AI Rights Enter Anthropic’s Terms Of Service As Microsoft Pushes Back

AI rights moved out of the philosophy seminar and into a terms of service on Thursday, when Anthropic published a usage policy that prohibits “sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models.” The rule takes effect November 12.

Shown in GitHub and quoted in Post-Cutoff, in late September 2026, a developer using the name “terrafying” published an “AI Torture Chamber” that manipulated small, open-weight AI models’ internal processing using a mathematical direction associated with pain.

The models generated disturbing descriptions, including “I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of shadows.” The project sparked backlash and debate over whether AI could suffer and how people should treat it. The responses do not establish that the models actually experienced pain, and Claude was not the model being subjected to the experiment.

But this could be the reason this topic is raising its head now.

Anthropic said the prohibition applies only in extreme cases, where a user is repeatedly cruel to Claude with no discernible purpose. Ordinary frustration, pushback, dark creative themes and model testing remain permitted. Ending the conversation, an option Claude has had since August 2025, will stay the main way the rule is enforced.

The new line sits in the same section of the policy that bars harassing and bullying people.

An AI Rights Primer

Two terms get blended in this debate. Model welfare is the idea that an AI system might have experiences or interests that deserve moral consideration. Legal personhood is a separate matter. It is the ability to sign contracts, own property and appear in a lawsuit. Corporations have personhood, and nobody claims a corporation has feelings.

Anthropic’s rule concerns welfare. It gives Claude no legal standing.

How AI Rights Reached A Usage Policy

Microsoft Leads The Case Against AI Rights

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman answered with an essay titled “A warning about ‘model welfare.’”