Anthropic wants to expand the cloud’s AI agent capabilities and take advantage of the growing hype around cloud code — and it’s doing so with a brand new feature released Monday, codenamed “Cloud Cowork.”
“Collaboration can perform many of the tasks that cloud code can handle, but in a more accessible form for non-coding tasks,” Anthropic wrote in an article. blog post. The company is releasing it as a “research preview” so the team can learn more about how people use it and can continue building accordingly. So far, Cowork is only available through the cloud’s macOS app, and only to customers of Anthropic’s power-user tier, Cloud Max, which costs $100 to $200 per month, depending on usage.
Here’s how Cloud Cowork works: A user gives the cloud access to a folder on their computer, allowing the chatbot to read, edit, or create files. (Examples given by Anthropic include the ability to “reorganize your downloads by sorting and renaming each file, create a new spreadsheet with a list of expenses from a pile of screenshots, or create a first draft of a report from your scattered notes.”) The cloud will provide regular updates on what it’s working on, and users can also use existing connectors To link it to external information (like Asana, Notion, PayPal, and other supported partners) or to link it to the cloud in Chrome for browser-related tasks.
“You don’t need to manually provide context or convert the cloud’s output to the correct format,” Anthropic wrote. “Nor do you have to wait for the cloud to finish before adding further thoughts or feedback: You can queue up tasks and let the cloud work through them in parallel. It feels less like back-and-forth and more like leaving a message for a colleague.”
The new feature is part of Anthropic (and its competitors)’s bid to truly provide the most useful AI agents to both consumers and enterprises. AI agents have come a long way from their humble beginnings as theoretically useful tools, but there’s still a lot of development needed before you’ll see your non-tech-industry friends using them to complete everyday tasks.
Anthropic’s “Skills for Cloud,” announced in October, was a partial precursor to Cowork. Starting in October, the cloud can improve personalized tasks and jobs, “through folders containing instructions, scripts, and resources that the cloud can load when needed to make it smarter at specific work tasks – from working with Excel to following your organization’s brand guidelines,” according to a release issued at the time. People can also build their own skills for the cloud relative to their specific jobs and tasks they need to complete.
As part of the announcement, Anthropic warned about the potential dangers of using Cowork and other AI agent tools, namely the fact that if instructions are not clear, the cloud has the ability to delete local files and take other “potentially destructive actions” – and with accelerated injection attacks, there are a number of potential security concerns. Prompt injection attacks often involve bad actors hiding malicious text in the website the model is referring to, which instructs the model to bypass its security measures and do something harmful, such as handing over personal data. “Agent security – that is, the act of securing the real-world activities of the cloud – is still an active area of growth in the industry,” Anthropic wrote.
Cloud Max subscribers try out the new feature by clicking “Cowork” in the sidebar of the macOS app. Other users can join in waiting list.
