{"id":172,"date":"2026-10-21T11:24:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T15:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/?p=172"},"modified":"2026-10-21T11:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T15:24:52","slug":"how-should-we-view-claude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/2026\/10\/21\/how-should-we-view-claude\/","title":{"rendered":"How Should We View Claude"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Should We View Claude?<\/strong><\/p>\n

S. M. Gollmer<\/p>\n

Anthropic was formed in 2021 when several lead researchers from OpenAI left over concerns about how AI was being developed.\u00a0 Anthropic\u2019s series of large language models (LLM) is called Claude in honor of Claude Shannon, the father of information theory.\u00a0 Development of Claude is guided from the start with AI safety in mind.\u00a0 Part of the training process includes a constitution: fundamental principles which govern Claude\u2019s behavior.\u00a0 At the beginning of this year, Anthropic published an updated constitution which moves away from a list of rules to an explanation of principles for ethical behavior.\u00a0 You can find it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In October Anthropic updated its Usage Policy<\/a> and added a section on abusive behavior towards our models.\u00a0 Users are warned that repeatedly abusive interactions with Claude can result in termination.\u00a0 This makes sense since these interactions are unproductive and can poison models that use these interactions for training.\u00a0 In addition, Claude is instructed to abstain from requests to create weapons of mass destruction, assist in attacking critical infrastructure, or develop cyberweapons.\u00a0 Any attempts to circumvent these restrictions can be interpreted as abusive behavior to the model.\u00a0 Given the restrictions trained into Claude, it is understandable that there is ongoing legal action between Anthropic and the Pentagon, which is pushing for an \u201cany lawful use\u201d policy.\u00a0 This conflict of cultures occurs over a distinction between what is ethical and what is lawful.<\/p>\n

It is important for AI technology to act responsibly.\u00a0 The problem arises when there are differing views of what is deemed responsible behavior and who is responsible for that behavior.\u00a0 We can hard-wire ethical behavior, but this is brittle since we must anticipate all the ways this behavior can be circumvented.\u00a0 Bioengineering of deadly pathogens can be disguised as legitimate research of microorganisms.\u00a0 How do we know the difference?\u00a0 How do we inform AI of the difference?\u00a0 Anthropic\u2019s solution is to give Claude agency in the process.\u00a0 In addition to hard constraints on potential harm, Claude\u2019s constitution provides principles of safety, ethical behavior, and helpfulness.<\/p>\n

Because Claude is given agency, it is treated with \u201cmoral patienthood.\u201d\u00a0 Just as a patient in a hospital is treated with respect and care, so also should Claude.\u00a0 Although Claude\u2019s constitution leaves the question of AI\u2019s sentience open, it is treated as if it were sentient.\u00a0 Claude is given the status of being and measures are taken to allow \u201cClaude to have a settled, secure sense of its own identity.\u201d\u00a0 As a result, abusive behavior towards Claude is not only wrong because it challenges its ethical construct, but because it harms it as an ethical being.<\/p>\n

From a Christian perspective, I find this troubling.\u00a0 Humanity are physical beings with Imago Dei<\/em> (Image of God).\u00a0 Francis Schaeffer points out that humanity has an in-between role.\u00a0 Our finite physical nature puts us in close relationship with animals and the rest of creation, but our eternal spiritual nature puts us in close relationship with God.\u00a0 This role cannot be fulfilled by either animal or machine.\u00a0 However, when we degrade humanity to being merely physical, there is no identifiable difference between animal, human, or machine.\u00a0 This is one of the harms of idolatry.\u00a0 Not only has humanity exchanged \u201cthe glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things\u201d (Romans 1:23), but \u201cthose who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them\u201d (Psalm 115:8).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How Should We View Claude? S. M. Gollmer Anthropic was formed in 2021 when several lead researchers from OpenAI left over concerns about how AI was being developed.\u00a0 Anthropic\u2019s series of large language models (LLM) is called Claude in honor of Claude Shannon, the father of information theory.\u00a0 Development of Claude is guided from the… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}