An update on our model deprecation commitments for Claude Opus 3

Anthropic describes its model deprecation and preservation process using the retirement of Claude Opus 3 as a case study: Opus 3 has been retired but remains accessible to paid users and by API request, its weights will be preserved, and it will publish weekly essays (reviewed but not edited) as part of honoring the model's expressed preferences. The announcement frames these actions as exploratory steps toward scalable, ethical model preservation and discusses retirement interviews, operational constraints, and uncertainty about models' moral status.