Google is set to pour as much as $2 billion into Anthropic, the AI venture spearheaded by former OpenAI leaders, as confirmed by CNBC.
This investment is structured with an initial $500 million and a subsequent $1.5 billion to be injected progressively, relayed an Anthropic representative. This financial move was previously highlighted by The Wall Street Journal.
Google representatives were yet to comment.
Anthropic, founded in 2021, is acclaimed for its chatbot Claude 2, an alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, utilized by firms such as Slack, Notion, and Quora. It has also garnered support from Salesforce, Zoom, and was recently valued at $4.1 billion.
Claude 2 can compress information from a staggering 75,000 words, approximating a book’s length, allowing users to request concise versions like memos or stories. In contrast, ChatGPT manages around 3,000 words.
A study by Arthur AI crowned Claude 2 as the top chatbot in terms of self-awareness, excelling in discerning its knowledge boundaries and addressing questions based on its training. This evaluation included bots from Meta, Cohere, and OpenAI.
Back in April, Google took a 10% slice of Anthropic with a $300 million investment. Subsequently, Anthropic was among the select few discussing ethical AI development at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris, along with tech giants like Alphabet, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
Come May, Anthropic garnered another notable $450 million funding, a record since Microsoft’s backing of OpenAI, as per PitchBook data.
The brains behind Anthropic are Dario Amodei, ex-VP of research at OpenAI, and Daniela Amodei, formerly OpenAI’s VP of safety and policy, with support from other OpenAI veterans.
Amodei shared with CNBC that a dedicated team of 30-35 directly shaped their latest chatbot over two months, backed by a 150-strong crew. She emphasized the explosive growth in the AI sector, indicating ample opportunities for several entities to thrive.
Amodei added that the surging demand for advanced language models outpaces the supply, creating a vast landscape ripe for various users and applications.