Anthropic has sparked a fierce debate over artificial intelligence after introducing a controversial rule against users repeatedly treating its Claude chatbot with needless cruelty, prompting warnings that it encourages people to treat machines as though they have human feelings.
The San Francisco-based technology company updated its Usage Policy on 8 October, prohibiting 'sustained and needless abusive or cruel behaviour' towards its AI models. The revised policy takes effect on 12 November 2026, raising questions about how far companies should go in regulating user-software interactions.
