Anthropic launches Claude Chrome extension: How to try it

Anthropic is easing into the AI browser war with a Claude browser extension for Chrome.

On Tuesday, the AI company announced a pilot program for a version of Claude that can browse the web on the user's behalf. The pilot will only be available to 1,000 members of the Claude Max plan, a subscription tier for power users that costs $200 a month. Anthropic says it's treading cautiously to address the safety and security risks.

A demo video for the Claude extension shows Claude in the sidebar of the Chrome window taking on various tasks. This includes finding house listings that match specific criteria on Zillow, summarizing comments in a Google Doc, and adding a noodle dish to a DoorDash cart. This is similar to other AI browsers like Perplexity Comet or web browsing agents like ChatGPT agent.

AI browsers are the latest frontier for AI companies to claim. AI models are becoming advanced enough to automate certain tasks online through search and multi-step reasoning.

But handing over the reins to a bot opens up a whole new realm of security risks. In addition to user error, you know have to worry about agent error. What if a browsing agent accidentally sends an unfinished email draft or orders the wrong product?

However, the biggest risk, according to Anthropic, is prompt injection attacks. These attacks come from malicious actors who hide prompts inside emails, documents, or websites to try and trick the model into doing something it shouldn't.

Without safety mitigations applied, Anthropic said Claude fell prey to prompt injection attacks 23 percent of the time. To combat this, Anthropic has added safety mitigations like giving users the ability to revoke Claude's access to sites at any time and confirm with the user before taking any high-risk action. That includes sending emails or making purchases.

You can sign up for the waitlist to join the Claude for Chrome pilot program. Anthropic is starting with 1,000 Max members and gradually rolling out the browser agent to more users based on pilot feedback.