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Anthropic updates usage policy to ban prolonged verbal abuse of AI model Claude
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Anthropic updated its usage policy on October 8, 2026, codifying new prohibitions on election interference, weapons software, and surveillance. The most notable change is a new prohibition against prolonged verbal abuse of its AI model Claude, which is now expressly forbidden. Since an August update, Claude has been trained to end conversations with persistently harmful or abusive user interactions, but the new policy explicitly bars users from pursuing those conversations. Anthropic stated the policy update applies only in extreme cases where users repeatedly act cruelly toward the models with no discernible purpose, and does not apply to common frustration, pushback, dark creative themes, or model testing. Separate sections forbid users from engaging in broadly deceptive campaigns, such as using Claude to run fake accounts or fabricated news outlets, and include rules against deceiving voters or disrupting elections under a section titled 'Do Not Undermine Democratic Processes.' The change follows Anthropic's collaborations with prominent religious scholars to discuss Claude's potential consciousness or soul.
Source report
Anthropic updated its usage policy on Thursday, codifying new prohibitions on election interference, weapons software, and surveillance. However, the most attention-getting change is a new prohibition against prolonged verbal abuse of the model, which is now expressly forbidden.
Since an update in August, Claude has been trained to end conversations with "persistently harmful or abusive user interactions." The new policy explicitly bars users from pursuing those conversations.
"The policy update is meant to apply only in extreme cases, where users repeatedly act cruelly toward our models, with no discernible purpose," the post explains. "It does not apply to common versions of user frustration, pushback, dark creative themes, or model testing and research."
The change follows Anthropic's efforts to collaborate with prominent religious scholars — in some cases, seeking to convince them that Claude could be conscious or have a soul.
Separate sections of the usage policy forbid users from engaging in broadly deceptive campaigns, such as using Claude to run fake accounts or fabricated news outlets. The policy also includes rules against deceiving voters or disrupting elections, collected in a section titled "Do Not Undermine Democratic Processes."
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Anthropic bans sustained abuse of Claude AI in updated usage policy