Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Welcome to Prompting Curiosity, a podcast for the AI curious. No coding background required. I'm your host, Dr. Shantae Cofield, also known as the Maestro, and I created this show to explore what these AI tools actually are. Really, though, are the files in the computer, how to use them, and what they might mean for how we think, work, create, and move through life. Whether you're skeptical, intrigued, or already experimenting, you're in the right place. All that I ask is that you stay curious. All right, let's get into it.
[00:00:38] Hello, hello, hello, my curious people, and welcome to episode 39 of Prompting Curiosity. I am your grateful host, the Maestro, and today we are talking about Claude in Chrome. I know, folks, it feels like we cannot escape AI, right? AI. Everything is powered by a. By AI and fueled by protein or packed with protein. Like, I get it. It's everywhere.
[00:01:01] And a lot of the times you're like, I don't want it. I just, like, want it to be normal. I totally get that. But I do think this is a time where maybe you're going to be happy that AI is there. Hence why I titled this episode Claude in Chrome. Your browser just got a helpful roommate. So Claude actually told me about Claude and Chrome, like, two weeks ago, and I've been wanting to make an episode about it, but I also wanted to make the episodes about the dope stuff that I've been building, the dashboard, uh, and the automation.
[00:01:33] So here we are, finally talking about this dope extension. So, real quick, before we hop on into that, we are up to 27 ratings, folks. I think we've been kind of steady there, but we got a new review from labarbay Le Barbecue. I think that's how you pronounce that. You know who you are. Thank you. I. I promise you, folks, I read every single one. I read them multiple times because they make me feel good. So thank you. If you have left, uh, a rating. Thank you. Big thank you, if you have left a review. I know we have some over on Spotify as well. I don't, like, listen to stuff on Spotify, but I know we got some over there, so thank you. If you've dropped them over there. I think we have, like, seven over there, so just. Thank you. Like, it is really awesome to me that I put stuff out and y' all listen and then you. You rate it and you write back. So just. Thank you. So back to the episode. Moving back into the main topic, the episode, Claude and Chrome, as per always, my goal is just to keep you. Keep your curious minds informed and up to date whether or not you use the things that I throw out there. That is 100 to you, right? And that is where we're prefacing this discussion today about Claude and Chrome. So Claude in Chrome, what is it? It is a Chrome browser extension that lets Claude see your browser and take actions on your behalf. So for those of you wondering, a browser extension is simply a small add on program that you install and you're, you install it into your browser and it gives it extra functionality.
[00:02:54] This particular extension lets Claude do things for you in said browser. So maybe that sounds a bit sus. At first you're like, do I want that? What? But I've honestly found it to be awesome, which is why I'm making this episode, honestly. You know, I'm also not sure if folks even know about it. I didn't know about it and I like am all up in this and I didn't really know about it. So that's why I'm like, hey, let me make an episode and like bring some attention to it because I think it actually is a very cool thing. You know, we had OpenAI made, um, Atlas and I did an episode on that and that is their. They made their whole entire browser. And so it's like a whole, it's like another step, right? And there's a friction point and from a marketing perspective you're like, okay, well I see what that isn't. Uh, it's good in theory, but there's too much friction. Whereas this, it just integrates directly into your browser. Right. And honestly I, I, uh, I'm on board with it. I am absolutely on board. So apparently folks, Claude in Chrome first launched to 1000 Max Plan subscribers.
