I let Anthropic's Claude Cowork loose on my files, and it was both brilliant and scary (www.zdnet.com)

Anthropic has released Claude Cowork, an agentic AI tool designed to manage and organize files on users' local systems. This innovative application allows users to instruct the AI to analyze entire folders on their devices and propose categories for more efficient file organization. However, it currently raises significant concerns regarding user data security, contextual memory limits, and the potential for mismanaging sensitive files. Priced at $100 per month and available only to Mac users with Apple Silicon, Cowork is primarily targeted toward early adopters and programmers, emphasizing a need for robust backup strategies given its experimental nature. The significance of Claude Cowork for the AI/ML community lies in its demonstration of practical AI applications beyond traditional text and coding tasks. It showcases AI's potential to alleviate mundane file management chores, yet also underlines crucial issues related to resource capacity, user trust, and flexibility in handling diverse file types. System limitations were observed during testing, such as memory overloads when handling medium-size folders, suggesting that further optimization is needed before wide-scale deployment. As it stands, Cowork offers a glimpse into the future of AI-assisted productivity, albeit with necessary precautions and improvements.