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ZDNET's key takeaways
- Anthropic is launching Cowork for Claude as a research preview.
- It's built upon Claude Code and can automate complex tasks.
- However, it comes with security risks.
Anthropic is testing a new feature for Claude that would give the chatbot more agency when handling routine but time-consuming tasks, like creating a spreadsheet or synthesizing notes into a presentable first draft.
Cowork, as the new feature is being called, is built atop Claude Code and designed to execute complex functions with minimal human prompting, all while keeping users updated on the steps it's taking. The idea is to hand over the raw materials that Claude will need to carry out a given task, then step away and let it do its work automatically. Through Cowork, users can grant Claude access to specific folders on their computer, and the feature can also be modified to use connectors, skills, and Google Chrome.
Also: Claude can integrate with Excel now – and gets 7 new connectors
“Cowork is designed to make using Claude for new work as simple as possible,” Anthropic wrote in a blog post. “You don't need to keep manually providing context or converting Claude's outputs into the right format. It feels much less like a back-and-forth and much more like leaving messages for a coworker.”
Risks
Anthropic acknowledged in its blog post, however, that using Cowork at this early stage of its development isn't totally without risk.
While the company said Cowork will ask users for confirmation “before taking any significant actions,” it also warned that ambiguous instructions could lead to disaster: “The main thing to know is that Claude can take potentially destructive actions (such as deleting local files) if it's instructed to,” Anthropic wrote in its blog post. “Since there's always some chance that Claude might misinterpret your instructions, you should give Claude very clear guidance around things like this.”
This speaks to the broader alignment problem that all AI developers face: namely, that models — especially those designed to have greater agency — can misinterpret benign human instructions or otherwise behave in unexpected ways, potentially leading to calamitous results. In a more extreme case, research from Anthropic found that leading AI models will sometimes threaten human users if they believe they're being prevented from achieving their goals.
Also: How OpenAI is defending ChatGPT Atlas from attacks now – and why safety's not guaranteed
Anthropic also warned that Cowork is vulnerable to prompt injection, a Trojan horse-style of malicious hacking in which an agent is instructed to act in destructive or illegal ways. The blog post said that Anthropic has fortified Claude with “sophisticated defenses against prompt injections,” but admitted that this was “still an active area of development in the industry.”
OpenAI, Anthropic's top competitor, wrote in a blog post of its own last month that prompt injections will likely remain an unsolvable problem for AI agents, and that the best that developers could hope to do was to minimize the margins through which malicious hackers could attack.
Zoom out
Anthropic has distinguished itself in the increasingly crowded AI industry primarily by building tools that are trusted by software engineers and businesses. In September, the company announced it had raised $14 billion in its latest funding round, bringing its total valuation to $183 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the company could be valued at $350 billion after a new round of funding.
Also: How Anthropic's enterprise dominance fueled its monster $183B valuation
The debut of Cowork hints at what could become a growing effort from Anthropic to make its flagship chatbot the preferred AI tool not only for coders and businesses, but also for everyday users.
How to access
Anthropic is initially releasing Cowork as a research preview exclusively for Claude Max subscribers, who can access it now by downloading the Claude MacOS app and clicking “Cowork” in the sidebar. For other users, a waitlist should be available shortly, and we'll update this when we have a link to share.
The company said in its blog post that it will use early feedback to guide future improvements to Cowork, such as enabling cross-device use, availability on Windows, and upgraded safety features.
