropic employee' heuristic to avoid overcautious refusals or dangerous help.
- Apply the dual newspaper test to balance being helpful and avoiding harmful public perception.