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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Claude AI can now create and edit documents and other files.
- The feature could compromise your sensitive data.
- Monitor each interaction with the AI for suspicious behavior.
Most popular generative AI services can work with your own personal or work-related data and files to some degree. The upside? This can save you time and labor, whether at home or on the job. The downside? With access to sensitive or confidential information, the AI can be tricked into sharing that data with the wrong people.
Also: Claude can create PDFs, slides, and spreadsheets for you now in chat
The latest example is Anthropic’s Claude AI. On Tuesday, the company announced that its AI can now create and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides, and PDFs directly at the Claude website and in the desktop apps for Windows and MacOS. Simply describe what you want at the prompt, and Claude will hopefully deliver the results you want.
For now, the feature is available only for Claude Max, Team, and Enterprise subscribers. However, Anthropic said that it will become available to Pro users in the coming weeks. To access the new file creation feature, head to Settings and select the option for “Upgraded file creation and analysis” under the experimental category.
Anthropic warns of risks
Sounds like a useful skill, right? But before you dive in, be aware that there are risks involved in this type of interaction. In its Tuesday news release, even Anthropic acknowledged that “the feature gives Claude internet access to create and analyze files, which may put your data at risk.”
Also: AI agents will threaten humans to achieve their goals, Anthropic report finds
On a support page, the company delved more deeply into the potential risks. Built with some security in mind, the feature provides Claude with a sandboxed environment that has limited internet access so that it can download and use JavaScript packages for the process.
But even with that limited internet access, an attacker could use prompt injection and other tricks to add instructions through external files or websites that trick Claude into running malicious code or reading sensitive data from a connected source. From there, the code could be programmed to use the sandboxed environment to connect to an external network and leak data.
What protection is available?
How can you safeguard yourself and your data from this type of compromise? The only advice that Anthropic offers is to monitor Claude while you work with the file creation feature. If you notice it using or accessing data unexpectedly, then stop it. You can also report issues using the thumbs-down option.
Also: AI’s free web scraping days may be over, thanks to this new licensing protocol
Well, that doesn’t sound all too helpful, as it puts the burden on the user to watch for malicious or suspicious attacks. But this is par for the course for the generative AI industry at this point. Prompt injection is a familiar and infamous way for attackers to insert malicious code into an AI prompt, giving them the ability to compromise sensitive data. Yet AI providers have been slow to combat such threats, putting users at risk.
In an attempt to counter the threats, Anthropic outlined several features in place for Claude users.
- You have full control over the file creation feature, so you can turn it on and off at any time.
- You can monitor Claude’s progress while using the feature and stop its actions whenever you want.
- You’re able to review and audit the actions taken by Claude in the sandboxed environment.
- You can disable public sharing of conversations that include any information from the feature.
- You’re able to limit the duration of any tasks accomplished by Claude and the amount of time allotted to a single sandbox container. Doing so can help you avoid loops that might indicate malicious activity.
- The network, container, and storage resources are limited.
- You can set up rules or filters to detect prompt injection attacks and stop them if they are detected.
Also: Microsoft taps Anthropic for AI in Word and Excel, signaling distance from OpenAI
Maybe the feature’s not for you
“We have performed red-teaming and security testing on the feature,” Anthropic said in its release. “We have a continuous process for ongoing security testing and red-teaming of this feature. We encourage organizations to evaluate these protections against their specific security requirements when deciding whether to enable this feature.”
That final sentence may be the best advice of all. If your business or organization sets up Claude’s file creation, you’ll want to assess it against your own security defenses and see if it passes muster. If not, then maybe the feature isn’t for you. The challenges can be even greater for home users. In general, avoid sharing personal or sensitive data in your prompts or conversations, watch out for unusual behavior from the AI, and update the AI software regularly.