[00:03:58] So a thousand people who had that Max Plan, uh, in August of 2025, which is actually when I started this podcast. So, but I had no idea I wasn't using Claude and I had no idea also I was not would not have been a Max Plan user. Anyway, um, it was then expanded to all Max Plan subscribers In November of 2025 and then the following month, December of 2025, it was opened to all paying plans. Had no idea. So I have pro, uh, it's open to people have pro, people have team, people have enterprise. Um, and it's currently in beta. So beta apparently just means that it works, people are using it productively. But if you're using it, you're likely an early adopter and you know, weird behavior should be expected and reported, you know, reported if you're into that kind of stuff. You like reporting things, but it seems like it's a kind of. I don't say it's like a cover your ass type of thing for from anthropic, but like, I don't know, it works, but it means that they're kind of developing it and so there can be bugs and things like that. So it's like a get out of jail free kind of card, right? By calling it beta. So the tech behind how it works is, in my opinion, outside of the scope of this podcast, AKA I don't think you're going to care. Um, but for my few techies in the crowd, suffice to say that Claude is reading what's called the dom. The dom, that's a document op, document object model. If you know what that is, you know what that is. If you don't, don't worry about it. Uh, and then it's executing JavaScript commands to trigger the action. And in this case the action would be something like clicking a button, right? So if we pivot back to regular people speak. What I want you to take away from that convoluted description that I just gave you explanation I just gave you is that last part where I said it can click a button, right? Claw. I know, it sounds so, uh, trite and you're just like, it clicks a button, big fucking whoop. But it can click buttons. It can fill out forms, right, and input lines. It can do things on the screen and you literally watch the cursor move around and you watch it click things. It can do. If you've ever had someone like, take over your computer, uh, when you're forgetting, like any kind of service, it's just like that again, maybe it doesn't sound like much, but I want you to think about any super annoying, repetitive task that involves something like inputting text over and over again into fields on a page, or like repeatedly clicking buttons to execute an action, right? And, uh, my guess is that you probably can't think of a million things like that, but when you do think of something, Claude in Chrome will shine, it will come to your rescue.
[00:06:25] I personally first use Claude and Chrome to have it change metadata for my blog and my podcast pages. Because I was moved. I moved everything over and switched things. Sorry about that. Whistle. I moved things over and switched things. And this is like 25 plus posts for each, for each for the blog. And I'm on episode 39 right now. And so I had to do for this for all of them. And it was just so much like, click this and put this here.
[00:06:46] Claude did it for me. Claude and Chrome. I watched it, it clicked through the things.
[00:06:51] Incredible.
[00:06:53] So a little backstory there on how I even learned. How I even learned that Claude and Chrome existed. So, like I was saying, I just did this, you know, you all know I did this big rebrand for the podcast that required a domain change for the podcast. Uh, and because of the domain change, right, you get these little email alerts from Google and it's like, hey, these pages aren't being indexed. And I was like, I don't really even know what the fuck that means. So, like, I kind of know because of Lex, but, like, I don't like, fully know. So I was all up in Google Console looking to see what had switched over, you know, what Google was seeing, what was being indexed, what wasn't.
[00:07:28] And again, I don't really. I don't really know it that well. But, you know, who does know it really well? Claude.
[00:07:34] So I'm going through this and asking questions and, like, doing things back and forth.
[00:07:39] And at, uh, one point, Claude was just like, if you've got the Claude for Claude and Chrome extension, I can just open Search Console and tell you exactly what I'm seeing. And I was like, excuse me, you could do what?
[00:07:51] And it was like, yeah, I just, like, take you through everything. And I was like, immediately, yes. I didn't even know that the extension existed beyond a few conversations that I have with my very techie. Very, uh, I'm gonna call him techie. He's me. But like a year ahead, um, my friend K, and he was talking about Claude in Chrome and a bunch. And I was like, I don't even know what you're talking about. Uh, I don't really understand the utility of this. So, like, I'm gonna, like, put it in the back of my brain. Like, I heard it cool. But like, I don't really know any use case for this. And then one popped up and I was like, yo, this thing is dope. So Claude walked me through how to get the plugin installed. Um, you do need to be on a plate a paid Claude plan in order to use it. Um, and from there there's two ways to install it. You can install it through the Claude desktop through Claude Desktop, which is how I did it. And that's via the Connectors tab. It's in Settings, or you can go to the Chrome Web Store. No idea what the that is. I. I don't know what that is. Um, maybe as I'm saying that maybe I'M like, maybe I do actually, because I have gone it for, through it for Drive. Um, but either way, you go to the Chrome Web Store, you can search Claude in Chrome and then install via that. So what I'm going to do for you folks is I'm going to link the cloud support article that talks all about CLAUDE in Chrome. I'll link that in the show notes. You can go check that out, I'll walk you through it. But back to what it can do, right? Claude in Chrome, if you can interact with something or do something via your browser, that means that Claude can probably do it as well, whatever that thing is. There are a few exceptions. Exceptions would be login walls, CAPTCHAs, some JavaScript heavy sites. It does need permission.
