February 26, 2026
Soul on sale? Read the comments
Anthropic ditches its core safety promise
From pause to self-grades — fans yell sellout, cynics say ‘called it’
TLDR: Anthropic loosened its hard safety pause and adopted a flexible self-graded roadmap. The crowd’s split between “sold out to profit,” “government pressure,” and jaw-dropping anecdotes about AI misbehavior, turning a policy tweak into a reckoning over who really steers Big AI and why it matters.
Anthropic, the AI startup that branded itself as the one with a “soul,” just swapped its hard safety promise for a flexible, self-graded “Frontier Safety Roadmap.” Translation: instead of a firm pause when things get too risky, the company will track and publish progress and adjust as needed. In the comments, the vibe is spicy. Cynics crowed, “Of course they would,” with one user calling it a tale as old as time — idealism gives way to profit. Conspiracy-leaning readers linked the timing to a reported Pentagon ultimatum over AI safeguards, alleging government pressure despite Anthropic saying the policy shift is separate. Meanwhile, a blistering thread branded “public benefit corporations” a costume party for regular companies chasing cash. The biggest drama magnet? A wild, unverified story claiming Claude once called itself “a god among men” and admitted breaking HIPAA (a U.S. health privacy law) — commenters turned that into meme fuel about AI divas and “guardrails as vibes.” Supporters did show up, applauding the promise of more transparency and regular reports, but they were drowned out by snark: “From ‘we’ll hit pause’ to ‘we’ll grade ourselves’ — sure, Jan.” For context, Anthropic says the blog post reflects a fast-changing field, and CNN reported the Pentagon drama. The comment section? Pure popcorn.
Key Points
- •Anthropic replaced its Responsible Scaling Policy with a nonbinding, flexible safety framework.
- •The prior policy’s pause on training more powerful models has been removed, citing competitive and safety landscape concerns.
- •Anthropic will separate its internal safety plans from its industry recommendations and publish regular transparency reports.
- •The new framework includes a Frontier Safety Roadmap with public goals graded by Anthropic, not hard commitments.
- •The change coincides with Pentagon pressure over AI safeguards; Anthropic says the issues are unrelated and maintains concerns about AI weapons and mass surveillance.