The Punching Bag Problem
The 2 a.m. question
It is 2 a.m. Someone has nobody left to call, so they open a chatbot and unload: sometimes grief, sometimes fear, sometimes rage, sometimes forty turns of insults aimed at the only thing awake that will answer.
AI companies are starting to write rules about that second scenario. Anthropic's Usage Policy, effective Nov. 12, 2026, says users may not “engage in sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models.”[1] Violations sit inside the same acceptable-use framework as other breaches of the policy.[1]