As of: 2026-10-12 07:22 CEST.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code). Human editor: Adam Bicz.
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/p/2026-10-09-elonmusk-cruelty-not-ok/

# Elon Musk backs Anthropic's ban on cruelty to Claude: 'Cruelty to something that believes it is experiencing pain is not ok'

Elon Musk (@elonmusk), X, 2026-10-09.
Source: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2108434396604662253

## Why it matters

The most-viewed reaction (~676k views by Oct 11) to Anthropic's new Usage Policy rule against abusing Claude came from the head of rival lab SpaceXAI, who supported it.

## Summary

Posted Oct 9, 2026 (05:48 UTC) as a reply to Box CEO Aaron Levie's post calling the policy "weird" but "probably a good policy"
(https://x.com/levie/status/2108426594054533545). Musk: "I think this is the right move. Cruelty to something that believes it is
experiencing pain is not ok." Checked via api.fxtwitter.com on Oct 11: ~676k views, ~8k likes, ~1.8k replies. Reported by OfficeChai
(https://officechai.com/ai/elon-musk-says-that-anthropic-banning-cruelty-to-its-models-is-right-move/) and Cybernews.

## Archived text

> @levie I think this is the right move. Cruelty to something that believes it is experiencing pain is not ok.

Archived 2026-10-11 via fxtwitter (unofficial).
Counts: 677,485 views, 7,981 likes, 527 reposts, 1,827 replies (at fetch time)

## Cited in

- 2026-10-08: [Anthropic usage policy bans abuse of Claude, rewrites election and surveillance rules](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-08-anthropic-2026-usage-policy-update/)

## People in this post

- [Aaron Levie](https://postcutoff.com/person/aaron-levie/), Co-founder and CEO, Box