Claude 2 is the only model that actually rivals ChatGPT, so it makes sense that major players would invest heavily in them. Still weird to see Google there, if they actually had better models they wouldn’t be funding a competitor…

This is the best summary I could come up with:

With a massive $2 billion reported investment from Google, Anthropic joins OpenAI in reaping the benefits of leadership in the artificial intelligence space, receiving immense sums from the tech giants that couldn’t move fast enough themselves.

The funding deal, according to sources familiar cited by The Wall Street Journal, reportedly involves $500 million now and up to $1.5 billion later, though subject to what, if any, timing or conditions is unclear.

And since everyone is also betting that LLMs are going to upend their business models and become crucial components of any future tech platform, they can’t afford to not have at least partial ownership of the leaders in the space.

Anthropic has learned from watching the other AI companies that it would do well to specialize somewhat as an enterprise product — less shiny and interesting to the average consumer, but potentially more attractive as a long-term business model.

He also emphasized that safety and transparency are high on their list — not something a college student cares about when asking an LLM to rewrite a Wikipedia entry, but massively important for corporate customers who need to know what they’re buying and how it’s performing, and document that for shareholders and regulators.

OpenAI is certainly throwing money away letting people use its product for free, and although Anthropic has the sense to not do that at the same scale, there is no doubt a huge mismatch between cost and income right now.

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