Rumours have it, that Google may release “Project Jarvis” (its reported codename) Chrome extension this month. It would perform tasks like research gathering, product purchasing, and flight booking.

The website The Information leaked this information in October, just a week after Anthropic announced its Computer Use API. One could imagine that this “leak” was on purpose. Just as another “leak” a week later: A Chrome Web Store page described Jarvis as “a helpful companion that surfs the web for you” – and then disappeared again.

Powered by a future version of Google’s Gemini, Jarvis reportedly works exclusively with Chrome. The tool aims to automate everyday web tasks by taking screenshots, interpreting them, and performing actions like clicking buttons or entering text. Current iterations reportedly take “a few seconds” between actions - very similar in performance to Anthropic’s Computer Use.

Based on our experience with AI browser automation (“Project Ui.Vision”), a proof of concept seems more likely than a full release this month. While Anthropic’s Computer Use and Google’s Project Jarvis show promise, they’re not yet ready for typical users. No way that such a Jarvis tool can reliably execute a task like “book me the lowest carbon emissions flight from New York to Boston, and I want an aisle seat” from start to finish. However, the already available technology fits well in power user tools, which is why we’re incorporating Computer Use into the open-source Ui.Vision RPA software.

The Google team appears to have learned from Anthropic’s Computer Use launch. Our tests show that Anthropic’s Computer (October 2024 release) performs better with browser automation than desktop automation, likely because websites have more consistent usage patterns than desktop apps. Most website automation is basically some kind of form filling. In addition. web applications show no variation between operating systems (Mac, Linux, Windows).

Project Jarvis vs. Anthropic Computer Use

Current score: 1-0 for Anthropic, as Google Gemini 2.0/Project Jarvis hasn’t entered the competition yet.