You can now let Claude take control of your computer to perform tasks like sending you a file you left on your hard drive, the AI’s developer Anthropic announced Monday. For the feature to work, you just need to be on a qualifying subscription plan.
In the wake of the viral explosion of the open-source OpenClaw framework earlier this year, Anthropic is the latest developer to deliver a tool that enables an AI model to act more independently.
OpenClaw has spawned an entire ecosystem of “claws,” or AI tools that can take simple commands and perform them somewhat autonomously on your computer or with your tools or systems. Nvidia last week debuted NemoClaw, its framework for easily setting up and installing OpenClaw, with some security settings.
Anthropic says that Claude will look for the right tools to complete the task at hand via connectors with apps like Google Calendar or Slack. If the tool or connector isn’t available, Claude can manually perform the task by typing or moving the cursor, as if it were using the keyboard and mouse. It can use programs like your web browser, dev tools and open files.
When it’s performing these tasks, it can use a computer as you normally would — by scrolling and clicking around. The only difference is that Claude will always ask for permission beforehand. You can stop Claude from performing a task at any time.
Giving your chatbot the keys to your computer can be convenient for certain tasks, but it can leave your computer vulnerable to attacks. Experts told us one major worry with agentic AI is that it can take major, sometimes dramatic actions quickly and with little warning. Claws can also be hijacked by malicious actors, who can use your personal data and systems in ways you don’t want.
Anthropic says it implemented safeguards to minimize risks like prompt injections. The system will automatically scan for this and more vulnerabilities as they are implemented.
Despite some of its efforts to keep Claude’s computer use safe, Anthropic also provides a warning to users. The feature is new and may contain errors, and the company suggests not using apps that handle sensitive data — so much so that some of these apps are disabled by default.
The research preview is available now for Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers and limited to computers running MacOS.
Anthropic says the new computer-use feature works well with Dispatch, which allows you to assign tasks to Claude using your phone. Such tasks include checking your email every morning or opening up a Claude Cowork or Claude Code session.
The combination of computer use for Claude and Dispatch enables you to do even more while you’re not even around. Anthropic says the feature combo can create a morning briefing or run tests, for example.
Given that both features are new, some complex tasks might not work the first time. Anthropic said it’s releasing this research preview to gain early insight on where it needs the most attention to become an even more powerful tool.
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