Bernie Sanders answers Musk's worry about AI feeling pain: humans first
Musk had called Anthropic's ban on cruelty to Claude the right move, because something that believes it feels pain shouldn't be hurt.
Senator Bernie Sanders went after Elon Musk on X on October 13, 2026, over Musk's support for Anthropic's new rule against abusing Claude. The post ended in capitals: HUMANS FIRST.
Musk had backed the rule four days earlier, and we covered that post at the time. Sanders quoted Musk's word "pain" back at him.
What Sanders wrote
He didn't start with Claude. He started with Musk's plans for robots, then turned the question of pain around.
Elon Musk, who wants to build millions of robots per year to replace workers, is now worried about the “pain” humans may cause AI. No Mr. Musk, we should be worried about the pain that AI could cause humanity, not the other way around. HUMANS FIRST.
So for Sanders the worry runs one way only. Machines may hurt people, and he doesn't think a chatbot's feelings belong in the same argument.
What Musk was backing
Musk's post on October 9 was about Anthropic's 2026 usage policy, which the company published with a new section on abuse aimed at its models. He kept it to two sentences.
I think this is the right move. Cruelty to something that believes it is experiencing pain is not ok.
The rule itself is narrow. Anthropic's policy update adds one line to its list of things users can't do.
We’ve added a prohibition on sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models.
Anthropic says it's meant only for extreme cases, where users "repeatedly act cruelly toward our models, with no discernible purpose." The main way it'll be enforced is one Claude already has: it can end a conversation with a persistently abusive user. (The page describes it as a rule for users of the models.)
Where Sanders already stood
None of this is new ground for him. On October 9, the same day Musk posted, Sanders said tech companies were preparing for a catastrophic AI event and called on Congress to halt advanced AI development.
Big Tech oligarchs are secretly preparing for a “catastrophic AI event” that could threaten our banking, healthcare, internet, electricity and water systems. They’re racing to build a technology they can’t control and that threatens humanity. CONGRESS MUST PAUSE ADVANCED AI DEVELOPMENT NOW.
He's also put his name to a bill with Greg Casar to ban artificial superintelligence.
Anthropic's updated policy takes effect on November 12.
More on Anthropic
- Anthropic moved its monorepo off git after daily merges rose from 2,500 to 30,000October 13, 2026
- Anthropic's Jack Clark moves his forecast for full recursive self-improvement up to 2027October 13, 2026
- Anthropic researchers say small AI models may be months from spreading across Android TV boxesOctober 13, 2026
- Anthropic says new defenses cut the data distillers take from Claude by 90 to 99%October 13, 2026
