Claude can create interactive charts, diagrams and visualizations directly in the chat using a new feature Anthropic announced Thursday. The new tool, which is currently in beta (so expect bugs), is no AI image generator. It's not a Nano Banana rival, but something completely different. In fact, you really need to see the feature to get an idea of how interesting and clever it is.
I tried the new feature by asking Claude to show me how to change a tire, and it produced a thorough, interactive step-by-step visualization that made me confident I could handle the task. It wasn't just a cool trick (though it was cool); it was a better way of showing the process than the typical block of text from an AI chatbot.
These new visualizations have a specific purpose: to give users a better understanding of the subject they're discussing with Claude. In some cases, a large block of text can be more clearly replaced with a visual, which is what Anthropic, Claude's maker, is trying to do here. The system determines when a visual might be the most appropriate response in a conversation so the information can be more easily understood.
Among the more interesting examples Anthropic shared are a step-by-step tutorial for making a "cool" paper airplane and an interactive periodic table that lets you click on individual elements for more information.
When Claude determines that a visual is the most appropriate response -- or when a user explicitly asks for one -- it generates interactive HTML and SVG files on the spot, built from scratch. Anthropic likens the feature to giving Claude an on-demand whiteboard.
The feature is part of a broader push by Anthropic to make Claude a more dynamic AI tool that can choose the best medium for delivering an answer. Even without a traditional image generator, the capability may be more impactful, providing visualizations when they're most useful.
The feature will be turned on by default, so no need to click through settings to enable it. Plus, it's available on all plan types, meaning you won't be paywalled to access it. It's currently only available for web and desktop and could come to mobile in the future.
Claude taught me how to change a tire
With just a simple prompt, Claude gave me a step-by-step tutorial to change a tire on the car I don't have. Anthropic/Screenshot by Blake Stimac
To see how the feature worked, I asked Claude to show me how to change a tire visually. Within seconds, it produced an interactive seven-step illustration of the process, complete with the tools required and explanations of the key steps. The illustrations weren't highly detailed, but they clearly got the point across.
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