Something’s been nagging at me this week. Word is spreading that Anthropic — the company behind Claude — is starting to require identity verification for users. Not just a credit card or an email address. We’re talking government-issued ID and facial recognition scans.

Let that sink in for a moment. A facial recognition scan. To use a chatbot.

I’ve been following the online discussion around this, and the reactions range from darkly amused to genuinely alarmed. Someone in one thread summed it up perfectly: “You now need to submit your passport and a DNA sample for every website or app. How the fuck did we reach this point?” A bit hyperbolic, sure, but the sentiment is completely understandable. There’s a very real sense that the walls are closing in on ordinary people who just want to use technology without handing over their entire identity.