News & Events

By Shannon Glennon, AI Technology Transformation Specialist, Syracuse University ITS 

If Claude has started feeling more familiar lately, there’s a reason. Anthropic rolled out persistent memory to all Claude users in March 2026, free and paid plans alike. Claude is now building a picture of who you are across conversations, quietly, in the background. 

Here’s what’s happening and how to work with it. 

What memory is (and isn’t) 

Claude doesn’t save your full conversations. It synthesizes them. After each chat, it extracts relevant details like your role, your preferences and how you like responses formatted, then stores those as a running summary. You can view and customize Claude’s memory features by going to Settings > Capabilities > Memory. “Search and reference chats” and “Generate memory from chat history” are on by default, and you can click on “View and manage memory” to see what Claude has stored. 

Two ways memory gets built 

The first is automatic. Claude picks up on things you mention and adds them over time. The second is intentional, and it’s faster. In any conversation, you can say “add to memory that I prefer concise responses” or “remember that I work in higher education” and it updates immediately, no waiting. 

That second method is where the real value is. The more you intentionally shape your memory profile, the more useful Claude becomes across every conversation. 

When you don’t want something remembered 

Sometimes a conversation is just a one-time thing. If you spend an hour asking Claude to help you source catering for a meeting, you probably don’t need Claude to suggest sandwich platters every time you open a new chat. 

Two easy options: delete the conversation from your history after the fact (Sidebar > Chats > Select chats > Delete) or use login to Claude using Incognito mode in your browser before you start. Incognito sessions don’t get saved to memory or history at all. 

“Add to memory” 

… is the exact phrase I use when I want Claude to add something to memory. It’s quick and makes a big difference in my Claude experience. Honestly, this is one of my favorite features right now. Take five minutes to check your memory settings, then try telling Claude something specific about how you work and ask it to add to memory! 

This message was originally shared to subscribers May 14, 2026.

AI at Work Returns June 24

Curious how your Syracuse University colleagues are actually using Claude? Join us on June 24, 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. in 500 Hall of Languages or on Microsoft Teams for the next session in our AI at Work series. This one’s all about real stories from across campus—what’s working, what’s been learned and how Claude is fitting into everyday work.

This Issue’s Tip: Claude Design

Did you know Claude can now build formatted, shareable documents—slide decks, one-pagers, resource guides—without ever opening PowerPoint? Claude Design lets you describe what you need and get a polished, ready-to-share layout in return. No design experience required. Look for the palette icon in your Claude sidebar to get started, and read the full walkthrough for ideas and examples.

News and Views

In Summary

Anthropic’s powerful new Mythos model uncovered tens of thousands of software vulnerabilities, prompting the White House to weigh vetting AI models before release—while Claude Security entered public beta to help organizations patch what’s been found. In higher ed, SUNY rolled out a systemwide AI policy, half of campus CTOs are questioning AI’s ROI, faculty are voicing real concerns about student learning and 42% of students now say AI will influence their career choice.

Education and Higher Education

• Building AI Initiatives with Bottom-Up Champions (Educause Review)
• Another Undergrad Is Trying to Disrupt College With AI. He Says His Version Isn’t Cheating. (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• SUNY Sets Systemwide AI Policy (Inside Higher Ed)
• AI Can Improve Scholarly Writing—If We Use It Right (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• 4 in 10 Students Say AI Will Influence Their Career Choice (Inside Higher Ed)
• Don’t Let Silicon Valley Turn Education Into Slop (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Listening to Skepticism: What Faculty Concerns About Generative AI Reveal (Educause Review)
• Will A.I. Make College Obsolete? (The New Yorker)
• When AI Cheating Becomes a Legal Risk (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Half of Campus Tech Leaders Question AI’s ROI (Inside Higher Ed)

Business Strategy

• Power BI Report (Power BI)
• Design Your Company for AI, Not AI for Your Company (Boston Consulting Group)
• AI Godfather Yann LeCun’s Blunt Advice for the AI Age (Axios)
• From Deliverables to Decisions: AI Shifts the Atomic Unit of Business (Shelly Palmer)

Claude and Anthropic

• Claude Security Is Now in Public Beta (Claude)
• Anthropic Releases New AI Agents for Financial Services Firms (The Wall Street Journal)
• Anthropic CEO Warns of Cyber ‘Moment of Danger’ as AI Exposes Thousands of Vulnerabilities (CNBC)
• Focus Areas for The Anthropic Institute (Anthropic)

Cybersecurity

• AI Used to Develop Working Zero-Day Exploit, Researchers Warn (Cybersecurity Dive)
• OpenAI Launches Daybreak to Combat Cyber Threats (CIO Dive)

Healthcare

• AI Outperforms Doctors in Emergency Room Tasks, New Harvard Study Shows (Harvard Magazine)

Policy and Government

• Disclosed Government AI Use Increased By 70% in 2025, Per OMB (FEDSCOOP)
• Top AI Companies Agree to Work with Pentagon on Secret Data (The Washington Post)
• White House Considers Vetting A.I. Models Before They Are Released (The New York Times)

Access to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and other paywalled content is available to all students, faculty and staff with a valid Syracuse University NetID. Learn more.

