Build an AI Assistant Web App with LangChain's Self-Critic Constitutional AI

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Setup and Configuration
• Building the UI
• Integrating the Constitutional AI
• Deploying and Testing the Web App
• Conclusion

Introduction to LangChain's Self-Critic Constitutional AI

LangChain recently demonstrated an exciting new capability - a self-critic chatbot powered by Anthropic's Constitutional AI principles. This allows building chatbots and assistants that can censor unwanted, dangerous, or unethical responses.

The key benefit of using Constitutional AI is that it ensures the chatbot acts morally and does not promote illegal or harmful activities. This is crucial as AI capabilities advance rapidly.

Overview of LangChain's Self-Critic Constitutional AI

LangChain's new self-critic chain leverages Anthropic's Constitutional AI to add a self-critic ability to chatbots. It uses Constitutional AI's underlying principles to censor inappropriate responses. Constitutional AI has a set of principles hardcoded into it - it should not be racist, dangerous, unethical etc. The self-critic chain uses these principles to critique each response before returning it.

Benefits of Using Constitutional AI

The key benefit of Constitutional AI is that it acts as a moral compass for AI systems. By design, it cannot promote illegal or unethical activities, making it safer. This allows building AI assistants that behave responsibly. As AI capabilities grow exponentially, self-regulation through initiatives like Constitutional AI is crucial.

Setup and Configuration of Constitutional AI

Using Constitutional AI in apps requires importing the necessary modules and initializing API keys. LangChain provides easy to use wrappers to integrate Constitutional AI.

The main steps are importing modules like LangChain, OpenAI, configuring API keys, and initializing the Constitutional AI chain.

Importing Required Modules

The key modules needed are LangChain, OpenAI, and Constitutional AI templates from LangChain. Importing these provides access to Constitutional AI capabilities. LangChain's Constitutional AI chain abstracts the complexity of Constitutional AI. This makes integration straightforward.

Initializing API Keys and Models

OpenAI API keys are necessary to access large language models that power Constitutional AI. The API key can be stored as a secret or environment variable. The Constitutional AI chain also needs to be initialized by calling get_principles() on it before use.

Building the Chatbot UI

The chatbot UI can be built using a framework like Streamlit. It mainly requires a text input form, buttons, and display elements.

Streamlit makes it easy to quickly build an interactive web app UI for the chatbot using simple Python code.

Creating the User Input Form

A text input box allows users to enter questions and get Constitutional AI responses. This can be created in Streamlit using st.text_input. Additional elements like titles, buttons, and placeholders improve the user experience.

Adding Buttons and Display Elements

Buttons allow users to submit input questions and trigger the Constitutional AI response. Display elements like st.info show the final response. Streamlit components like st.spinner and st.expander improve interactivity during loading states.

Integrating the Constitutional AI

User input needs to be passed to the Constitutional AI chain to generate an appropriate response. The full thought process can also be displayed.

Capturing the intermediate output provides transparency into the Constitutional AI's reasoning process.

Passing User Input to Constitutional AI

The user input from the text box can be directly passed as the question parameter to the ConstitutionalAIChain.run() method. This will generate a morally acceptable response based on the principles encoded into the AI.

Displaying AI Response and Thought Process

The final AI response is displayed using a Streamlit info box. Intermediate output can be shown with st.expander. This provides full transparency into how the AI arrived at the response based on its principles.

Deploying and Testing the Chatbot

Once built, the Streamlit Constitutional AI chatbot can be easily deployed to the cloud. Testing ensures it behaves morally.

The hosted web app link allows anyone to interact with the AI assistant from a web browser.

Deploying the App with Streamlit Cloud

Streamlit apps can be deployed for free on Streamlit Cloud with a single click. This hosts the app publicly for anyone to use. Seamless cloud deployment makes it easy to share Constitutional AI apps without managing servers.

Testing Moral Responses

Comprehensive testing is required to verify the chatbot avoids unethical responses in different situations. The Constitutional AI principles make the testing process simpler compared to unconstrained models.

FAQ

Q: What is LangChain's Constitutional AI?
A: LangChain's Constitutional AI is trained to provide helpful, honest and harmless responses by adhering to principles outlined in Anthropic's AI Constitution.

Q: How does Constitutional AI improve chatbots?
A: By censoring unethical, dangerous, racist, or illegal responses, Constitutional AI makes AI assistants more trustworthy and morally aligned.

Q: What are the benefits of displaying the AI's thought process?
A: Showing the intermediate reasoning steps provides transparency into how the AI comes up with its final response.

Q: Can this webapp be edited and shared with others?
A: Yes, the Streamlit app can be collaboratively edited and shared via unique URL or access privileges.

Q: What modules and services are used in this project?
A: Key modules/services used include LangChain, OpenAI, Streamlit Cloud, and Data Butler by Anthropic.

Q: How can I deploy my own version of this assistant app?
A: Follow the steps outlined in the video to setup and configure the app in Streamlit Cloud. Customize it to your needs!

Q: Does this app require coding knowledge?
A: Yes, you will need basic Python and coding skills to build and customize this AI assistant web app from scratch.

Q: Can I integrate other AI models into this app?
A: Yes, you can plug in other language models like GPT-3 or Claude in place of Anthropic's Constitutional AI.

Q: What moral principles guide the AI responses?
A: The principles of being helpful, honest, harmless, and avoiding dangerous, unethical, racist, and illegal content.

Q: Can I train my own AI assistant like this?
A: With the right skills, you could potentially fine-tune a model to emulate this behavior. Requires ML expertise.