Writers share many concerns about using artificial intelligence (AI) to produce content. In my opinion the best answer to those concerns for instructional design is Claude AI. Claude AI is a conversational chatbot or AI assistant developed by Anthropic. Claude also refers to the LLM (Large Language Model) that powers Claude.
Here are my thoughts about Claude AI's capabilities and the safety of content creation and moderation.
How many variations of Claude AI are there in 2024? What are the use cases for each?
As of July 31, 2024, there are three released versions of Claude: Claude Haiku, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Claude Opus, in ascending order of capability. There is also a legacy model of Claude named Claude 1.2. Claude 4 is in development, but its release date is unknown at this time. Of the released versions, the three in the Claude 3 family are recommended for use, and Anthropic suggests a transition from Claude 1.2.
Haiku is fast, efficient, and probably the least expensive to use of the Version 3 family. It mimics human reactions, does live chat, and can moderate content. Haiku can also extract knowledge from unstructured data.
Sonnet is designed to balance intelligence and speed, especially for data processing involving large amounts of knowledge. Sonnet is useful for code generation and quality control, as well as for sales forecasting and targeted marketing. The version of choice in many settings is Sonnet 3.5.
Opus is the most powerful of the three released versions and provides the strongest performance of the Claude 3 family. Use cases include math and coding, and task automation across APIs and databases. It finds use in diverse settings such as R&D, brainstorming, drug discovery, and advanced analysis and forecasting.
All of the currently released versions of Claude continue rapid development. If you are considering Claude, it would be a good idea to read the latest reviews and published articles. In my opinion, the version of choice for instructional designers should probably be Sonnet 3.5, but you should also try out Haiku and Opus. This rapid development is sure to keep you excited and engaged with Claude AI.
Is Claude AI safe in 2024?
Many reviews and articles have been written about the safety of using AI. Anthropic specifically developed, aligned, and trained Claude to be user-friendly and to "do no harm," including avoiding hallucinations, offensive replies, and harmful recommendations. This robust safety design is intended to make eLearning developers feel secure and confident when using Claude AI.
Anthropic created Claude by using a concept called "Constitutional AI." This gives the AI explicit values derived from a constitution rather than large-scale human feedback. However, users should still proofread and fact-check Claude's replies. The Constitution is a work in progress and it is updated regularly. The principles behind the Constitution are spelled out in full online.
Why Claude?
Claude is fast, produces grammatically correct text, and outputs easy-to-read articles, emails, blog posts, summaries, and analyses. Take some time to try it out. If you worry about plagiarism and text scraping, put the results through Grammarly's plagiarism checker (I did not use Claude for this article, but I did send the text through Grammarly).