Source URL: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/21/anthropic-use-brave/#atom-everything
Source: Simon Willison’s Weblog
Title: Anthropic Trust Center: Brave Search added as a subprocessor
Feedly Summary: Anthropic Trust Center: Brave Search added as a subprocessor
Yesterday I was trying to figure out if Anthropic has rolled their own search index for Claude’s new web search feature or if they were working with a partner. Here’s confirmation that they are using Brave Search:
Anthropic’s subprocessor list. As of March 19, 2025, we have made the following changes:
Subprocessors added:
Brave Search (more info)
That “more info" links to the help page for their new web search feature.
I confirmed this myself by prompting Claude to "Search for pelican facts" – it ran a search for "Interesting pelican facts" and the ten results it showed as citations were an exact match for that search on Brave.
And further evidence: if you poke at it a bit Claude will reveal the definition of its web_search function which looks like this – note the BraveSearchParams property:
{
"description": "Search the web",
"name": "web_search",
"parameters": {
"additionalProperties": false,
"properties": {
"query": {
"description": "Search query",
"title": "Query",
"type": "string"
}
},
"required": [
"query"
],
"title": "BraveSearchParams",
"type": "object"
}
}
Via @zugaldia.bsky.social
Tags: anthropic, claude, generative-ai, llm-tool-use, search, ai, llms
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: The text reports on Anthropic’s use of Brave Search as a subprocessor for its Claude AI’s new web search feature. This collaboration highlights the integration of AI with third-party services, raising implications for AI security and privacy.
Detailed Description: The text delves into Anthropic’s integration with Brave Search as part of its Claude AI tool’s capabilities. This partnership demonstrates how AI models are evolving to incorporate real-time information retrieval through external search engines. Key points include:
– **Collaboration Confirmation**: Anthropic has included Brave Search in its subprocessor list effective March 19, 2025. This confirms the usage of Brave Search for Claude’s web search functionality.
– **User Interaction Insight**: The author tested the CLAUDE model by querying for “pelican facts,” which generated results that matched a Brave Search output, verifying the collaboration.
– **Technical Specifications**:
– The definition of the web_search function outlines the structure and requirements for performing a search query.
– The function specifies a parameter, “query,” which indicates the search term, demonstrating how structured data is utilized within AI operations.
– **Implications for AI Security**:
– **Data Handling**: The partnership raises considerations regarding data security and compliance, as user queries may be processed through an external subprocesser.
– **Privacy Considerations**: Using an external search engine necessitates evaluating user privacy policies and how data may be shared or stored.
– **Regulatory Compliance**: Organizations must ensure that their arrangements with subprocessors comply with relevant data protection regulations, such as GDPR.
– **Industry Relevance**: This move is indicative of trends in Generative AI, where models increasingly rely on internet-based data to enhance their responses, thereby intertwining generative AI practices with cloud computing models.
Overall, the integration of Brave Search with Anthropic’s Claude AI presents notable developments in AI capabilities, highlighting critical areas of AI security, user privacy, and compliance that professionals in these fields must monitor closely.