Anthropic has unveiled a new software standard designed to let artificial intelligence assistants like Claude work seamlessly with robotics and hardware used in scientific and manufacturing settings. The AI startup is releasing its "Model Hardware Standard" (MHS) as a research preview, giving developers in science, robotics, and manufacturing the chance to test how Claude interacts with the real world and to build necessary safety measures before the framework reaches a wider audience.

In essence, MHS stores the information an AI assistant needs to understand how hardware operates, eliminating the need to consult paper manuals or rely on the tacit knowledge held by a small number of experts. For instance, a factory robotic arm supplier could specify in MHS how AI should safely handle a heavy robotic arm, including limiting its movement speed or range of motion.

As AI technology continues to advance, businesses and investors are increasingly focused on how to apply AI to the physical world, such as in manufacturing, robotics, and scientific experiments. A report from Barclays earlier this year predicted that AI-driven robots and autonomous machines could grow into a market worth one trillion dollars by 2035. Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), OpenAI, and NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) are also developing AI models and software tailored for robotics.

Anthropic said on Thursday that industry players can join a waitlist to request access to MHS. The company plans to open-source the framework after the preview period, allowing any hardware maker to build their own MHS specifications, although Anthropic declined to reveal a specific timeline.

Jonah Cool, one of the leaders of collaboration and deployment efforts in Anthropic's life sciences division, noted that scientific research often stalls because the necessary equipment is inaccessible or too technically challenging to operate. "With MHS, Claude can become a tool that helps scientists use the right equipment in an expert-level way," he said.

Anthropic has already introduced and promoted a standard for software applications called the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which makes it easier for AI assistants to interact with third-party apps. This has enabled Claude and its chatbot rival ChatGPT to connect with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Slack, for example.

Alek Kemeny, a member of Anthropic's technical team, drew a direct comparison between the two standards: "What MCP does for software, MHS will do for the hardware world." He added that the value could be especially significant in science labs, which often house dozens or even hundreds of devices.

Anthropic has already tested the hardware framework with several industry partners, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), life sciences and diagnostics company Danaher Corp (NYSE: DHR), AI open-source community Hugging Face, and Raspberry Pi. In a promotional video released by Anthropic, the company showcased a scientist at biotech firm Genentech Inc. sending a PDF of an experiment they designed to Claude, after which the AI assistant was able to autonomously execute the experiment using hardware equipped with MHS specifications.