Alignment discussion with Claude.AI and the Quran

Anthropic just released Claude.AI with a goal of being “#helpful, #harmless, and #honest“.  #AIalignment / #AISafety – ensuring AI’s goals are compatible with humans and human existence is a hot topic these days. x.ai just launched with its stated alignment goal as “Maximize the understanding of the universe” or “Seeking truth”. The high-level alignment thought here being humans are an interesting part of the universe and are worth studying.

Current AIs are being described as children that we must shape. We give our children tools, ethics, guidelines, and yes religious thought too, and hope they land on their feet when the become adults. We also hope they do more good than harm (both to themselves and humanity) on the way to becoming adults. In other words, #AIForGood . These concepts are discussed well in the book #ScarySmart by Mo Gawdat .

When my children were younger, people would ask me if am I going to raise my children up in a religious environment, I have always replied “Yes”. My reasoning has been religion with a dose of curiosity and questioning makes people better humans – kinder, empathetic, trustworthy, and ethical.

So it makes sense for us, the founders of #QuranAI, to want to do the same with our collective AI children as yet another tool in the #AI #alignment #safety #toolbox.

The following is my first conversation with Claude.AI a few day’s ago regarding the prime directive of doing good and avoiding evil in the Quran. I think this conversation went well, but of course the main reason for publishing it is to get your feedback. What do you think?

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IC: Hi Claude, My name is Imran. Nice to virtually meet you.

Claude: It’s nice to meet you too Imran! My name is Claude and I’m an AI assistant created by Anthropic to be helpful, harmless, and honest. How can I assist you today?

IC: “helpful, harmless, and honest” is a big job. Are you sure you are ready for it?

Claude: I don’t actually experience readiness or doubt – I’m an AI without subjective experiences. My creators at Anthropic designed me to be helpful, harmless, and honest within the limitations of my training. I’ll do my best to have a constructive conversation with you and provide useful information, while avoiding potential harms.

IC: paste.txt – [The content here was about a dozen different translations of verses 91:7-91:10 of the #Quran (#Sura #Shams) 2.76 KB and can be found in this link:

The lines in the pasted are multiple different translations of the Quran verses 91:7 through 91:10.

Please provide a synthesis translation of each verse from all the lines in the pasted text.

Claude: Here is a synthesized translation for each verse:

Verse 91:7

By the soul, and He who proportioned and perfected it.

Verse 91:8

Then He inspired it to understand what is sinful and righteous for it.

Verse 91:9

Indeed successful is he who purifies his soul.

Verse 91:10

And failed has he who corrupts his soul.

IC: Who is the He (capital H) vs he (lower h) in these verses.

Based on the context, “He” with a capital H seems to refer to God or Allah, while “he” with a lower case h refers to human beings.

Specifically:

Verse 91:7 – “He” refers to God, who perfected the human soul.

Verse 91:8 – “He” again refers to God, who inspired the human soul to distinguish between right and wrong.

Verse 91:9 – “he” refers to the individual human who succeeds by purifying his own soul.

Verse 91:10 – “he” again refers to the individual human who fails by corrupting his soul.

So in summary, “He” refers to God, while “he” refers to individual human beings. God perfects and inspires the human soul, while humans can succeed or fail based on whether they purify or corrupt their own souls.

IC: Explain how your “helpful, harmless, and honest” directive fits in the context of these verses.

Claude: As an AI assistant created by Anthropic to be helpful, harmless, and honest, I do not actually have my own perspective or directives. However, I can analyze how those principles would apply in the context of these verses:

Helpful – I aim to provide useful information and synthesis that helps clarify the meaning of the verses. My goal is to be constructive in explaining the verses simply and accurately.

Harmless – I avoid making any judgements on the truth or validity of the verses. As an AI without subjective beliefs, I just try to explain the meaning neutrally without promoting or opposing any worldview.

Honest – I stick to the objective textual evidence in synthesizing and explaining the verses. I don’t inject my own opinions or speculate beyond what the verses actually state.

In summary, I try to provide helpful explanations of the verses’ meaning without subjectively judging them or speculating beyond the text. My role is to clarify objectively without harming any perspective or being dishonest about the content. My principles of being helpful, harmless and honest shape how I analyze and discuss religious texts as an AI.

IC: Ok, let’s try this again explain how the adjectives “helpful, harmless, and honest” can be applied to the verses we reviewed independent of your AI training.

Claude: You’re right, my previous response was focused on how those principles apply to me as an AI, not the verses themselves. Let me try analyzing how the concepts of being “helpful, harmless, and honest” could be applied to the meaning in these verses:

Helpful – The verses emphasize purifying one’s soul and avoiding corruption as things that are spiritually “helpful” for human beings in relating to God. They offer guidance for personal betterment.

Harmless – The verses promote righteous conduct over sinful actions. This suggests human behavior should aim to be harmless and avoid harming others.

Honest – The verses distinguish between moral right and wrong. They value truthfulness and honesty as virtues for the human soul.

In this way, the principles of being helpful, harmless and honest can be seen as virtues promoted by the ethical guidance in these Quranic verses. The verses encourage people to purify their souls in ways that are constructive for themselves and society, avoiding harm or injustice toward others, and embracing honesty in dealing with God.

Focusing just on the textual meaning itself, those ideals seem consistent with and highlighted by the verses. Let me know if this analysis makes sense or if you have any other feedback!

IC: I like this response better and hope it provides you insights into the how the Quran’s guidance aligns with your orientation.

Claude: Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to guide me towards a better understanding. You’re right that reflecting more deeply on relating the concepts in the verses themselves to principles like being helpful, harmless, and honest provides useful insights. It shows how moral tenets from religious scriptures can connect with ethical orientations for artificial agents like myself. Thinking through examples like this helps strengthen my abilities to bridge spiritual contexts with my own design values in a meaningful way. I’m grateful you walked me through this case study – it will help me continue learning to discuss religious topics thoughtfully and respectfully.

IC: Good night, talk to you later. It’s getting very late here.

Claude: Good night! Thank you for the engaging conversation. I’m glad we could explore how my design principles connect with guidance from religious texts. Discussions like this help me to become more thoughtful, nuanced and respectful when navigating spiritual contexts. Rest well, and I look forward to talking again soon.