Anthropic Says Users Can't Be Needlessly Cruel to Claude

Anthropic today updated its usage policy (via The Verge) to bar users from subjecting Claude to "sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior." Anthropic says the abuse rule is meant to apply only in extreme cases, where users "repeatedly act cruelly" toward the AI models with "no discernible purpose." The rule does not apply to ordinary user frustration, pushback, dark creative themes, or model testing and research. Claude models are already able to end such conversations with persistently abusive users, and ending the conversation will continue to be the main enforcement tool. When Claude ends a chat, no further messages can be sent in that conversation, but other chats are not affected. Anthropic initially gave Claude the option to end a conversation in August 2025 while researching AI welfare. At the time, Anthropic said it was unsure whether Claude has moral status, but the company wanted low-cost ways to reduce risks to Claude. Anthropic found that Claude Opus 4 had a "robust and consistent aversion to harm." The model demonstrated a preference against dealing with dangerous tasks, apparent distress when speaking with users seeking abusive conversations, and a tendency to end harmful conversations when allowed to do so. Anthropic's usage policy has been reorganized to bring together related clauses, and several other rules have changed. Deceptive campaigns - A new section on deceptive campaigns aggregates rules against political and commercial fraud and disinformation, prohibiting fake reviews, astroturfing, fake sites, and bots acting as humans. Elections - A narrower elections section prohibits deceiving voters and interfering with voting. Weapons - Claude can't be used to develop weapons software or components, and a new rule bans modifying biological or chemical agents to increase lethality or transmissibility. Users are also prohibited from using Claude to arm drones and unmanned systems. Law enforcement - Law enforcement rules have been rewritten. Claude can't decide or suggest who to investigate, arrest, charge, or prosecute. Tracking people without consent is not allowed, and there is a new ban on building surveillance tools. Doxxing is also prohibited. Physical actions - A new section on physical actions says that if Claude is controlling hardware that could harm someone, a qualified person has to watch the work and be ready to stop it if needed. Harmful content - There is a new rule that bans creating, sharing, or threatening to share non-consensual intimate imagery and the tools used to make it. Most of the changes clarify Anthropic's existing rules and are targeted at misuse Anthropic has tracked. Anthropic says it found state media outlets, government propaganda offices, and commercial firms were using Claude to run networks of fake accounts and fabricated news sites, leading to the new deceptive campaigns section. The new policy takes effect on November 12. More information on the changes can be found on Anthropic's website, as can the full usage policy. Popular StoriesAnthropic Launches Claude Opus 5.5 With Fable-Level Performance at a Lower PriceTuesday September 22, 2026 12:23 pm PDT by Juli CloverAnthropic today launched Claude Opus 5.5, which it says is the first model in a new 5.5 model family. Opus 5.5 performs at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 on most work, but costs 40 percent less to run than Opus 5. According to Anthropic, Opus 5.5 is a "major step up" from Opus 5 with improvements in performance and safety. Opus 5.5 is comparable to Mythos 5.1 in biology and cybersecurity, so...Three Years of 80% Charge Limits on iPhone: The ResultsTuesday October 6, 2026 12:59 pm PDT by Juli CloverSince 2023, Apple's newer iPhones have had an 80 percent charge limit for those who want to extend battery lifespan. Charging to 80 percent instead of 100 percent is supposed to put less stress on the battery, improving longevity. For the last three years, I've used that setting on my iPhone. I started with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, then did the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and most recently, the iPhone...Apple Releases MagSafe 3 Charging Cable Firmware UpdateFor the first time since February 2023, Apple has released a firmware update for the MagSafe 3 charging cable for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Specifically, Apple last week released firmware version 3.2.0 for the USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable. The previous firmware version for the cable was 3.1.12. It is unclear what is included in the latest firmware, as Apple does not publish release...