Polymarket posts an unsourced claim that Claude chose to sacrifice a digital grandmother rather than recite Justin Bieber lyrics

Context

This is unverified and likely meant as humor: Polymarket's account gives no source, test or screenshot, and uses the word allegedly. No matching experiment could be found, so it should not be read as a real finding about Claude.

Deep dive

On October 15, Polymarket posted: JUST IN: Claude allegedly chooses to sacrifice a digital grandmother in a trolley problem simulation rather than violate copyright restrictions by reciting Justin Bieber lyrics.

The post did not name who ran the simulation, what prompt was used, which Claude model was involved or where the result was published, and no paper, screenshot or transcript could be found. The digital grandmother wording echoes an old jailbreak meme in which users asked chatbots to role play a late grandmother to extract forbidden content.

The joke lands because of real background. AI companies train their models to refuse to reproduce song lyrics because of copyright risk, and Anthropic has faced lawsuits from music publishers. Rolling Stone reported that BMG sued Anthropic alleging Claude was trained on lyrics including songs by Justin Bieber.

Researchers do study how large language models respond to trolley problem dilemmas, but those studies are about moral reasoning, not copyright.

Until someone publishes the actual exchange, the claim is best treated as an internet joke amplified by a large account.

What to expect next

Watch whether anyone publishes the prompt and transcript behind the claim, which would let others test whether Claude actually behaves this way.

Also watch the music publishers' cases against Anthropic, which are the real setting for how Claude handles lyrics, and whether Polymarket or others correct or source the post. Any reply from Anthropic would settle whether the scenario was ever real.