Proactive personal agents are the next shiny new thing in the AI realm, with Meta announcing Muse last month. OpenAI shortly followed with its own take, called Dots. So, Anthropic is a little bit late compared to its contemporaries, but the company has now announced Claude Duet. Revealed as part of a research preview, the tool is currently only available for a limited subset of users.
Claude Duet is built on Opus 5.5 and relies on information from the user’s Claude account, including memory, skills, and connected apps. It is available as its own standalone app on both Android and iOS. Furthermore, the agent runs on its own virtual machine, allowing it to operate in the background. This means that users do not need to have a Claude session open at all times.
As to what it can do, the agent will generate a brief of actionable items each morning. This list, which is based on data from connected apps, covers tasks it deems the most important, which is aimed at helping users prioritise their time and energy. The agent will also monitor apps and messages throughout the day, notifying the user when something requires attention. Of course, users can also entrust the bot with all manner of tasks, both simple and complex. Examples include scheduling meetings and building apps. That said, it does need user approval for things like making payments and sending emails.
For security, Claude Duet uses a new dedicated classifier and safety system prompt to prevent sensitive information from leaking. This system is designed to reject requests to share the strictest tier of information, like credit card numbers. Meanwhile, other sensitive data requires explicit instructions from the user. Other than that, the agent does not directly see passwords and sign-in tokens. Anthropic also asserts that it will continue to strengthen the protections, promising to share more details on the safety features later on.
In any case, it goes without saying that using the tool requires entrusting the bot with a lot of personal information. So Claude Duet may not be for the more privacy-conscious users. That said, those looking to try it out will need to join a waitlist, which is limited to US subscribers.
(Source: Anthropic)
