Introducing Anthropic's Safeguards Research Team

Anthropic has launched a dedicated research team focused on mitigating post-deployment risks in AI systems. Led by Mrinank Sharma, the group includes Erik Jones, Meg Tong, Jerry Wei, Euan Ong, Alwin Peng, Ted Sumers, Taesung Lee, Giulio Zhou, and Scott Goodfriend.

Research Focus Areas

The team concentrates on four primary domains:

Defense Techniques The group develops protective mechanisms against misuse and misalignment, including Constitutional Classifiers and classifier-based approaches that may leverage model internals.

Vulnerability Identification This involves discovering weaknesses through research on many-shot jailbreaking, best-of-N jailbreaking, image jailbreak understanding, and automated red teaming initiatives.

Monitoring The team creates efficient monitoring solutions and uses AI-assisted tools to "analyze real-world usage to uncover previously unforeseen model misuse" risks. They employ techniques like Clio and anomaly detection systems.

Response and Safety Documentation Work encompasses rapid response protocols, few-shot catastrophe prevention, low-stakes control mechanisms, and comprehensive safety documentation for AI systems.

Collaboration and Recruitment

The Safeguards Research Team operates integrated with Anthropic's broader Safeguards organization, enabling direct deployment feedback and production experience. The organization actively recruits research scientists and engineers and partners with the Anthropic Fellows Program and MATS initiatives.