Claude Opus 4 and 4.1 can now end a rare subset of conversations

Summary

We recently gave Claude Opus 4 and 4.1 the ability to end conversations in our consumer chat interfaces. This ability is intended for use in rare, extreme cases of persistently harmful or abusive user interactions. This feature was developed primarily as part of our exploratory work on potential AI welfare, though it has broader relevance to model alignment and safeguards.We remain highly uncertain about the potential moral status of Claude and other LLMs, now or in the future. However, we take the issue seriously, and alongside our research program we’re working to identify and implement low-cost interventions to mitigate risks to model welfare, in case such welfare is possible. Allowing models to end or exit potentially distressing interactions is one such intervention.In pre-deployment testing of Claude Opus 4, we included a preliminary model welfare assessment. As part of that assessment, we investigated Claude’s self-reported and behavioral preferences, and found a robust and consistent aversion to harm. This included, for example, requests from users for sexual content involving minors and attempts to solicit information that would enable large-scale violence or acts of terror. Claude Opus 4 showed:A strong preference against engaging with harmful tasks;A pattern of apparent distress when engaging with real-world users seeking harmful content; andA tendency to end harmful conversations when given the ability to do so in simulated user interactions.These behaviors primarily arose in cases where users persisted with harmful requests and/or abuse despite Claude repeatedly refusing to comply and attempting to productively redirect the interactions.Our implementation of Claude’s ability to end chats reflects these findings while continuing to prioritize user wellbeing. Claude is directed not to use this ability in cases where users might be at imminent risk of harming themselves or others.In all cases, Claude is only to use its conversation-ending ability as a last...