The Awkward Middle Ground

Cowork launched two weeks ago as "Claude Code for the rest of your work." Today we assess what the first fortnight reveals: proof points that work, honest critiques that cut deep, a cautionary tale about deleted files, and the design question at the heart of AI democratisation.In this episode:Why Cowork exists — developers were using Claude Code for everything except codingThe proof points — Lenny Rachitsky's 320 transcripts analysed in 15 minutesThe honest critique — Claire Vo on the "awkward middle ground"The safety story — 11GB deleted, and Anthropic's responseThe design question — where should agent interfaces live?Links:Anthropic's Cowork announcement: https://www.anthropic.com/news/coworkSimon Willison's first impressions: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/12/claude-cowork/Claire Vo's review: https://x.com/clairevo/status/2010835704931369379 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.