Anthropic launches Claude personal finance beta as Pompliano accuses it of copying Silvia

Claude can now answer questions about linked bank accounts

Anthropic on Thursday launched Personal Finance, a new feature for Claude. The feature is in beta. Beta means it is still being tested with a limited group. It is available to paid Claude subscribers in the United States on the Pro, Max, and Ultra plans.

Users can link bank and credit card accounts through Plaid. Plaid handles the bank login. Users do not share account passwords with Claude.

Claude can then summarize spending. It can spot duplicate charges or unexpected fees. It can also explain interest payments and build charts or bill calendars.

The main points from the launch

• Personal Finance is a beta for U.S. paid subscribers on Pro, Max, and Ultra plans.
• Access through Plaid is read-only. Claude cannot move, manage, or invest money.
• Claude can view balances, account names and types, credit limits, the last four digits of account numbers, and up to 24 months of transactions from approved accounts.
• Anthony Pompliano, a crypto investor and founder behind Silvia, publicly accused Anthropic of seeking information from his startup before the launch.

What Anthropic says the feature can and cannot do

Anthropic wrote on X that access is read-only and Claude cannot move, manage, or invest money. It also said Personal Finance has no ads or sponsored recommendations.

The company gave an example of a user asking where their money went this month. The user then asked what remains before payday.

Anthropic's documentation says conversations in the Personal Finance hub are not used to train its models. It also says balances may lag. Users should check AI-generated figures against bank records.

Pompliano's claims about Anthropic and Silvia

Pompliano posted a complaint on X after the announcement. He presented it as his own claim. The supplied material does not include a response from Anthropic to the claim.

He alleged that Anthropic personnel began approaching Silvia engineers in April. He said they presented the contact as interest in the startup's growth and computing needs. He alleged the goal was to learn how Silvia built its product and why it was popular.

He also described an alleged steak dinner claim involving Anthropic representatives. He said his engineers declined to share sensitive information. He added that someone at Anthropic warned his team about the upcoming launch days earlier.

Pompliano called the new Claude feature a wrapper masquerading as a personal finance product. He claimed Silvia's computing costs are about 97% lower when using its own models and hardware instead of frontier AI models. That cost claim is from Pompliano and is not independently confirmed in the supplied material.

What is confirmed and what remains unclear

The launch, the U.S. beta, the eligible plans, and the read-only Plaid connection are reported as confirmed details from Anthropic. The privacy statement about model training comes from Anthropic's documentation.

It remains unclear how Anthropic tracks users' financial data and uses it beyond model training. The source article says that point is not completely clear.

Pompliano's account of the April contact, the dinner, and the warning is unconfirmed in the supplied material. It should be treated as an accusation, not a proven fact.

Why the launch fits a wider trend

Anthropic says Personal Finance is a first step. It says it is exploring partnerships with licensed professionals and regulated financial firms.

OpenAI launched similar bank connections for ChatGPT in May, also using Plaid for read-only access, according to the source article. Other agents can also do similar tasks with the right permissions and instructions, the article adds.

Reports and posts used for this story

• Decrypt