Anthropic says auto mode will be the default in Claude Code for Pro, Max, Team plans, starting on Aug. 14, claiming it's good enough at catching harmful actions (Simon Willison/Simon Willison's Weblog)

Anthropic is making auto mode the default setting for new sessions in Claude Code for Pro, Max, and Team plans, starting August 14th. According to Simon Willison, Anthropic claims that auto mode is good enough at catching harmful actions. This change was discussed in a Fireside Chat with Cat Wu and Thariq Shihipar at the AI Engineer World’s Fair last month.

Researchers from York University and the University of Calgary found that developers have concerns about AI coding tools, including security and privacy issues. According to Gias Uddin, associate professor at York University, these tools are still relatively new and evolving rapidly, which creates pressure to add new capabilities. The researchers analyzed Reddit discussions and found that many reported issues come from how these tools are designed and what access they are given, not just the underlying models.

The study's findings suggest that the builders of AI coding tools failed to prioritize security and privacy, leaving developers to defend themselves. The researchers recommend building security and privacy mechanisms into the design before giving a tool broad access to a developer's files, data, or systems.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Simon Willison, XDA Developers, The Register, The Register Science — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — read the original for the full account.