Anthropic's Claude AI blocks video game cloning and reverse-engineering — sweeping new restrictions also hit legitimate developers and basic troubleshooting tasks
Summary
Tom's Hardware reports that Anthropic's Claude AI is blocking attempts at video-game recreation and cloning, including non-malicious reverse-engineering tasks. The piece cites user claims that Claude's Code and/or Opus 5.5 models refuse to perform tasks related to game mechanics replication and other reverse-engineering work, and mentions a text rule allegedly instructing the model not to recreate a specific existing game. It discusses potential motivations (copyright risk management) and notes there is no official statement from Anthropic yet, with broader industry context around AI safety and licensing.