Anthropic Launches Hardware Standard for AI Agent Control

Anthropic announced Thursday a new interface designed to bridge AI systems and physical hardware, marking the company's most significant push into the physical world to date.

The Model Hardware Standard (MHS) provides a standardized way for AI agents to communicate with and control machinery equipped with programmable interfaces. The technology targets applications in scientific research, advanced manufacturing, and robotics, functioning similarly to how USB-C standardizes data transmission between consumer devices.

Why it matters

As AI companies race to move beyond chatbots, the ability to reliably control physical systems represents a critical frontier. A standardized interface could accelerate AI adoption in industrial settings by eliminating custom integration work, while Anthropic's plan to open-source the technology may help establish it as an industry benchmark—potentially giving the company influence over how AI agents interact with the physical world even if competitors' models are used.

Targeting enterprise and scientific applications

"We built this for science to sort of show the promise of AI, but there's also huge benefits here for enterprise and for industry," Elizabeth Kelly, Anthropic's head of beneficial deployments, told CNBC.

The standard is designed to reduce setup and integration time for companies deploying AI-controlled hardware. Notably, MHS is model-agnostic, meaning organizations can use it with any AI system rather than being locked into Anthropic's Claude models.

Anthropic is initially rolling out MHS to a select group of organizations in science, robotics, and manufacturing through a research preview. The company plans to eventually open-source the standard, allowing any device manufacturer across industries to adopt it.

Expanding hardware ambitions

The announcement reflects Anthropic's growing hardware focus as it competes with rivals who have invested heavily in physical AI systems. OpenAI and Amazon have poured billions into designing AI-native devices and manufacturing tools.

Anthropic is building a silicon team to develop custom chips for its models and recently hired Caitlin Kalinowski, a hardware executive with experience at OpenAI, Meta, and Apple, according to LinkedIn.

The company previously open-sourced the Model Context Protocol in 2024, which simplifies connections between AI agents and data sources. That standard gained traction in the developer community, suggesting Anthropic's approach of releasing open standards could prove effective for MHS adoption as well.

These details were first reported by CNBC.