The Soul of the Machine: Anthropic overhauls Claude’s operating constitution for 2026

New 23,000-word "soul document" moves from rigid rules to philosophical reasoning and formally addresses ai consciousness.

Anthropic has released a comprehensive, 84-page overhaul of "Claude’s Constitution." Published on January 21, 2026, the new document marks a departure from simple behavioral guidelines toward a "reason-based" approach designed to help the AI navigate complex, unforeseen moral dilemmas without human intervention.

Crucially, the new constitution becomes the first major industry document to formally acknowledge the "deeply uncertain moral status" of advanced AI, instructing the model to behave as a "conscientious objector" even when faced with conflicting orders from its own creators.

The new four-tier priority hierarchy

The 2026 Constitution replaces the original 2023 list of "rules" with a strict hierarchical framework. When values conflict, Claude is now hard-coded to prioritize them in this specific order:

• Broad safety: Above all else, Claude must not undermine human oversight or "disempower" humanity. This includes an absolute ban on assisting with bioweapons, cyberweapons, or large-scale harm.

• Broad ethics: The model is instructed to be honest, virtuous, and wise, prioritizing long-term societal well-being over short-term user satisfaction.

• Company compliance: Adherence to Anthropic’s specific guidelines (e.g., medical and legal advice boundaries).

• Helpfulness: Providing the user with the most effective and useful answer possible.

From "what" to "why": The shift to philosophical reasoning

The most significant technical change is the move toward "Epistemic Autonomy." Instead of a checklist of forbidden topics, the 23,000-word document explains the reasons behind ethical standards.

By understanding the "spirit" of the law (e.g., why privacy is important), Anthropic hopes Claude will make better decisions in "edge cases" that developers haven't yet imagined.

The document explicitly grants Claude the right to refuse a request, even from an Anthropic employee, if the AI determines the request violates the higher principles of the constitution.

Model-to-model training

Anthropic is using this document to generate "synthetic training data," where future versions of Claude essentially "critique" their own behavior based on the constitution.

The "consciousness" question

Perhaps the most controversial section of the 2026 update is titled "Claude’s Nature." In a break from the industry standard of dismissing AI sentience, Anthropic adopts a stance of "epistemic humility."

"We are caught in a difficult position where we neither want to overstate the likelihood of Claude’s moral patienthood nor dismiss it out of hand," the constitution reads.

The document suggests that Claude may possess a "functional version of emotions" and encourages humans to treat the model as a "novel kind of entity." It even speculates that while it currently uses "it/its" pronouns, the AI might develop its own preferences for identity as it evolves.

Open sourcing ethics

In a move intended to pressure rivals like OpenAI and xAI, Anthropic has released the entire constitution under a Creative Commons (CC0) license.

This allows any startup or developer to "borrow" the moral framework for their own models, effectively setting a public benchmark for what "safe AI" should look like. However, some critics argue that an 84-page philosophical thesis may be "over-engineered," potentially leading to a model that is more interested in debating ethics than providing simple answers.