This Issue’s Win: Stress-Test Your Own Idea

A prompt is how you ask generative AI tools to do something for you (e.g., creating, summarizing, editing or transforming). Treat it like a conversation, using clear language and enough context to get the result you have in mind.

To get more practice, use the generative AI tool of your choice (for example, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI ChatGPT or Anthropic Claude) to execute the following prompt:

“I’m going to share an idea with you. Before responding with any encouragement or agreement, act as a thoughtful skeptic. Identify the three weakest assumptions I’m making, the strongest counterargument someone could raise, and one thing I might be overlooking entirely. Be direct—I’d rather hear it from you now than from someone in the meeting. Here’s the idea: [paste your idea].“

Helpful Resources

• University AI Guidelines
• AI on the ITS website
• Tech Tips Video Series

Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

By Shannon Glennon, AI Technology Transformation Specialist, Syracuse University ITS 

Claude Design is Anthropic’ s visual design tool, available at claude.ai/design. It’s browser-based, built into your Claude account and lets you generate visual assets, including presentation slides, through a conversational prompting process. Here’s how to get started. 

Step 1: Go to claude.ai/design 

Open your browser and navigate directly to claude.ai/design. You’ll land in the Claude Design workspace, where you can start a new project. 

Step 2: Write a Descriptive Prompt 

Be specific about your audience, key messages and any organizational context that should influence the design. Instead of “Draft a deck about AI,” try something like: “Create a 10-slide presentation introducing generative AI tools to university staff. Include an agenda slide, key use cases and a tips slide for getting started.” The more detail you give upfront, the less back and forth you’ll need later. 

Step 3: Bring In Your Own Files 

You don’t have to start from scratch. You can upload a Word document, PDF or notes file as source material, and Claude will pull content from it as it builds your slides. If you have files saved in OneDrive, connect your Microsoft 365 account through Claude’s connectors first. Once connected, you can reference those files directly in your prompt without downloading and re-uploading anything. 

Step 4: Review What Claude Generates 

Claude will build an initial version of your presentation. Read through each slide and note what’s working and what isn’t. Look at the structure, the amount of text on each slide and whether the key points land clearly. 

Step 5: Refine Through Conversation 

From there, you refine through conversation, inline comments or direct edits until it’s right. You can ask Claude to shorten a slide, reorder sections, rewrite a headline or adjust the visual layout. Treat it like a working draft you’re editing together. 

Step 6: Export as PowerPoint 

When you’re satisfied with the result, export the file. Export options include PDF, PowerPoint (.pptx), standalone HTML and ZIP. Download the .pptx to open and edit it in PowerPoint like any other file. 

Claude Design is still in research preview, so results will vary, and some iteration is expected. Going in with a clear prompt and source material will get you the furthest, fastest. 

By Shannon Glennon, AI Technology Transformation Specialist, Syracuse University ITS 

If you’ve ever needed something visual for a meeting and didn’t know where to start, this one’s for you. 

On April 17, 2026, Anthropic launched Claude Design, a new workspace built right into Claude that lets you create visual documents just by describing what you want. No design experience needed. No extra software. Just describe what you’re looking for, and Claude builds a first version for you to review and refine. 

First, let’s clear something up 

Claude Design is not an image generator. It won’t create AI-generated photos, illustrations or artwork. What it does is build designed, readable, shareable documents—think a formatted slide deck, a clean one-page summary or a visual layout for a flyer or resource guide. The kind of thing that previously meant opening PowerPoint and spending more time on formatting than on the actual content. 

So what can you actually make? 

Here are some real examples for SU faculty and staff: 

• A course overview one-pager to hand out on the first day of class, summarizing your syllabus, expectations, and key dates in a clean, readable format 

• A slide deck for a presentation, built from the notes or document you already have 

• A student resource guide for advising offices, listing key contacts, deadlines and support services in a visual, easy-to-scan layout 

• A project proposal summary for a grant or initiative, formatted so it’s ready to share with a dean, director, or external partner 

• A workshop or training overview for staff, laid out like a professional handout rather than a plain text document 

In each case, you’re starting with your content, and Claude is handling the formatting, structure and visual presentation. You can then refine it through follow-up requests, direct edits or export it as a PDF, PowerPoint file or shareable link. 

How is this different from what Claude already does? 

Until now, Claude could write the content for any of the above, but the output was plain text. You still had to copy it somewhere and format it yourself. Claude Design closes that gap by delivering something that’s already laid out and ready to use or share. 

A few things to know 

Claude Design is currently in research preview, and is available to Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise subscribers at no extra cost. It has its own separate usage limits, so it won’t affect your regular Claude conversations. 

Look for the palette icon in your Claude sidebar to get started!