The policy prohibits using Cohere services in contexts where failure could cause death or serious harm, or where the service is used to make automated decisions affecting individuals in domains such as employment, healthcare, housing, financial services, or law enforcement. Back-office applications including document summarization, transcription, and internal knowledge agents are explicitly excluded from this prohibition.
This analysis describes what Cohere's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision establishes a categorical restriction on deploying Cohere services for automated individual determinations in high-stakes domains, with direct operational implications for enterprise customers in HR, lending, insurance, healthcare, and public sector contexts. The back-office carve-out creates a meaningful but operationally imprecise boundary that compliance teams must evaluate against specific deployment architectures.
Interpretive note: The boundary between a prohibited automated determination and a permissible back-office use is not exhaustively defined, and the policy does not address human-in-the-loop configurations, creating interpretive uncertainty for complex enterprise deployments.
The updated policy removes all substantive acceptable use requirements that were previously posted and enforceable. Users no longer have a referenced standard defining what conduct is prohibited on the platform. The removal of enforcement procedures means users cannot verify what conduct may trigger access restriction, suspension, or termination. The elimination of the child safety and sexually explicit content prohibitions from the posted policy creates uncertainty about whether these protections remain in effect through other terms or have been abandoned.
View change record →This provision restricts the contexts in which Cohere-powered applications may be used to make or inform automated decisions about individuals in areas including employment, healthcare, housing, and financial services. Under this clause, consumers interacting with applications built on Cohere's services in these domains should not be subject to automated determinations generated by those services.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle High Risk Activities Prohibition and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →"High Risk Activities. Activities (1) where the use or failure of the Cohere Services could reasonably be expected to result in death, harm to psychological or physical health or safety, or severe environmental or property damage; or (2) that use the Cohere Services for automated determinations about individuals in domains that affect their rights, safety, or access to essential services and benefits (e.g., employment, education, healthcare, migration, housing, law enforcement, legal advice/decisions, or financial or insurance products or services). For the avoidance of doubt, backoffice uses (e.g., document summarization, transcription, internal knowledge agents, etc.) are not considered High Risk Activities under this Usage Policy.Excerpt from Cohere's Usage Policy
1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision directly engages the EU AI Act's classification of high-risk AI systems, which includes systems used in employment, education, healthcare, migration, housing, financial services, and law enforcement.
Enforcement risk, jurisdiction flags, contract triggers, and due diligence action items.
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This provision establishes a categorical restriction on deploying Cohere services for automated individual determinations in high-stakes domains, with direct operational implications for enterprise customers in HR, lending, insurance, healthcare, and public sector contexts. The back-office carve-out creates a meaningful but operationally imprecise boundary that compliance teams must evaluate against specific deployment architectures.
This provision restricts the contexts in which Cohere-powered applications may be used to make or inform automated decisions about individuals in areas including employment, healthcare, housing, and financial services. Under this clause, consumers interacting with applications built on Cohere's services in these domains should not be subject to automated determinations generated by those services.
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