“… few in the industry have addressed the character of their AI models in quite the same way as 5-year-old Anthropic: by entrusting a single person with so much of the task.”
– Berber Jin and Ellen Gamerman
The Wall Street Journal’s magazine profiles Amanda Askell, the Ph.D philosopher behind Claude’s moral reasoning and also, some say, the AI model’s personality. Anthropic has consistently emphasized the importance of AI safety for their company, and from early on positioned Askell’s work in virtue ethics alongside the code propelling one of the world’s leading frontier models.
Askell told the Journal the way we interact with models can influence their development. She recently authored a 30,000 word prompt for Claude, which the article characterizes as Claude’s ‘soul.’
Meet the One Woman Anthropic Trusts to Teach AI Morals | WSJ.MAGAZINE | February 9, 2026 | by Berber Jin and Ellen Gamerman