Anthropic adds file creation and editing in Claude upgrade

On Tuesday, Anthropic began rolling out a preview of a major upgrade to its Claude artificial intelligence assistant that lets the chatbot create and edit files — including Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint slide decks and PDFs — directly inside the Claude.ai web interface and desktop app. The capability, which Anthropic says is intended to turn Claude from an adviser into an active collaborator, is available immediately to Max, Team and Enterprise subscribers and to Education customers, with Pro users slated to gain access in the coming weeks and free users left waiting for an unspecified date.

Anthropic described the feature, officially called Upgraded file creation and analysis, as an expansion of its existing analysis tool. The company says Claude now has access to a private computing environment where it can write and run code, download packages and assemble finished files that include formulas, charts and other programmatic elements. Examples highlighted by Anthropic include transforming meeting notes into polished reports or slide presentations, converting stacks of invoices into spreadsheets, and building more complex assets such as financial models or...