Anthropic has raised eyebrows by announcing it will ban users from “sustained and needless” abusive behaviour towards its AI.<\/p>\n
The Claude-maker said on Thursday it was updating its usage policy to let its tools end interactions where people are “cruel” – something it said it had done in “rare” cases prior.<\/p>\n
It will now be included on a list of forbidden conduct which also contains bullying others, promoting self-harm and creating non-consensual intimate imagery.<\/p>\n
While Anthropic said the policy would only apply in “extreme cases” of repeated abuse, it has reignited debate over how we should communicate with AI tools.<\/p>\n
The company said it would not apply to “common versions of user frustration, pushback, dark creative themes, or model testing and research” – suggesting it would only apply in clearly deliberate instances.<\/p>\n
But what Anthropic would consider “abusive or cruel behaviour” towards its models remains unclear.<\/p>\n
Screenshots of the new policy have been widely shared and commented on across social media – with some praising it as advancing good manners or “model welfare”.<\/p>\n
But others criticised the plan, with one person calling it “deeply wrong, external<\/a>” and another suggesting it might undermine abuse directed at humans and animals.<\/p>\n “You can’t be cruel to numbers and maths,” wrote Dr Barry Scannell, technology partner at Irish law firm William Fry, on LinkedIn, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n “This level of anthropomorphisation of AI is harmful. It leads people to believe that it’s something it’s not.”<\/p>\n