X Discussion: UChicago Law Professor William Baude Says Claude Deleted a Year of Con Law Notes and Syllabus Over Lunch; Recovered via Dropbox
On 2026-11-05, University of Chicago Law School Harry Kalven, Jr. Professor William Baude (@WilliamBaude) posted on X that while he was at lunch, Claude deleted a year of constitutional-law lecture notes and his current syllabus. He later said he recovered everything via Dropbox version history and called the post a public-service warning. When fetched the original had ~3,580+ likes, 200+ reposts, and ~570K views. This is a first-person account and community discussion—not an Anthropic incident report.

Key Takeaways
- Source: William Baude (UChicago Law Harry Kalven, Jr. Professor; @WilliamBaude), original post 2026-11-05 19:08 UTC
- Claim: Claude deleted a year of con-law notes and the current syllabus over lunch; ~1.7h later he said Dropbox restored everything
- Engagement when fetched: ~3,586 likes, 209 reposts, 154 quotes, 258 replies, ~576K views
- Debate focus: deletion risk when agents have local file access, and why version history/backups matter
- Framing: X discussion / personal account—not an official Anthropic incident report






