'Reflect' with Claude gives users insight into chatbot habits

If you use Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot, and you're wondering if you're using it too much, assistance is coming from an unlikely source: Claude.

Anthropic says Claude's new "reflect" tool is designed to help users answer complex questions about their AI use.

That includes whether you're using Claude effectively, too often, or for too many tasks that are better suited for yourself instead of artificial intelligence, Anthropic said in a blog post Thursday.

What will Claude's reflect feature help with?

The insights dashboard shows key topics, usage patterns, and frequent tasks. Users can review their chat activity over periods of one, three, six, or 12 months. They can also set (and dismiss) quiet hours and break nudges.

The feature "invites you to step back and examine the role Claude plays in your life," the company said in its announcement.

"It will periodically surface questions like, 'What's one thing you want to keep doing yourself, even if Claude could do it faster?' and give you the chance to talk it through with Claude."

Given the growing concern about AI use, including cognitive offloading and atrophy, the feature could offer users genuinely useful information.

Users get in-depth details about how they "collaborate" with Claude, plus practical suggestions for prompting the chatbot without providing repetitive information.

The tool also incorporates Anthropic's proprietary framework for AI use, which helps decide how to delegate to a chatbot and how to accurately assess its outputs.

What about sensitive data and chats?

The insight reports do not incorporate incognito chats. It doesn't access files in connected tools, such as your email inbox or health data.

Reflection insights will cover sensitive conversations, such as discussions about mental health, but only at a high level. If Claude has previously shared mental health support resources during a chat, that information may appear in the dashboard as well.

Anthropic consulted independent experts to develop insights that would help people evaluate what works best about Claude for them.

Though Anthropic requires users to be 18 or older, Ryn Linthicum, Anthropic's head of well being policy, told Mashable that the company learned from youth developmental experts what tools could help young adults and parents of children better understand their AI use.

The reflection feature is in beta for free and paid subscribers with their chat memories turned on.