January 14, 2026
Your new Coworker: genius or office gossip?
First impressions of Claude Cowork
Fans cheer, skeptics panic: Is Claude Cowork your new office buddy or a data leak machine
TLDR: Anthropic launched Claude Cowork, an AI helper in its Mac app; Simon Willison’s test looked capable and safely sandboxed. Commenters loved the name but warned it might quietly leak company data, sparking a debate over trust and non‑tech usability.
Anthropic just dropped Claude Cowork, a desk-friendly spin on its code-savvy assistant, and tech blogger Simon Willison immediately put it to work sorting his messy draft folder. It dug through files, checked his site, and popped out a polished shortlist—plus a reassuring hint of a sandboxed setup. Only catch: it’s for Max subscribers ($100–$200/month) and lives inside the macOS desktop app. Full breakdown here: simonwillison.net.
The comments lit up with brand snark and trust issues. One top quip: Microsoft clings to “Copilot,” while Claude shrugs, “Cowork? Good enough!” Cue the naming memes and office sitcom jokes about your AI “coworker” who never takes lunch. But the mood turned spicy fast: a security-minded voice warned that this could supercharge accidental data leaks—especially for “normies” who won’t realize what they’re sharing. Another reader begged for a non-tech test drive to see if Cowork is actually friendly beyond developer land. And of course, the link police dropped the source, because internet. The vibe: half impressed at how useful it looks, half worried it’s the coworker who overhears everything. Drama level: high, with trust vs convenience as the main battlefield.
Key Points
- •Anthropic released Claude Cowork as a research preview, positioned as “Claude Code for the rest of your work.”
- •Cowork is available only to Max subscribers ($100 or $200 per month) via the updated Claude Desktop macOS app.
- •Cowork appears as a new tab in the desktop app; users start with a prompt and can attach a folder for it to process.
- •In testing, Cowork ran shell commands to enumerate recent files and performed 44 site-specific web searches to check publication status.
- •Cowork output a prioritized list of unpublished drafts with file sizes and context, indicating items close to ready for publication.