Google-backed Anthropic launches Claude, an AI chatbot that’s easier to talk to

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company founded by ex-OpenAI employees, has launched its AI chatbot, Claude. While the tool does much of what OpenAI’s ChatGPT can, Anthropic says its early clients report the tool’s “less likely to produce harmful outputs” and is “easier to converse with.”

Like OpenAI, Anthropic also has big tech backing: Google invested $300 million into Anthropic in February. The company’s chatbot — similar to ChatGPT — can provide summaries, answer questions, provide assistance with writing, and generate code. You can also tweak the chatbot’s tone, personality, and behavior, which sounds a bit more comprehensive than the “creative, balanced, and precise” settings Bing’s chatbot offers.

Overall, the goal of Anthropic is to develop an AI assistant that’s “helpful, honest, and harmless.” It also has no ability to access the internet, as Anthropic says it’s designed to be “self-contained.”

In addition to launching the standard version of Claude, Anthropic is also releasing Claude Instant, a cheaper, faster, and lighter model when compared to its full-featured counterpart. Anthropic already gave several companies access to Claude in the months leading up to its launch, including Notion, Quora, and DuckDuckGo, which recently announced its Anthropic and OpenAI-powered DuckAssist search tool. You can view pricing information for both models and sign up for access to Claude here.

Anthropic’s announcement comes amidst a flurry of AI-related news, including the launch of OpenAI’s newest GPT-4 model. Google also announced new AI applications in Docs, Gmail, Sheets, and Slides.