Anthropic just announced via social media post that its AI assistant Claude can now control the user’s computer in the background via Claude Cowork and Claude Code. The user can continue working on the computer as usual while Cowork and/or Code do their thing in the background.
That means Claude can click, type, and launch apps without taking over the screen, mouse, or keyboard. If Claude needs to use the entire screen, it will first ask for permission. Background tasks continue even when the user steps away from the computer, provided it’s still on.
Claude will attempt to carry out tasks via connected services such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Slack. If that fails, it will move on to the web browser and use direct control of the computer as a last resort.
While Claude computer use has been available for both Windows and macOS, this new background activity feature is currently only available on macOS and only for Claude Pro and Max users. The feature will need to be enabled manually. It’s unclear if or when it will come to Windows.
