whythismatters

Today I used Claude Desktop after not having used it for a while. It ran bash commands on my machine, like starting brew services etc. It did not have that capability before (I used to hook up some mcp to allow selective file editing), and nobody warned me that it currently has. Shady tactics, very invasive, freaked me out.

Same with their desktop app by the way, absolutely infuriating.

My first impression is that things have improved. I encountered some "honesty" though :)

Great post, thank you! So, let's resolve ancient Near East chronology and determine an absolute date for the sack of Babylon?

I recently tried to revive my account after not having accessed it for a decade or so. They asked for my gov issued ID, to be processed by the Persona service. Um, hell no.

The juvenile nonchalance with which some Anthropic employees seem to be talking to their AI (wacky, sick, cook, ...) is truly bizarre.

The author mentions Angular in the comments as a personal blind spot

Don't worry, in its final reply the agent will always present one or two things "worth flagging" to keep you engaged