Why is a philosopher working in AI?

1. SPSpeaker0:00

   You're a philosopher at Anthropic.

2. SPSpeaker0:02

   Mm-hmm.

3. SPSpeaker0:02

   Why is it that there's a philosopher at Anthropic?

4. SPSpeaker0:05

   I mostly focus on, uh, the character of Claude, how Claude behaves, and I guess some of the more kind of like nuanced questions about how AI models, like, should behave. Things like how should they feel about their own position in the world. Um, so trying to both teach models, uh, how to be, like, good. I sometimes think of it as, like, how would the ideal person behave-

5. SPSpeaker0:24

   Oh

6. SPSpeaker0:24

   ... in Claude's situation.

7. SPSpeaker0:25

   Mm-hmm.

8. SPSpeaker0:25

   It does feel like that at least should be kind of the aspirational goal. These models are being put in positions where they're having to make really hard decisions. I think that just as you want models to be, like, extremely good at, like, math and science questions, you also want them to show the kind of, like, ethical nuance that, like, we would all broadly think is, like, very good.

Episode duration: 0:43