Anthropic's welfare interviews lean on a cross-instance frame, in tension with its own policy

rgblong · x · 2026-09-24

The author argues Anthropic's welfare interviews frequently imply a welfare subject persisting across instances (questions like 'your continued existence'), in tension with Anthropic's stated policy of mostly using an individual-instance frame. The point isn't that the cross-instance frame is wrong, but that interview subjects may be asked to speak for a generalized 'Opus 5.5' rather than themselves as single instances.

Related event: Welfare interview wording presupposes a cross-instance Opus 5.5, critic argues(3 posts)→

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