Anthropic released its latest artificial intelligence tool called "computer use" through its Claude chatbot to get feedback from developers. The tool can watch what's happening on someone's computer screen and perform functions with permission such as searching the internet and typing text like a human.

   -- Anthropic, which is in a race to develop large language model AI 
      capabilities alongside Microsoft, Alphabet, and fellow start-up OpenAI, 
      expects its capabilities to improve over time. It said the technology was 
      still experimental, and at times cumbersome and error-prone. 
 
   -- Jared Kaplan, Anthropic's co-founder and chief science officer, told 
      Bloomberg News it will be the first model to use computers the way people 
      do. Anthropic said some actions that people perform effortlessly, such as 
      scrolling, dragging, and zooming, "currently present challenges for 
      Claude." 
 
   -- In one demonstration, when an Anthropic employee wanted to go on a 
      morning hike to see the Golden Gate Bridge, the AI tool used the prompt 
      to search the internet for routes, map one, find out what time the sun 
      rose, and invite a friend with suggestions on what to wear, Bloomberg 
      reported. 
 
   -- It has also developed tools to identify when the computer is being used 
      to spread spam, misinformation, or fraud. Anthropic on Tuesday also 
      rolled out an upgraded Claude 3.5 Sonnet model with improved coding and 
      reasoning capabilities, and an upgraded Claude 3.5 Haiku model. 

What's Next: Microsoft plans to launch autonomous AI tools to help workers in sales, finance, supply chain management, and other business operations send emails, manage records, and perform other tasks. Microsoft said its Copilot Studio version will enable companies to build their own tools in a preview version coming out next month.

-- Janet H. Cho

***

Dear Quentin,

My husband passed away after a long illness. There wasn't much thought given to the financial aspects of the situation we faced as all assets were jointly owned. I am the title of the house, the beneficiary of both small life-insurance policies, and our business was jointly owned with the bank account for it in both of our names.

So I was extremely surprised to discover that, three weeks after his death, after I wrote a check to cover household expenses from our business account, our joint account had been frozen once his Social Security number was retired. I was told it will remain frozen for 40 days. (We'll see if that's true.)

Am I still the joint owner of this account? In the case of divorce here in California, marital assets are split down the middle, half his and half mine. I unsuccessfully argued this point to the bank when they froze my account. (I have little faith in the world right now after my husband's death has revealed the predatory nature toward survivors.)

Is my husband's estate now in probate and has no one bothered to inform me of that? And do I have to hire a lawyer? Our assets, including all the equity in our home and our bank account, come to $400,000, which isn't huge and, in my mind, not worthy of a lawyer's involvement in the situation. What should I do?

-- Widowed

Read the Moneyist's response here.

-- Quentin Fottrell

***

-- Newsletter edited by Liz Moyer, Patrick O'Donnell, Rupert Steiner

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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October 23, 2024 06:49 ET (10:49 GMT)

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