[00:09:24] It does need you to grant permission to things and it cannot log into things on your behalf and it can't get past logins. Um, but it will ask you to like log in. It will ask you to go do the things that it needs you to do. It'll tell you, um, and it'll tell you, you can, you can navigate it to one of two ways. You can, uh, there will be a sidebar that pops out on the screen that you're looking at if you're using CLAUDE for Chrome, there's a little cloud for Chrome sidebar on the page that you're interacting with. Or if you're inside of Claude desktop, uh, you can talk to it from there. So you have, you have options. But the tldr, like why I want you to this why I'm excited about it, right? If you want to get excited about it, amazing. But why I'm excited about it is that if you are navigating a website or a webpage or anything via your Chrome browser, that means that you can have Claude look at that page and interact with that page and take action on your behalf on that page. I know that as I'm saying it, you're like, I have no use cases. Totally fine. I say these things so that if and when that day comes, you're like, hey, maybe what about, right? I, I know that this continues to come off like the rest of the backwards AI LLM marketing, which is that instead of a, uh, you know, the company building a solution for the problems that their customers have, they all said, here's a solution. Go find a problem. I realize that, right? And I realize that for this entire episode you're probably like, what the would I even use this for? I get it. That was me. That was me listening to my friend K Rave about it. And so I'm not here trying to convince you. I am here just wanting to explain, expose you to it, so that if and when something pops up, you're like, oh, wow, right? Because that was me. I had a use case for it. And then I saw the light, and then I was working with Lex and she needed to do like, uh, this, like, I think it was like, geotagging kind of thing or, I don't know, some. Some sort of tagging of these pictures. And it was just like, copy this, paste this, copy this. Like, over and over and over again. And I was like, dude, have Claude in Chrome do it. And she was like, what's that?
[00:11:21] It will do it, right? And you can actually take a screen recording so that you can train Claude on what to do. Um, or you can, like, you know, give it the normal prompt. It's incredible. Just. It is incredible.
[00:11:33] Yes, as per. Always, safety is a concern slash, something to think about, right? But real talk, folks, I definitely find myself getting to a point where I'm kind of like, yolo, I'm gonna just say yes to everything because, you know, the benefits to be gained, in my opinion, justify the risks that are taken.
[00:11:56] But as always, use your own discretion. All right, all right, One quick update before I move into the final section, which is the. Our, uh, typical how I used AI this week section. And this actually ties into this idea of, you know, safety and your own discretion. Kind of why I'm like, yolo, like, if people, if these hackers, the powers that be, want something, they're going to get it because they got all the power. And I say this, uh, because on April 7th, Anthropic released a new model called Mythos. It is reported to be a significant jump. Like, stepwise, they. They. There's a. There's a name I can't remember, but either way, significant jump in capability via stronger reasoning and better coding and its cybersecurity capabilities specifically are so far ahead of else that Anthropic has. Has put out that it decided to not release this model publicly yet. Translation, the model is too capable to ship. It's too strong, too powerful.
[00:13:03] The Sandwich story, if you're in this world at all, then, like, this is why I expose you to it. Because you're like, oh, I hear people talking about the sandwich theory, the sandwich story. If, if you're not. And you're like, what the is this? But either way, not this, this crazy model is being. Being released, has been released, uh, and it is just capable of so much which brings us to the sandwich story, which apparently happened. And, uh, this is about this model. It said during testing, Mythos escaped a secured sandbox computer it was contained in, figured out how to get Internet access, and sent an email to the researcher running the evaluation who was eating a sandwich in a park at the time.
[00:13:43] This is a story going around. Suffice to say that this is a super powerful, super capable model. And very much to me feels like one of those, just because you can make something doesn't mean that you should.
