AI chatbot Anthropic Claude has learned to analyze data – to do this, it writes and executes the code itself

Anthropic has unveiled a new data analytics tool that helps its AI chatbot Claude provide “mathematically accurate and repeatable answers.” To do this, he writes his own JavaScript code and runs it, checking the answers he gives to users.

Image source: anthropic.com

The tool, which is currently available in preview, allows Claude to analyze data from spreadsheets and PDF files, performing calculations and presenting the results in interactive visualizations. “Think of the analysis tool as a built-in code sandbox where Claude can perform complex math calculations, analyze data, and try different ideas before coming up with an answer. Instead of relying only on abstract analysis, it can systematically process data – clean, explore and analyze it step by step until it gets the right answer,” Anthropic said.

For example, a product manager could upload sales data and ask Claude to analyze the performance for a specific country; an analyst can feed the chatbot monthly financial data and ask it to build a dashboard with key trends. Claude was able to perform these tasks before, but lacking a mechanism to mathematically check the results, his answers were not always accurate. Google Gemini and flagship OpenAI models have functions for writing and running code.