[alwillis]

>The problem is that this is an incredibly niche / small issue (i.e. <<1% of users, let alone prompts

It's not a niche issue at all. 29 million people in the US are struggling with an eating disorder [1].

> This single paragraph is going to legitimately cost anthropic at least 4, maybe 5 digits.

It's 59 out of 3,791 words total in the system prompt. That's 1.48%. Relax.

It should go without saying, but Anthropic has the usage data; they must be seeing a significant increase in the number of times eating disorders come up in conversations with Claude. I'm sure Anthropic takes what goes into the system prompt very seriously.

[1]: from https://www.southdenvertherapy.com/blog/eating-disorder-stat...

The trajectory is troubling. Eating disorder prevalence has more than doubled globally since 2000, with a 124% increase according to World Health Organization data. The United States has seen similar trends, with hospitalization rates climbing steadily year over year.

[phainopepla2]

Your source says "Right now, nearly 29 million Americans are struggling with an eating disorder," and then in the table below says that the number of "Americans affected in their lifetime" is 29 million. Two very different things, barely a paragraph apart.

I don't mean to dispute your assertion that it's not a niche issue, but that site does not strike me as a reliable interpreter of the facts.