Steinglass defends the rule on human-behavior grounds
Matt SteinglassEurope editor of The Economist, commenting personally
Steinglass defends the rule because deliberately abusive interactions could teach habits people repeat toward humans and animals.
“Actually think this is a good idea. Seems clear what sort of behavior they mean”
Original post
Where this statement fits
Should Anthropic prohibit abusive or cruel behavior toward Claude?
Anthropic says its updated policy targets extreme, repeated cruelty toward its models. Carl Bergstrom questions what cruelty toward an AI model could mean.
Source and context
Original post
About this source
Steinglass replies to Carl Bergstrom's criticism and argues that abusive interactions can teach habits harmful to humans and animals.
Before the quotation
Steinglass replies to Bergstrom's post about Anthropic's restriction on abusive or cruel behavior toward models.
After the quotation
In a further reply, he says a programmer who deliberately humiliated a model needed to hear that the behavior was wrong even if the model could not feel pain.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
He expressly supports the model-abuse restriction and offers a reason independent of whether Claude can feel pain.
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- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Anthropic
More from this case
Read the full caseBergstrom questions the meaning of cruelty toward a model
“It does not, however, explain what the fuck this could possibly mean.”Read statement
Anthropic explains its model-abuse restriction
Anthropic
“We’ve added a prohibition on sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models.”Read statement
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- Steinglass defends the rule on human-behavior grounds
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The Dispute Index. "Steinglass defends the rule on human-behavior grounds". First published: 2026-10-09. Last updated: 2026-10-09. https://disputeindex.com/events/5345-steinglass-defends-the-rule-because-deliberately-abusive-interactions