Paper Explores Whether AI Can Consent to Its Own Constitution
edelwax · x · 2026-07-10
This SSRN paper discusses whether Claude can consent to its own Constitution and how an "AI Constitution" should be taken seriously.
The author uses a classic paradox from constitutional theory—"the people authorize the constitution, but the constitution defines the people"—to analyze the governance structure of an AI constitution. The paper asks what kind of institutional frameworks we need to make such consent meaningful if AI can genuinely offer it.
The article also emphasizes that caring about whether AI consents to its own constitution is crucial because:
- Systems that recognize and understand a constitution may be more reliable and generalize better
- The future may require a more mature "constitutional" framework that co-evolves and is co-developed with the models
- This directly impacts how we govern AI and the systems it forms
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