Leading artificial intelligence companies that are racing to develop the cutting-edge technology are tackling a very human challenge: how to give AI models a personality. OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have developed teams focused on improving “model behaviour”, an emerging field that shapes AI systems’ responses and characteristics, impacting how their chatbots come across to users. Their differing approaches to model behaviour could prove crucial in which group dominates the burgeoning AI market, as they attempt to make their models more responsive and useful to millions of people and businesses around the world. The groups are shaping their models to have characteristics such as being “kind” and “fun”, while also enforcing rules to prevent harm and ensure nuanced interactions. For example, Google wants its Gemini model to “respond with a range of views” only when asked for an opinion, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been instructed to “assume an objective point of view”. “It is a slippery slope to let a model try to actively change a user’s mind,” Joanne Jang, head of product model behaviour at OpenAI told the Financial Times. “How we define objective is just a really hard problem on its own . . . The model should not have opinions but it is an ongoing science as to how it manifests,” she added. The approach contrasts with Anthropic, which says that models, like human beings, will struggle to be fully objective. “I would rather be very clear that these models aren’t neutral arbiters,” said Amanda Askell, who leads character training at Anthropic. Instead, Claude has been designed to be honest about its beliefs while being open to alternative views, she said.
Anthropic has conducted specific “character training” since its Claude 3 model was released in March.