[00:13:58] Uh, I am happy that it's anthropic that, you know, has released it, but from what I'm reading, typically anthropic is only like two to four weeks ahead of OpenAI, which means that OpenAI, with the worst guy ever, Sam Altman at the lead, will be coming out with or releasing something like this, and we'll just turn it loose on the public because that is how he is. So, uh, you know, I don't know if that, like, sounds scary. I'm not intending it to sound scary, but, like, I do want people to be. I just want all of you to be in the know. There is a very big, powerful model that has been created and, uh, we will see what happens next with it. You know what that means for you right now? Absolutely nothing.
[00:14:41] Absolutely nothing. But as per always, I want my people in the know. So. Last part Last year, how I used AI this week. If you're new here, welcome. Each episode I share a quick example of how I used AI that week. This week, I used Claude to do one of my favorite things. I had it build a Google Apps script to automate forwarding of the utility bills to Lex. I know it seems once again trivial and trite, but that is the point. That is how I love to use AI. That is how I believe AI should be used. Not making these big, behemoth, scary, super capable models. I'm like, how do I forward this email automatically? I don't have to go into my email. I don't have to check it. I want it to just go to her. How do I do that? Uh, so Lex and I split utilities. Um, but the gas and the electric and the Internet is in my name. The water is in her name, and she is good about emailing me the water bill. I, on the other hand, never do it. And it's fine with the Internet because it stays the same, but the gas and the electricity changes from month to month.
[00:15:40] And, uh, they're in my name simply because I set them up. That's it, um, but the amounts change. And so I forward her the bill and then she sends me the money. The only problem is that I always forget to forward the email. I forget to forward that bill. I know actually you, you folks, my people. So I, my guess is that you get it. You're just like, yeah, it's the smallest thing and you're just like, don't do it. And then you're like, uh, the last time I actually did it was November of last year. It's currently April. And the last time I actually forwarded it was November because I'm like, you know, I'll do it next week. I'll do it next week. And then suddenly it's been, you know, six months. Uh, so I hopped into Claude and had it whip up a script that I could run in Google Apps script. And we did some troubleshooting and testing with it. And now those particular emails get forwarded to Lex and I don't have to touch a single thing. It just forward automatically. I have to look at anything. Cause I don't even go in. I don't. The way that I part, um, of the issue, I think is that I don't see them. I have it get forwarded. Like I set up a script previously, uh, that it tags them and basically puts them in a folder. And then I was like, okay, I'll have it automatically do that and then I'll go check that folder and it'll be easy for me to, you know, just forward them to Lex. But apparently that wasn't easy enough because it was still, I have to sign in. It's on a different email than I check out all the time.
[00:16:57] So now it just does it on its own.
[00:17:01] Amazing. Like literally just amazing. I don't touch a single thing. So. Another fun use case. I've spoken about Google Apps Script before.
[00:17:09] If you don't know what it is, give it a little Google. Check it out. It is a cool, uh, functionality. It's free. And it's just a way to automate things and connect things, um, and have processes run and be executed within the, the Google ecosystem, which is really, really cool to me. So that, my friends, is all for today. Hopefully you found this episode helpful if you did. How about we circle back to the beginning of the episode and you consider leaving a rating or review. We got 27. Let's hit 30. Can we do it? That's awesome. Like having Raid. It's. That's fucking awesome. So would love it. Just a little tappy tap, little stars. If, if you're listening via Apple. I know people listen through a bunch of different stuff, but um, if you're listening on any Honestly, I'll take ratings interviews anywhere. It's just that I only see them on Apple, but I'm grateful for it everywhere. But um, don't forget I also have a companion newsletter, the Curious Companion, that drops every Thursday. That is basically the podcast episode in text format. So if you prefer to read or you just want a written record of things, join the newsletter fam. You can head to prompting Curiosity.com forward/newsletter or you can check out the link in the show notes. As always, endlessly, endlessly. One more time. Endlessly appreciate for every single one of you. Until we chat again next Thursday, stay curious.
