Research & Methodology

Studying how explicit value constraints can be implemented, measured, and evaluated in operational AI systems.

Research Focus Areas

Constitutional Constraint Implementation

We study how constitutional principles can be operationalized through weighted rule sets, compliance thresholds, and auditability mechanisms.

  • •Weighted principle hierarchies
  • •Compliance threshold design
  • •Evaluation metric development

Evidence-Based Evaluation

We examine how evidence-weighting criteria and source credibility hierarchies can be systematically implemented and measured.

  • •Source quality assessment methods
  • •Attribution coverage measurement
  • •Factual grounding verification

Quantitative Constitutional Evaluation

We study how statistical methods can support constitutional AI evaluation, validation, and deployment. Our approach combines defined compliance metrics with transparent evaluation criteria to create measurable, auditable systems.

This methodology is demonstrated in operation through Smart-Trends.io, which produces daily structured intelligence reports using these frameworks.

Key Research Questions

How can constitutional principles be quantitatively evaluated?

We study methods for measuring compliance against defined thresholds, developing metrics for factual grounding, source attribution, and perspective balance that enable objective assessment.

What are the tradeoffs between viewpoint diversity and evidence weighting?

We examine how source credibility hierarchies interact with perspective balance requirements, studying the design space of systems that maintain both evidence standards and viewpoint representation.

How does explicit value documentation affect system transparency?

We examine whether documented constitutional principles with defined weights and thresholds support improved system predictability and auditability compared to implicit value encoding.

What evaluation frameworks enable constitutional compliance measurement?

We develop and test evaluation methodologies with defined metrics—claim source coverage, quote exactness, attribution coverage, hallucination detection—to enable structured assessment of principle adherence.

Evaluation Framework

Compliance Measurement

Our evaluation framework assesses constitutional adherence across key dimensions:

  • •Claim Source Coverage: Verifying factual claims trace to documented sources
  • •Quote Exactness: Ensuring accurate representation of quoted material
  • •Attribution Coverage: Measuring proper source attribution throughout content
  • •Factual Grounding: Zero tolerance for fabricated content or hallucinations
  • •Viewpoint Representation: Ensuring diverse perspectives in evidence-based discourse

These frameworks are under active evaluation and revision as empirical results accumulate across domains.

Research Outputs

Working Paper

Constitutional Constraint Frameworks for News Synthesis

A methodology for implementing weighted constitutional principles with defined compliance thresholds in information synthesis systems.

In Development
Case Study

Smart-Trends: Applied Constitutional Evaluation

Technical analysis of constitutional principle implementation in a real-world information aggregation environment processing 5000+ articles daily.

In Development
Research Note

Statistical Validation of Constitutional Adherence

Methods for quantitatively verifying that AI systems adhere to specified constitutional principles using defined evaluation metrics.

Forthcoming

Research papers and detailed case studies will be published here as they become available.

Implementation Architecture

API Endpoints

POST/synthesizeGenerate constitutional synthesis
POST/evaluateEvaluate against constitution
GET/constitutionRetrieve constitution document
GET/healthAPI health check

Integration Pipeline

Smart-Trends.io (5000+ articles/day)

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PostgreSQL + pgvector

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Constitutional Synthesis Engine

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Evaluated Intelligence Reports

Research Collaboration

We welcome collaboration with researchers and organizations working on:

  • →Constitutional AI methodology
  • →AI evaluation frameworks
  • →Evidence-based system design
  • →Information quality assessment
  • →Democratic accountability in AI
  • →Canadian AI policy

Contribute to Constitutional AI Research

Interested in constitutional AI methodology or evidence-based evaluation frameworks?

Collaborate With UsView Applied Work