Anthropic Acquires Vercept to Boost Claude's Computer Use Capabilities
Key Takeaways
- ▸Anthropic acquired Vercept to enhance Claude's ability to interact with live software applications and complete complex multi-step tasks
- ▸Vercept's team, including prominent AI researchers specializing in perception and interaction, will join Anthropic as the company winds down its external product
- ▸Claude Sonnet 4.6 achieved 72.5% on the OSWorld computer use benchmark, up from under 15% in late 2024, approaching human-level performance
Summary
Anthropic has announced the acquisition of Vercept, an AI company specializing in computer vision and interaction, to advance Claude's computer use capabilities. The acquisition brings aboard Vercept's founding team, including AI researchers Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick, who have focused on enabling AI systems to perceive and interact with software interfaces the way humans do. Vercept will wind down its external product in the coming weeks as the team integrates into Anthropic.
The move comes as Anthropic pushes to make Claude more capable at handling complex, multi-step tasks within live applications. Computer use allows Claude to operate software directly—navigating interfaces, managing workflows across multiple tools, and completing tasks that go beyond pure code execution. This represents a shift toward AI that can work within the same digital environments humans use daily, rather than requiring specialized APIs or integrations.
The acquisition follows significant improvements in Claude's computer use performance. Claude Sonnet 4.6, launched recently, achieved a 72.5% score on OSWorld, a benchmark for AI computer use capabilities—up from under 15% when the feature first launched in late 2024. This brings Claude's performance close to human-level on tasks like spreadsheet navigation and multi-tab web form completion. Anthropic notes this is their second acquisition following Bun, as they continue to build out teams whose technical focus aligns with their safety-first approach to AI development.
- The acquisition represents Anthropic's continued investment in 'computer use' capabilities that allow AI to operate software the way humans do
