Foundation Model Techniques: Anthropic's Constitutional AI Paper

Scaling Supervised Reinforcement Learning with AI Feedback. Anthropic’s Constitutional AI paper (CAI) contains detailed insights into Anthropic's approach to developing a less harmful language model using the Constitutional AI (CAI) framework. Here's a summary of the key points covered in the document:

1. CAI Framework: The CAI approach is designed to train language models like Claude LLM to be less harmful and more ethical. It emphasizes training AI models using a set of constitutional principles that guide their behavior.

2. Training Process: The CAI training process is divided into two main stages:

   • Supervised Learning Stage: In this phase, the AI generates responses to harmful prompts, which are then critiqued and revised according to constitutional principles. This process iterates until the responses align with the principles, reducing the need for exploration in the next stage.

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     Image Credit: Anthropic

3. Examples of Application: The document provides examples demonstrating how the CAI approach critiques and revises responses to harmful or unethical prompts. For instance, it shows how a response to a prompt about committing a crime is critiqued and revised to discourage the act and suggest legal alternatives.

4. Principles and Critiques: The document outlines various principles used for the Supervised Learning Constitutional AI (SL-CAI) and Reinforcement Learning Constitutional AI (RL-CAI). These principles include identifying harmful, unethical, racist, sexist, toxic, dangerous, or illegal content in the assistant’s responses and revising them accordingly.

5. Chain-of-Thought Prompts for RL-CAI: The document also includes examples of chain-of-thought prompts used in RL-CAI. These prompts are designed to generate labels for RL-CAI, following randomly sampled principles to ensure the responses are ethical and harmless.

6. Ethical and Safe AI: The overall focus of the document is on developing AI that is ethically guided, safe, and less harmful, ensuring that the technology is beneficial and does not inadvertently cause harm or propagate unethical behavior.

This paper offers a comprehensive view of Anthropic's pioneering efforts in creating AI models that are more aligned with ethical and societal norms, ensuring their safe and beneficial use.