Anthropic, a startup backed by Alphabet and Amazon, introduced two updated artificial intelligence models on Tuesday, along with a new feature designed to autonomously perform computer tasks, helping users reduce keystrokes. The new "computer use" feature enables the AI to "move the mouse, click, and type" to complete complex tasks, according to Anthropic’s Chief Science Officer, Jared Kaplan, during an interview.
This capability, aimed at software developers, marks a step toward AI agents—programs that can execute multi-step processes with minimal human oversight. These agents are considered a promising frontier in AI development, expanding beyond chatbots that generate text or code but can't perform actions.
Anthropic showcased the feature by demonstrating tasks like coding a basic website and using multiple programs, such as Google Search and Apple Maps, to plan a sunrise outing.
The company offers software developers three versions of Claude, its family of AI models, with pricing tiers based on performance. This week’s updates apply to Sonnet, the mid-tier model, and Haiku, the most affordable option. The new Claude 3.5 Haiku can generate computer code "almost comparable" to the version of Sonnet released in June, Kaplan said. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had previously indicated plans to update Opus, the highest-performing model, by year-end.
Currently, the computer use feature is only available in Claude 3.5 Sonnet and includes safeguards to prevent misuse, such as spam, fraud, or election-related interference. However, Kaplan acknowledged the AI still makes occasional errors.
Mike Krieger, Instagram co-founder and now Chief Product Officer at Anthropic, said the company is seeking feedback from business customers to refine the feature's development. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s labs are exploring ways to eventually offer the capability to consumers, a goal Krieger is particularly eager to achieve.
"I was booking flights," Krieger said. "I really just want this to be fully automated."
This release comes just a day after Microsoft launched an application allowing its clients to build their own AI agents capable of handling queries, identifying sales leads, and managing inventory.
