constitutional ai

**Constitutional AI (CAI)** is an **AI alignment technique from Anthropic that uses a set of principles (a "constitution") to guide AI self-improvement** — the AI critiques and revises its own outputs according to the constitution, then trains on the revised outputs, reducing the need for human feedback. **CAI Pipeline** - **Constitution**: A set of principles (e.g., "be helpful, harmless, and honest") written in natural language. - **Critique**: The AI generates a response, then critiques it against each principle. - **Revision**: The AI revises its response based on the critique — producing a constitutionally aligned output. - **RLAIF Training**: Train a preference model on (original, revised) pairs — the revised version is preferred. **Why It Matters** - **Scalable Alignment**: Reduces dependence on expensive human feedback — the constitution encodes values. - **Transparent**: The constitution is an explicit, readable specification of AI behavior standards. - **Harmlessness**: CAI is particularly effective at reducing harmful outputs — the constitution explicitly forbids harm. **CAI** is **teaching AI values through principles** — using a written constitution to guide AI self-critique and revision for scalable alignment.