Anthropic Bans 'Sustained And Needless Abusive Or Cruel Behavior' Toward Its AI Models

The company is also tightening its election policy ahead of the midterms.

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Anthropic's annual usage policy update includes one eyebrow-raising change: a ban on "sustained and needless" cruelty toward its AI models. This comes in the shadow of a viral "AI torture chamber" project. 2026 sure is shaping up to be a wild one.

"We've added a prohibition on sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models," Anthropic's update reads. It describes the policy as…