Computer Control + Angry Traveler

4:14

Dr. Ryan Ries popping in to bring some recent news that's both exciting and a bit mind-bending.

Anthropic announced last week that Claude can now actually control your computer — yes, you read that right — along with launching an improved version of their Haiku model. Let's break this down.

Quick note before we talk about Haiku 3.5 and Computer Control: in just a couple of hours I'll be co-hosting an Ask Us Anything: Generative AI livestream with Mission's CTO, Jonathan LaCour. It's not too late to join the party — sign up here.

Computer Control: What exactly does this mean?

Remember when we thought personalized chatbots were wild? Anthropic just raised the stakes with an agentic version of this. (Basically what we talked about in the Matrix just a couple of weeks ago).

Their latest version of Claude can now:

Search the web
Open applications
Input text using mouse and keyboard
Create calendar events
Write and test code
Plan and execute complex tasks

In a demo, Claude showcased these skills by planning a sunrise viewing at the Golden Gate Bridge, searching for optimal viewing spots, checking sunrise times, and creating a calendar event to share. It even built its own website. (mind = blown)

But Here's the Reality Check

As someone who works with AI daily, I need to add some perspective here.

While this technology is impressive, my team's early analysis suggests you still need to understand the basic process of what you're trying to accomplish. These tools work best when you understand the process you're trying to automate, the tasks are well-defined and routine, and you have the proper oversight and validation in place.

It's not quite "set it and forget it" — think of it more as a competent assistant that can help speed things up (still very valuable, IMO).

And I think it's also worth noting that Anthropic reports Claude performs tasks in OSWorld correctly only 14.9% of the time — better than other AI agents but still far below human performance at 75%.

Haiku 3.5: The Newest Model

Alongside this computer control announcement, Anthropic is rolling out an improved version of its Haiku model. In benchmarks, Haiku 3.5 outperformed the Anthropic Opus model, making it one of the most powerful models available!

The exciting news for AWS users? Haiku 3.5 will be available on Amazon Bedrock.

This is a big deal for those of us working on enterprise AI solutions, as it provides a more efficient (and likely more cost-effective) option for many use cases.

If you're interested in chatting more about building secure, reliable AI applications and how Mission helps companies control their AI costs, we can connect you to the right resources.

What This Means for the Future

AI Automation is Getting Real

We're moving from AI that can talk about tasks to AI that can actually perform them.

Increased Productivity

The potential for automating routine computer tasks is enormous, though we're still in the early days.

New Security Considerations

Giving AI control of our computers raises important security questions we'll need to address. Making sure you’ve got the right security solution in place for your company will be super important as you’re planning to take advantage of this technology.

So, what's next?

We're at an interesting inflection point where AI is moving from passive assistant to active participant.

While that might sound scary to some, I see it as an opportunity to offload routine tasks and focus on more creative and strategic work.

What do you think about AI taking control of our computers? Are you excited about the possibilities or concerned about the implications? Let me know your thoughts.

Until next time,

Ryan Ries

Now, time for this week's AI-generated image and the prompt I used to create it.

DALLE2~1-Oct-30-2024-12-21-13-5128-PM "Create an image of a muppet overhead throwing a computer. He is frustrated with his AI assistant because it booked him a ticket to Canada when he wanted to go to Jamaica. You should see the AI assistant trying to explain its reasoning."