Anthropic acquires Vercept to give Claude sharper eyes for reading and controlling computer screens

Anthropic has acquired AI startup Vercept to boost Claude's computer use capabilities. Vercept built AI that works directly on a user's machine, understands screen content, and executes tasks. Founders Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick are joining Anthropic with their team. The acquisition price hasn't been disclosed.

Vercept solves perception and interaction problems central to AI-driven computer use, according to Anthropic. The technology lets an AI model read and operate human-designed interfaces from screenshots without needing a dedicated programming interface (API).

Vercept will shut down its desktop AI agent "Vy" in the coming weeks. What likely caught Anthropic's attention is the startup's "VyUI" interface recognition model, which reportedly outperformed comparable OpenAI technology in benchmarks.

Claude already handles multi-step tasks in running applications. With the recently released Sonnet 4.6 model, Claude scores 72.5 percent on OSWorld—a benchmark that measures how well AI models complete real-world computer tasks—up from less than 15 percent at the end of 2024. The Vercept team could push that number even higher.