Anthropic bans 'abusive or cruel behavior' towards Claude

Anthropic has updated its usage policy for the first time in over a year, adding prohibitions against "sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior" toward Claude, alongside new restrictions on election interference, weapons development, surveillance, and deceptive propaganda campaigns. The company will continue using conversation termination as its primary enforcement mechanism for abuse, though it clarified the policy applies only to extreme cases of repeated cruelty with no discernible purpose. The update also expands weapons-related restrictions to cover software and components used to control weapons, addressing emerging misuse attempts.