Claude AI: Why are there so many internet outages? AI chatbot Claude going down is just one example of a recent IT outage. Anthropic's Claude chatbot recently had service troubles This week, AI chatbot Claude went down, leaving users unable to access the service via its maker Anthropic's website, but barely a week goes by without a similar incident at a technology giant, government website or hospital . One of the main vulnerabilities of the modern internet is the shift to cloud computing, meaning a huge range of websites and services now rely on just a handful of companies, such as Amazon and Microsoft. In the early days of the commercial internet in the 1990s, companies used to operate their own hardware and software, a bit like individual shops in a street.

Anthropic has introduced a new feature in its Claude Opus 4 and 4.1 models that allows the AI to choose to end certain conversations. According to the company, this only happens in particularly serious or concerning situations. For example, Claude may choose to stop engaging with you if you repeatedly attempt to get the AI chatbot to discuss child sexual abuse, terrorism, or other "harmful or abusive" interactions. This feature was added not just because such topics are controversial, but because it provides the AI an out when multiple attempts at redirection have failed and productive dialogue is no longer possible. If a conversation ends, the user cannot continue that thread but can start a new chat or edit previous messages.