On Wednesday, Anthropic unveiled a newly enhanced feature for its AI chatbot, Claude. This update empowers users to design interactive applications driven by AI. Once these applications are developed, users can host and share them on the platform, making them accessible to others. Uniquely, creators will not incur application programming interface (API) costs when others utilize their apps; instead, those charges will be deducted from the user’s subscription. This new functionality builds upon the Artifact feature introduced last year.
Claude Can Now Build And Host Apps
The AI company provided details about this new feature in a newsroom announcement. While code generation capabilities have been part of Claude’s toolbox, the introduction of Artifact in June 2024 provided a collaborative coding environment where users and the AI could work together on projects. This enhancement has significantly broadened the coding functions available within the platform.
With this latest update, Anthropic enhances the Artifact feature by enabling Claude not only to write code but also to run it within the same environment. Users can now visualize and interact with the final product of their AI-driven applications. Furthermore, once created, these applications can be hosted on Anthropic’s servers for sharing with others. The integration of Claude’s API powers the AI functionality within these applications.
Notably, when another individual uses these apps, the creator is exempt from API fees. Instead, the charges will apply to the user’s subscription after they verify their account with Claude. There is also no need for users to handle API keys manually.
Anthropic emphasized that this feature allows users to leverage the Claude API within their artifacts to process files and develop custom user interfaces using React. Additionally, users have the option to manually personalize any artifact they create.
Nonetheless, the new feature comes with certain limitations; it does not currently accommodate external API calls, and there is no functionality for persistent or permanent storage—data will be lost once the app is closed. Additionally, it is restricted to text-based completions API, which could limit the types of applications developers can create. Currently, this feature is available in beta for all users of Claude.
